Things you'll regret when you're old. Or tomorrow.

My husband sent this to me today while I was at work: Those Top 37 Things You'll Regret When You're Old. We've been doing a lot of reflection of life and what makes us happy lately.

I'm a couple years away from 30, so I'm hardly considered old. But not everyone gets to be old. If I could somehow see into the future and find out that tomorrow was my last day, these are the things from the list that I'd regret:

1. Not traveling when you had the chance.

It would not be an overestimation to say that I've thought about traveling around the world at least 20 times a day for the past 3 years. 

2. Not learning another language.

Five years of Spanish used in 0 practical settings.

6. Being scared to do things.

This.

7. Failing to make physical fitness a priority.

It always comes and goes, but has never been consistent. 

10. Not trying harder in school.

My only focus in college was to be done as quickly as possible so that I could get on to working in the real world. Three years later, I had a bachelor's degree in a discipline that has added no value to my profession, zero college friends, and zero happy undergraduate memories. Wasting that experience has always been one of biggest regrets.

11. Not realizing how beautiful you were.

Don't. Take. Compliments. Well. Everyone is prettier/skinnier/more beautiful than me. 

15. Caring too much about what other people think.

This this this.

16. Supporting others’ dreams over your own.

Or rather others' dreams FOR me. I'm still trying to figure out what my genuinely are.

19. Not standing up for yourself.

I've had a lot of opportunities here, and nearly always take the peaceful route. Ok, always. 

22. Missing the chance to ask your grandparents questions before they die.

This hit home yesterday, when I found out that my grandmother (who I haven't seen for 8 years) is in the ICU. Now I'm frantically trying to plan a trip to the Philippines with my husband so that he can meet her. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances.

23. Working too much.

I've inherited this from my parents. I've been working full time since I was 16 with no more than 2 weeks off at a time (though I'd obsessively check and respond to emails on my phone, from Italy or Bali or wherever I was trying to escape). 

26. Failing to finish what you start.

If I had kept going I'd be done by now.

31. Never taking a big risk (especially in love).

I'm the safest person I know, and sometimes that's disappointing.

33. Worrying too much.

To the point where sleeping is a problem. 

35. Not spending enough time with loved ones.

I'm calling my mom and little brother tomorrow.

Train fast, race fast

Last year I worked with a triathlon coach in an effort to move beyond my "I just want to finish the race" goals. One of the first and most important things he taught me is that in order to race fast, I needed to train fast. What followed were a series of running workouts that had me sprinting so hard on the treadmill that I was afraid I would fall off. I grew to loathe Tempo Tuesdays. But he was right - after a few months of training fast I PR'd my half marathon finish time by nearly 45 minutes.

I'm training solo this year, but plan to apply much of what I learned to my workouts. The marathon is still over 5 months away, so right now my focus is on easing back into a running schedule and increasing my mileage. And making training fun. Tempo Tuesdays are still on the schedule, but now they look a little something like this:

I love doing Pandora intervals because it involves little to no thinking, and it's easy to scale at any running level. As my running fitness improves, I'll continue to do this workout by increasing the speed of each interval and the duration of my run by a little bit every week. This is one I usually recommend to beginners because you can alternate walking and jogging to start. 

Choo choo choose to be happy Monday

Husband efforts to make me smile. It's ok that's only January.

I wasn't feeling particularly happy today. Some days, I just wake up with anxiety, and can't seem to shake it. Though I'm normally good at keeping things on the inside (not that that's a good thing), my off day was visible, and two different people asked me why I was sad. It's a tough question to answer when the only thing I can say is "I don't know, I'm just not happy at the moment, but check back later."

What really helps on these off days is having a partner who doesn't let me wallow in self-pity. I am often the girl with the nail in her head in this video, and my husband is always quick to point out solutions and the bright side.  Occasionally I find this annoying, and wish he'd indulge me, but whenever I snap out of my funk, I'm always glad that he didn't. I'm trying to learn to do this myself - to recognize that I'm just having a bad day and that I can easily turn it around.

So, though today started as a blah Monday, I chose to make it a happy one. Or at least a pretty good one. For a Monday.

I'm getting there.

Let's run a marathon

I have never been the kind of person who can work out just for the fun of it. Even though I know it's sooo good for you and healthy and all that good stuff, I will never train consistently without a little pressure.

For the last five years, triathlon has been my thing. I went from walking my first sprint triathlon in 2008 to conquering my first Ironman in 2011. I continued to do half Ironman distance races the following year and this past summer. I fully intend to do another Ironman someday soon, and even qualify for and  race at the world championships in Kona. But right now, I'm burnt out. The training schedule, metrics watching, workout juggling, and my inability to become a decent swimmer has taken it's toll. I crashed on my bike two races in a row at the end of the season. True, rain was a factor, but I also took it as a sign that I needed a breather. After 6 months of 8-13 hour training weeks, I mentally and physically came to a dead stop after the season ended. 

Now I'm getting squishy.

So it's time to switch gears! I've signed up for my first marathon, the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Marathon, which takes place in June. I'm looking forward to a different kind of challenge and a training schedule that will keep me fit in LESS than 10 hours a week. 

The race is now 24 weeks away, and I'm half a week in. This is what my weeks will look like.

Sunday - Rest

Monday - Cross Train

Tuesday - Tempo Run

Wednesday - Cross Train

Thursday -  Fartlek Run

Friday - Rest & Stretch

Saturday - LSD Run

My cross train days will likely involve a spin on my bike and strength training. And in case you're wondering, the LSD run isn't as fun as it sounds - it stands for long, slow distance. 

I'm excited to get into the training and am looking forward to my progress in 5, 10, and 20 weeks. It was frustrating to feel out of shape during my run this weekend, but I'm reminding myself that I'm just getting started.

Progress reports to come! 

If you're on the fence

Go.

If it gets you outside, in the sunshine, under the clouds, exploring, sweating, moving.. go.

I almost didn't today. After six hours of sleep, knowing that it was freezing cold, a long drive, and a tough climb, the thought of snuggling under a blanket with coffee and Netflix sounded much better.

But then I would have missed this:

And this:

And this:

I went. And it it was the right choice.

In more ways than one

Don't break the chain

A few of you have responded to my latest posts saying that you also plan to do a little bit of something happy or healthy every day, so I thought I'd share something has been super helpful for me. The image above is from an app that I use called Habit List. In a nutshell, you set up the habits that you would like to develop, and then check them off as you complete them every day, or every other day, or every week, or however frequently you need to do something. 

I downloaded this app last year after learning about Jerry Seinfeld's Don't Break the Chain productivity advice. As I mentioned in my resolutions post, a little bit ever day is better than a lot just one day. Skipping just one day makes it easier to skip the next, and the next, and the next. One of the things that I like best about the app is that it keeps track of how many days in a row you've performed your task. This feature creates just that bit of added pressure to keep the chain intact.

The list I've posted above were my daily habits, but I also have a few set up that I only want to do every other day and once a week, and they only pop up when they're due. The latest update of the app includes some fancy graphing features that I have yet to explore, but as one of my favorite sayings is "what gets measured gets done," I'm sure I'll love them too. 

This post is in no way shape or form sponsored - it's just something that I find to be genuinely helpful. A notebook or calendar or other app can probably accomplish the same thing just as well. If you're interested in trying this particular app, it's $2.99 in the iTunes store. Don't go crazy and set up 25 habits OR make them difficult to achieve, like running 10 miles every single day. The idea is to set up something to get you moving, and I usually find that after 15 minutes, I'm happy to keep working out, or 10 minutes later, I'm lost in my book and won't put it down. 

Happy habit-forming!