*blows dust off*
Haven't been here in a while! I have plans afoot for the new year, a blog reboot if you will. It may not be in this location but it is coming.
In the mean time, a bit of a catch up. It's the time of year for reflection I guess: the end of the old year and the start of the new, a time to reminisce and look forward to what lies ahead.
I was chatting to a friend recently and we were talking about New Year (or Hogmanay if you're a fellow Scot). I have a nagging feeling that how you start the year sets the tone for what is to come. The first moments of 2011 did just that. It has been a difficult year for me, in many ways. There have been many metaphorical smacks in the face, death, illness, shock, disappointment. In other words, I have lived! And I have learned. Some of the things I have learned about myself are not nice. I have discovered that I can be unreliable, avoidant, stubborn, that I am self-critical to a confoundingly useless degree, that I am gullible and sometimes willing to be led astray, that I am still capable of doing things when really I know better.
But I am also strong, I am tenacious, motivated, dynamic, I can pursue the things that I really want, I am capable of following my gut instincts and my heart.
My goods and my bads are two sides of the same coin - without one, I don't have the other. I am not looking to change, that is not my plan for 2012. The plan is to learn how to fully utilise what I do have going for me. Maybe life is not just about become a better person. Maybe there is an element of becoming better at being the person you are.
In terms of training, I have two events booked up for next year: the Thunder Run in July and the VLT in September. The first is an endurance race but I'm part of a team which is a new and exciting prospect for me. I'm really looking forward to it. Camping, chinwagging, running - what's not to love? The triathlon is an entirely different kettle of fish. I am invested in that in an entirely different way. I dithered endlessly about whether to even give it a shot or not. My swimming needs a whole lot of work, it requires me to get new kit, probably get a new bike and even the logistics of me getting myself and my bike down to London for the race are a PITA quite frankly ... but really it comes down to something much simpler than all that waffle. I want to do it. It excites me and I want it, so whatever it takes to make it happen is what will happen. It is on! Now if I could only apply that to the rest of my life.
On the off chance that there is anything in my Hogmanay superstition, I'm taking no chances. Last year was a bummer with a capital B. This New Year's Eve is going to be awesome with a capital A. Start as you mean to go on, right?
