January 2025
The coldest month ever is finally done. There’s just something about frigid temps that shows your weakness. Especially living the later half of my life thus far in the south, these teen temperatures with even cooler wind chills aren’t something my mental is comfy with. So doing the simplest of things from taking the trash out to going for a run becomes a mental battle. You’re starting a new year with darkness, dead grass, bare trees, and the cold.
Being in the dead cold of winter can be demoralizing, I’d like to say I wielded an unyielding mindset of rigid mental strength towards the month, but it kinda clapped my cheeks. Maybe next year I’ll do better.
That being said, we made the best of it.
Race Day
Katie and I both started the year off with some races. Katie ran her first 5K at Disney and I ran the Disney Marathon for the first time. The nitty gritty of the race training for me was garbage. After I broke sub-4 in November I didn’t really have any motivation for the Saturday marathon long runs anymore, so I kept running each day but didn’t do anything over eight miles from November till race day in January.
This was questionable on my part and honestly didn’t intend to finish the race. I was just excited to race through some Disney parks and pull the plug whenever I started to hit the wall. When that wall hits and you don’t have a why or a reason to plow through the wall, it becomes quite difficult to actually overcome it.
As it turned out, my aerobic fitness stayed remarkably intact over those two months and the first 20 miles were relatively comfortable. After I hit 20 I knew I could hang on for dear life and run/walk the last few to get the medal. All in all, a fun experience, and very proud of Katie for her first race!
The rest of the month was pretty cut and dry. A few date nights sprinkled in to mix things up, including a cooking class for Roman food which was great.
Best and Worst of the month:
Best thing I watched, read, or listened to: The Will of the Many - James Islington and Road to Perdition
Worst thing I watched, read, or listened to: Ben Johnson’s playcalling in the Lion’s playoff loss.
Best experience of the month: Crossing the finish line of a marathon, hand-making pasta with Katie, seeing my kids every day.
Best thing I ate: My own HAND MADE pasta carbonara, and I’ve finally gotten good at cooking steak.
