2015 - Doing it (Slightly) Different

Hey, hey! Happy new year! Hope everyone survived the holiday season and is ready to crush it this year. I am! 2014 was a year of change and growth, 2015 is going to be a year of putting new ways into practice!

In a nutshell, here's a glimpse of what I'm up to lately, when I'm not in the office working:

SoCal winters! From beautiful crisp clear ocean days #sano #boobs...

...to snowy winter wonderlands just a couple hours away! #bigbear #outback

Resolutions this year? nah. Some years I'm into it, some years not really. This year -- and perhaps this is a result of the success I found in 2014 -- I just want to improve overall, keep learning and do things better. Even the small things. For example, a few small changes I've made: This will be the first year since, well, ever that I did NOT buy a spiral-bound hand-written daily planner. I'm going all digital, which includes getting my sh*t together with finances, accounting and all that -- I have to. I own two businesses now, yes, two!

I also deleted facebook from my phone. God, that feels good and, no, I don't miss it. I still do FB, but solely from the computer -- nothing more is needed.

In its place I added the app, Duo Lingo, so I can get my Spanish back this year. I was never fluent in Spanish, but I was decent. Took it in high school and at SDSU and also made plenty of trips to mexico while in college ;).

Anyway, besides that randomness, I want to catch you up on where I'm at in health, business and training/sport. I have signed up for a race, in fact!

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"Cleansing" (So To Speak)
House, body, life. But nothing too aggressive.

My new love! Or is it just more "stuff"? #SUP

1) House/life-wise John and I had this massive urge to do some major housekeeping -- out with the old, and in with the new. That said, the goal is to NOT bring in nor accumulate more sh*t. However, I have a couple new toys (SUP!), but generally I hate clutter, keep it to the minimum. He argues that the new SUP is essentially just more "stuff" but I argue that it's a tool to get away from modern stuff, find freedom, escape the chaos and experience nature and peace. Hm. Interesting debate, where do you stand?

This tiny cabin has inspired us. It's where we've stayed
in Big Bear, and it's small but has everything you'd
need. I. love. it.

One of those nights where I went out with my sister & had fun :)

2) I'm currently "cleaning up" my body too. Don't worry, I am still on track with my newfound health and wellness, as I talked about in my last tell-all post, but *gasp* over the holidays I, like many, enjoyed the indulgences. I didn't overdo it on things like sugar and I stayed away from beer, and even avoided those other mystery holiday-ish foods/drinks. OK, I take that back. I think there were 2 occasions where I had beer, and oddly both were trips to the mountains. For some reason beer just sounded really good! That alone didn't set me back though. However, I overdid in the areas of too much food in general, too much wine, and too many late nights/poor habits -- at least they way define "too much" which, I get it, I hold myself to some high standards so for others it may not appear that bad. It's all good though. I had fun! I enjoyed! But... I feel it. I hear some of my clients screaming the same thing!

Of course, plenty of good eats at our holiday parties
provided by me, including bacon + brussels!

So I decided to do create the inaugural Coach Tawnee Team Detox/Clean Eating Challenge. It's cool because I'm keeping it flexible -- 22 days duration, full support and a private forum for our group to interact, share recipes, experiences, and more. I'm not forcing any "one way" to cleanse/detox because I don't believe in just one way. Thus, in my cleanse, everyone can choose his or her unique program; I provided ideas and resources on which programs, formats I recommend. So far it's a hit. But we're 2 days in (no including the prep phase last week) sooo... I'll get back to you on day 20 lol ;) Who knows, I may grow this and open it up to more than just my personal coaching clients.

Food-wise, they're getting a lot from me because I love taking food pics. I knowww.... ;) For example, recipes on:

Crockpot chili, done clean and fresh.

Can you guess?

A classic Caesar salad dressing! Which, oh my, is so simple!
Why have I not been making this for years already?!

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Business is Growing
Last year my friend and colleague Ben Greenfield and I decided that it was time to put the Endurance Planet podcast in my hands, meaning me becoming full owner not just host as I have been. Ben is an incredible guy and I don't know how he does all that he does, and when it came to EP I know he cares tremendously about it, and that's why I think he felt (as I did) that it made sense to make me owner -- the transfer has the podcast's best interest at heart.

It's been an incredible learning experience so far taking over a well-established business, keeping it grooving, and planning its future growth (we have BIG plans). The backend work combined with the regular content I am passionate about putting out -- and everything else I do for the show -- well, it's been busy! Thus, the takeover was actually another reason that I found it easier to lay low on training/racing last year, otherwise I might have dug myself into a hole of trying to do too much. But now that the EP transfer is handled and I have a grasp on what needs to be done, and what's being done, I feel a sense of relief that I can move forward and commit to a bit more training and even some racing. Which brings me to....

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2015 Races & Training, So Far...
I've decided 2015 will be the year of the run for me. It's where I will focus my training, but in a bit of a non-conventional way with lots of other crosstraining. Honestly I want to start finding out my running potential, done healthfully on a more limited weekly volume training agenda. I also want to better understand the running culture and what it feels like to run as the main goal, with swim/bike secondary. I still am and always will be a triathlete, and in fact this kind fo focus should help tri in the long run (no pun intended).

SUP'ing on a choppy day! #cor

I've signed up for the Mountains 2 Beach marathon on May 24 (ish?), and it's a flat and fast course. I found out about it through one of my athletes I'm coaching who's looking to BQ there. It looked like fun, and timing was perfect. Man, signing up for running races is CHEAP compared to triathlon!!!

I'll keep you guys updated on my training and how it evolves, especially considering I'm not interesting in running mega mileage. So far it's been 20-35ish mile weeks at most, and generally 8-12hrs of exercise a week including the running, strength training, some biking, no swimming, yoga and/or SUP.

I'm not following a plan, but I am logging my workouts on TP, and also keeping a loose goal of never running more than 2 days in a row. For the marathon, I have some goals in mind and not afraid to share:

Running at 8k altitude in Mammoth, loving it! Had no idea this
road would just keep going steady uphill, cool adventure!

Big goals:
Sub 3:20, because based on my half-mary PR this might be doable. And definitely 3:29 to beat my friend Thorsten's PR ;)

Safe goals:
3:30 to get my "safe" BQ
3:35 to get BQ (but prob not get slot)

So far my MAF is getting pretty decent, I think on a flatter route (which I don't have often) I'm sub 8:30 at ~150 HR, after starting back at it at ~8:45-9:00-ish. But I still have slower days. I'm not overthinking it. What matters is that I can see myself getting more efficient already, and 6-8 miles goes by like a breeze, so if my MAF isn't always "adding up" to the tee, then whatever.

Other races: I also am doing the Ragnar SoCal in April, wanna join? We're forming an Endurance Planet TEAM! Email us at events@enduranceplanet.com to get involved.

Beyond that, I have about 5 other events on my radar of interest but haven't pulled the trigger. I'm sure a triathlon will squeak its way in.... just gotta get my ass to the pool once or twice first.

But so far, I am loooooving the running and loving being a "runner."

And lots of snow running lately, for me at least! Bundled
up in my #BettyDesigns hat and other good stuff!

The last time I ran this trail it was the heat of summer
(August) and I was training for IM Tahoe 2013.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, one more for ya, this photo makes my heart melt. I love this doggie...

Border collie pic! Our Sydney! Lots of quality family time over
the holidays, and playtime with Syd!