I would normally be one of the few people who would say that January flies past…. This year I disagree. It seems like the longest month ever, albeit I still can’t believe that it is now over.

When starting to put this blog post together I realised that it was full of F words. To name a few:

• Four Months
• Fitness
• Focus
• Facial Expressions
• Fag Free
• February
• Father
• Flying

Of course if I wasn’t so polite! I think I would also fit in a few actual F’s!

Four Months, Fitness & Focus

So let’s start talking about Four Months and Fitness!!!

Today leaves me exactly four months until I will be standing at the starting line of the Asics Stockholm Marathon. I find it hard to imagine standing at that starting line never mind crossing over the finish line and still be smiling.

If I have learned anything in the few races I have been part of, it is that it is way too easy to forget about the camera that they put on the finish line. Look for yourself and see what I mean.

These pictures clearly shows I need to work on my finishers smile whether a 5km, 26km or 42,195km race!!

I am a strong believer that I am only going to get there by focusing fully on my fitness, including physical and mental health. It takes huge commitment and motivation to actually keep the training plan in place as well as listening to the body and mind during these sessions.

I remember a good friend who once said to me “you can do anything you want in a race as long as you have either mind or body with you. If both goes at the same time, that’s when the race is over”.  Those words are so true and although I am not at the stage in my training yet where this is likely to happen I am working hard to put the pillars in place to keep both as strong as possible.

As one of my goals this year is to increase my fitness and to reach the target of completing a Marathon, I have  throughout January, in sickness and in health, kept my focus to get nearer to this goal!! And not without help either! Family & Friends, Physio & Life Coach, Reading and Writing have all been parts of the support structures; all of which I will continue to use over the coming months.

So now time to get the runners on for February!!

Fag Free

Next week, 8 years ago, I gave up the cigarettes and I think that every year without them is worth celebrating and mentioning. In those 8 years, I have not so much as touched a cigarette and that I am very proud of.

This achievement also brings back memories of previous attempts of giving them up and particularly the second last one!! On that occasion I said I would not give them up altogether but allow myself a cigarette (or two) when out for a drink.

However, I hadn’t realised quite how inventive I would be in creating drinking opportunities most days of the week! So instead of becoming a healthier smoke free version of myself I ended up, not only continuing my smoking, but also slowly turning myself into an alcoholic (well not quite but nearly).

So here is a toast to smoke free lungs!!!

Fantastic February

With February just a short two days away I have taken stock of my goals and how I have progressed them in January. I didn’t get to them all (to be expected) but actually feel rather pleased with what I have got done so far.

So what does February have in store;

• My music adventures and travelling will kick off with a short trip to London to see the magnificent Bear’s Den!! Cannot wait to listen to them once more and to spend some time (well overdue) with one of my favourite people!!
• The next Run Clare event is on no further away than in Spanish Point on the 16^thFebruary! 5 miles this time!!
• Flying back to Minnesota!!
• Fourteenth of February stress 😉
• Fredrik’s Birthday!! That’s my brother who is soo much older and soo much wiser than I am!!!

It is also the month of my dad’s anniversary. This year we have been without him for a whole of 12 years and I still miss him every day.

All in all I am looking forward to another busy month and to some more sunlight!!! As a very wise woman, Amelia Earhart, once said “There is more to life than being a passenger”!!

So let’s fly!!

 

Wow, half way through January already!!

Yesterday morning when travelling to work I was listening to the news and a report on a survey completed by economist Dr David Blanchflower which confirms that we are getting increasingly miserable from the age of 18 hitting peak misery at the age of 47.2…….

Well, this is my fucking year and I have no intentions of making it a miserable one, never mind the next 6.5 years!!

Combining Goals!

You know you have hit gold, or at least a great shortcut, when you can combine multiple goals into one! This week I got the opportunity to merge 3 of them into one. Music, running and fundraising for charity. I signed up to #TourDePicnic which is an event which allows me to fundraise for three amazing charities, run 17kms to the gates of EP2020 and to get my weekend ticket in hand upon arrival! It is an excellent initiative and I am super excited to be part of it later this year.

Talking about running my official 2020 Marathon Training plan has now commenced and I am actually excited to get started! It helps that I am planning my first ever drive up to the Arctic Circle when in Sweden for the race.

I have my first running sessions done, signed up for the Clare Running Series and the Regeneron Great Limerick Run and I have also started to work on ensuring that I prevent injury along the training routes. I can do this!!

Hiking Bonanza

If you haven’t been there already, then I do urge you to go! Comeragh Mountains in Waterford are spectacular. Even if you don’t want to hike to the top you can get up as far as Lake Coumshingaun and sit down for a nice warm cuppa and take in the astonishing scenery!

Getting to the top was a little more difficult and as you know I have a fear of heights…. Let’s just say that this was the first ever hike after which my arm muscles were sore. I clinged on to the rocks on the way up for dear life and even took a mud slide on my but on the way down!! But it was worth every second and I will definitely go back to this one when the sun is fully displayed!!!

