HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Me=freaking out small children since approximately, forever. But good lord, Gia’s little lady is THE CUTEST.

I spent the first half of the evening at a party Gia and her family threw at B Bar, and the second half at a cozier party at Lacey’s. (Fun fact: Lacey moved into Ashley’s old apartment. It’s not at all weird seeing one best friend in another’s old apartment.)

I woke up yesterday feeling like crap. Nope, not hungover (yay!), but I woke up feeling really sick. Awesome way to start the new year.

In past years, I’ve written some goals or resolution posts.

As I wrote the other day, last year was a lot of pushing, with some letting go and letting things be.

I achieved a lot last year that I’m happy about and proud of, so I really don’t have any major goals for the year right now, and it feels like it’d be a bit arbitrary to set a goal right now just because it’s the beginning of the year (though I’m sure I’ll have some goals I decide on and then set my heart on later.)

I loved Tina’s post about living every day like it was New Year’s Day. It’s true. January 1st, February 11th (my birthday, as long as we’re picking random dates), they’re as good as any to make goals. It’s never too late to start over.

As long as we’re talking about awesome New Year’s posts, Anne also wrote one about breaking your big goals up into smaller ones, so you can actually achieve them. (Can I also just say how proud I am of her for freaking killing it starting her own business since finishing grad school??)

But if you are setting resolutions, here’s some tips on how to stick with ’em.

Personally, I’m just going to pick some things I’d like to focus on.

Job: It’s new. Work my ass off. That’s all.

Fitness: I’ll be doing the Uplift Challenge for the next two months. I’ll learn more details about exactly what it is next week, but I’d like to really take it seriously to see what kind of results I can get out of it.

Running: This falls under fitness, duh, but my current goal is actually not to set any goal at all for running. Sure, I’d love to shoot for a BQ in the next few years, and I think with hard work, a 1:45 half might be something doable in the next year or so, but after a year or so of really hard training, I’m good right now. One of my best friends will be running the New York City Marathon as her first marathon back pre-baby later this year, and I’d love to join her and run for fun if possible.

Triathlons: Have fun! I definitely want to do the Franklin Lakes Tri again, and I’m even considering a 70.3. Triathlons feel like they could be a good, fun new challenge.

Life: Slow the eff down. Stay home more. Eat in more.

What about you? Resolutions or not for 2014?

Today, I finished one more goal that I’d wanted to achieve by the end of the year.

A few weeks ago, I noticed I was within about 30 miles of hitting 1,000 for the year. Other years, I’d come really close but just couldn’t get it together to push myself to meet an arbitrary number goal.

This year, I did.

I didn’t say anything about it here just in case I didn’t end up doing it, but as of last week, I realized I had about 20 miles to go. I topped out at 47 miles per week in marathon training, I could make myself run about 20 miles in a little over a week…and I did.

Yesterday, I got out of bed at 6 on my day off and hopped on the subway to go uptown to run with Beth, running 6.5 miles in the park and then back downtown. Today, I just had 2.5 miles to go, but I just didn’t want to. It was cold, etc, and I had every excuse in the book for myself.

Shut up and run, Theodora. Don’t let this (silly) goal go when you are that close. I remembered a really cold run from last year, and remembered that 2.5 miles would take me no longer than 25 minutes. Shut up and go, Theodora.

I went, came back, and logged those last 2.5 miles in my DailyMile account.

And it was a little anticlimactic.

No little running sneaker confetti fell down the screen.

I didn’t get a special badge or email.

Shalane didn’t email me and ask me to be besties and running buddies.

But I accomplished this little goal, and I also ran the distance between NYC and Florida in one year, which is crazy when you think of it that way. I probably forgot to log a few runs along the way so I’m probably a little more over 1,000, but I just had to see that on my screen.

I personally do NOT have a workout planned for tomorrow (I’m not planning on drinking much tonight (famous last words?) but tomorrow seems like a good day to take a rest day), but I wanted to pass on this opportunity some of you might be interested in.

Lifetime Fitness and the American Heart Association partnered for the Commitment Day 5K, a fun run/walk in 35 different cities across the U.S. You can use the code FRIENDS for $5 off your registration!

Happy New Year’s! What do you have planned for tonight? How many miles did you run this year? Are you planning a workout tomorrow or are you taking a rest day, too?