December 17 – Lesson Learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward? (Author: Tara Weaver)
It seems like some of my answers touch on the same topics as other answers this month, but I guess it's logical. The big memories, lessons, etc. of the year aren't infrequently related I suppose. My lesson was running related:
No matter how experienced and/or strong I get, I need to remember all the basic rules of running, they still apply to me.Like build your distance back gradually if you take more than two weeks off.
Like pace yourself from step 1 of the race.
Like watch what you eat the night before a long run (for me, NO DAIRY! and not a lot of veggies or protein). Only bad things come of that.
Like I need to stretch after all my runs -- and this is getting more important as I get older.
Like dress for the weather as if it's 20* warmer.
Like I still can't mix gatorade or similar drink with gu or blocks or other fuel. Only bad things come of that too.
And while it's not so much a general rule, a specific rule for me: Don't stop pushing in a race because you think your goal is impossible because you make frequent math errors and even if you miss your goal a solid effort makes you feel better.
Some of the rules I'm now okay with breaking, like not doing anything new on race day, but it's only with new things that I consider safe or races that don't matter too much.
My biggest mistake of the year was either not running on our very long vacation, or jumping back in where I left off when we got home. Hard to say which was the problem. I could have changed either and had much less pain.
This is a good reminder for me since I looked at a picture from early this morning of our Spring vacation destination: Italy! Snow in Calabria! Woo-hoo! Copied the picture from someone in the town where hubby's family lives.
And on this trip, I may attempt to meet a blogger, Michelle of Bleeding Espresso! I don't know yet exactly how far she is from where we'll be, but it would be fun. We don't have all the details of the trip worked out yet, but I think the plan will be Dallas-Boston-Pittsburgh-Lamezia-Paris-Dallas. I'm getting excited. Right now I'm mostly getting excited about going home (will be there in less than 48 hours! and the temp won't be above 25 the whole time I'm there! yikes!), but I'm also letting myself get excited about the spring trip because otherwise I'll probably be kind of sad when I get back to Dallas after Christmas. It's hard to be away from my family. Those of you who live near your families are very lucky, though I know there are always different headaches that come with that (but right now, I'd rather be in that boat).
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