A Break and a New Year

I have taken a break from this blog for a few weeks.  It wasn’t a planned break.  I have several posts in my drafts, but I couldn’t muster the creativity and motivation to finish and post them. I suppose it was a case of writer’s block. I just couldn’t find it in me to complete a blog post. It was a busy, busy December and something had to give.  It was this blog (as well as reading blogs of others—for that I apologize).  I will do my best to make up for it over the next weeks and months.

Here is a little recap of my running life since Thanksgiving.

I was chosen recently as a Fitfluential Ambassador!  While my blogging this past month hasn’t been much help to them, I am hoping to be an active member of the Fitfluential community!  Check out my bio: http://fitfluential.com/family/lisa-roehm-gensel/

My husband and I had our perfect kind of date. The kids were at our friends’ house and we went on a wonderful mountain bike ride. It was a perfect Southern California December morning and we had fun riding a nice mix of technical trails and fire road.

I volunteered for the XTerra Crystal Cove Trail Run for the third year in a row. I enjoy the people organizing the race, I enjoy the trail runners.  This year I was able to talk a friend into coming with me. Shannon and I braved the cold dark, early morning to check in runners and then help the timing crew record everyone as they crossed the finish line.

It is trail running season in Southern California. The weather is perfect, the snakes are long gone and it has been relatively dry. My big race in the spring is a trail race, so I am eager to get out there in the wild. I love our area and hope to explore even more trails in the coming months.

 

 

 

 

 

I finished up a couple of sessions of Body Back. These sessions were small, but they were GREAT. My clients had amazing results. I am learning more and able to provide a lot to these women.  In turn, they inspire me to keep on track with my goals. I am particularly proud of one client’s twenty pound weight loss.  She lost six inches from her waist in eight weeks. That is a noticeable difference.

I joined a challenge on Daily Mile initiated by Mel-Tall Mom.  She challenged her DM friends to run at least a mile every day in December.  I have had trouble with motivation lately and I figured that I needed some extra help. A public challenge is just what I needed.  I ended up December with 133 miles!  That is my second highest mileage month of the year. I don’t own a treadmill, so 100% of the runs were outside. Several of them were with one or both of my kids. At least twice, I had to change out of pajamas to get a late night mile in (having almost forgotten to run with all the Christmas chaos). Toward the end of the month, my kids would check with me, “Mom, did you run your mile?” or “Mom, did you do the streak today?”  I love it!  Are we friends on Daily Mile yet?  http://www.dailymile.com/people/Lisarg#ref=tophd

It is a new year and I am excited to face new challenges.  But more on that later.   I hope you are enjoying a happy new year’s weekend.

In the next few days and weeks, I will be finishing up some posts.  Posts I have waiting to be finished:  Santa Barbara Race Report, Favorite Things (including a giveaway!), Winter Hydration and a “Tell Me About Yourself” Blog Award, Brief Overview of 2011 and my 2012 race schedule.  Stay tuned!!

p.s.  Go Ducks!!