My Year in Review

As I sit here at my laptop, on New Years Eve of 2018, it’s hard to believe another year has come and gone.  I feel its important to review the year that has passed in order to learn and grow from the experiences held therein.  

I am a goal oriented person and in order to be happy with myself, I feel the need to set and achieve goals.  Even if I don’t always meet the goals I set for myself, as long as I learn from the experience or take away a new growth opportunity, I feel a sense of accomplishment and self-worth from the process.  I set both professional and personal goals for myself, hoping to grow as an athlete, fitness professional and a human being in the time spent spinning around the sun. 

So here is my year in review...

Professionally, there were some continuing educational opportunities that happened this year.  I pursued my interest in Thai yoga stretching therapy by attending another workshop on the practice.  I have found this practice to be very helpful with both my running clients and clients dealing with arthritis, who both tend to suffer from muscle tension and issues related to reduced ROM.  

Speaking of which, my personal training practice has been expanding via word of mouth that I worked quite well with those dealing with osteoarthritis, that people dealing with other forms of arthritis, including rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis have referred to working with me.  I’ve really enjoyed working with clients with these unique special needs, and keeping them active and strong, while reducing joint inflammation, has been very rewarding for me.  I hope to expand further in this area in the near future. 

Continuing with significant changes in my professional life, I made the difficult but important decision to part ways from the women’s gym that I worked at for almost four years, to move into private practice.  Standing up for what I believe in was challenging, but morally the right choice to make. While moving solely into private practice is exciting, scary and insecure, it was definitely the right decision for me and I have absolutely no regrets.   

Moving onto my year as an athlete...

I made two different, yet complimentary goals for my endurance training this year: 

1) Step down from the full iron distance to the half iron distance, in order to take the time to improve on sport specific aspects of triathlon, especially in the swim and bike disciplines. 

2) Complete my first trail ultra-marathon.  

As a self-coached athlete, I understand there will be limitations on my ability to self-assess/criticize in a helpful manner, especially in my swim stroke technique, so I made an effort to attend more swim clinics and a few private swim lessons.  I hired Miranda Tomenson for some swim lessons and attended a swim clinic held by Triathlon Ontario.  They were worthy investments.  I managed to knock six minutes off my 2km swim time at both the half-irons I competed in this year (Ironman 70.3 Muskoka and MSC Barrelman).  I also PB’ed my 3.8km swim at the LOST swim race with a time of 1:24:02. I’m very proud of this.  I hope to get my Iron distance swim time down to 1:15:00 for 2019 with consistent training and applying the lessons learnt from my sessions. 

The biggest change to my cycling discipline came late in the year, like only two weeks ago to be completely honest.  I upgraded from my trusted Specialized Ruby road bike, to a brand new Liv Avow Advanced Pro 2 TT/triathlon bike.  Now I’m truly committed to riding aero.  I’m still adjusting to the new saddle position, but I’m feeling exhilarated and inspired. I can’t wait to actually get her out onto the road to race in the spring/summer. 

As for running, I challenged myself in a different way. Instead of focusing on speed so much this year, like I have been doing in previous years, I really went for distance - the ultra-marathon.  I began training on trails and found I really enjoyed the challenge of the terrain and the camaraderie of the trail running community, especially the Five Peaks Trail Race Series and Happy Trails Racing.  I surprised myself with a podium finish at my second ever trail race (3rd female OA at the Albion Hills half marathon) and continued on with the momentum. My end of season event was The Beav 50K trail ultra, and I exceeded my own expectations when I finished 2nd OA female.   

2018 had some real ups and downs for my running discipline. While my performance at the Toronto Marathon (3:40:45) met the qualifying standards for the Boston Marathon (3:45:00), I did not make the final cut off time in the competitive entry system (I missed the cut off by 37 seconds). It was a difficult pill for me to swallow.  Although I knew I was choosing distance over speed in my run training this year, it still sucks to miss a standard you previously met.  

That being said, the time invested in trail and ultra-running ended in several podium finishes for me this year, which was really gratifying.  And I’ll choose positivity over negativity any day. I must admit, in 2018 I really kindled an interest in trail ultra-running, and I intend to pursue this further in the years to come.    

So what are my goals for 2019? 

1) I’m going back to Ironman Mont Tremblant in August, and my goal is to break 12 hours. (FYI, my 2017 time was 13:53:42). 

2) Further explore trail ultra-running, this time at the 50mile (80K) distance category.  I’m considering the Sulphur Springs trail race this May. 

3) Continue to grow my personal training business, particularly in the area of clients dealing with arthritis, a demographic which I have found to be enjoyable to work with.   

I hope your 2018 lived up to expectation, and that you have set some big goals for 2019.   

Happy New Year from Kelly at Contours Personal Training.