This weekend gone I managed to fit in a walk before storm Brendan, which took us around the beautiful Lake Graney in Flagmount! Another great spot and this time we were accompanied by two 11-year olds who managed the near 12km trek nicely!!

If you have any routes or places to recommend or to challenge me with, please let me know! Always looking for my next hike!

Honest Insults

So, I can only say that I am a very lucky lady when it comes to my friends! But genie you wouldn’t want to be sensitive or you would start thinking they really don’t like you……

To give some examples of this honesty;

1. Do not settle for second best, or third for that matter!
2. Get that shit storm sorted!
3. You deserve more than you expect!
4. Grab it by the……!
5. Stop moping, you have made your choices…… stand by them.
6. You may not want me here, but I am here anyway if only to annoy you!
7. And the most honest of all! In between honest insults we are actually able to say, I love you and I am lucky to have you as my friend!

Not only are they honest as f**k but they are also incredibly “free spoken” and at times I wonder(I am very well reared and super polite so this stresses me)if I can really be seen, never mind heard with these people in public places!!

All jokes aside, I couldn’t be luckier than to have the bunch that I have around me! Ladies and Gents, thank you 😊

So onwards with another week of adventures and challenges of equal measures!! Let’s go grab it.

This year I have only one New Years’ resolution!! (apologies in advance it includes a curse)

2020 IS MY FUCKING YEAR!

Now….. in order to make it my year I did what I do best and set out an excessive personal development plan in pink and blue which includes 11 core goals each with scheduled milestones to achieve. So those whom are picky may believe me to have near a 100 resolutions but no…. just the one!! The rest are goals to get me there.

Today marks two years since I started this blog page! However, I have abandoned it for nearing a full year. Many reasons took me away from it but now I am back and one of my goals is to stay with it.

So, this post will be a little more about the one resolution and a quick review of a decade past by (brief I promise).

ONE RESOLUTION

Just before breaking up for Christmas I was having a conversation with this wonderful lady and we were talking about personality traits (mainly mine might I add).

Towards the very end of our conversation she said;

“You need to spend more time being as good to yourself as you are to others and most importantly you need to realise how good of a person you really are”

That is probably one of the hardest compliments I have ever had to accept…. Well to be honest I am still trying.

What it did make me realise was that there were some serious truths in it and that I now, without being a total b**ch in 2020, need to find a way to put me first (at least at times).

Thus, came the idea of my one resolution! This is my fucking year and I own every bit of it!!

THE GOALS

When I put together the visual plan and  surrounding this resolution it looked a little something like this;

The visual plan was then divided into these 11 core goals;

• #Goal 1            My Home is Where My Heart Is
• #Goal 2            Writing (I am on it)
• #Goal 3            Reading (I am so on it thanks to the wonderful Mark Johnson!!)
• #Goal 4            Financial Planning
• #Goal 5            My First Marathon (only 144 days to go)
• #Goal 6            Family & Friends
• #Goal 7            Self Development through leaning and through my career
• #Goal 8            Travel & Music (and lots of it)
• #Goal 9            Hiking

The last two are the scary ones!!

• #Goal 10 –  ❤️
• #Goal 11 – ME

So I was thinking that I may use this blog as my accountability holder! To share my progress on each of the above goals.

A DECADE GONE BY

Wow a decade… that is like a very long time and at the start of it I was thirty and at the end of it like 40!! Ah, so what, I love it! I am having so much fun.

Myself and my older brother have been trying to explain this phenomena to our younger brother (still in his 30s and with a new-ish baby)!!

Looking back on the last decade opened my eyes to the sheer amount of stuff that happened in the last 10 years;

2010 – Can’t remember. It is simply too long ago. Only messing…. Kind of. First year of creating a new Christmas world – skiing with the gang.

2011 – Started my own business!!! Massive leap J

2012 – The year I gave up the cigarettes for good!!

2013 – Went to college for the first time and ran into this Clare woman! Mad as a brush, fabulous like cake on your birthday and gosh if she thinks she can get rid of me, she will have to think again!!

2014 – First visit to the big Apple!! Dreams passing me right by!

2015 – Graduated from college and kept hanging with that mad Clare woman!!

2016 – One event that turned me upside down! Literally!! Strictly Come Dancing West Clare GAA Style!! Amazing memories treasured forever.

2017 – This year was a lot about water!! A cruise with my wonderful mum to start the year and an amazing trip to Lough Derg where I got the opportunity to Kayak with a wonderful giggling bunch of hardcore women!!

2018 – One of the more significant years in this last decade for me at a very personal level which really took me out of my comfort zone. I started hiking, musicing lots, laughing and crying a lot more and certainly learning a lot more about myself.

2019 – Oh so many memories!! First ever half marathon, abseiling out of Thomond Park, lots of music events, lots of great friends, my daughter closing the door on childhood, my 40^th which I spent celebrating as a volunteer in the most magical of places; Barretstown, travel for work and leisure… oh this list can go on.

Maybe just because I can remember some of it!!!

There we are, first blog post of the new decade. A simple start, albeit I feel a bit cobwebby in my writing abilities!

Here is a toast to 2020 and all the magic that it is about to bring!!