The past few months have been quite a whirlwind.  From early April to mid-July, my life changed in nearly every possible way.

In April, I defended my Ph.D. and graduated from school.  I also accepted a new job in a field which is quite a leap from what I ever thought I would do.

Yay! Graduated!

In June, I got married to the most wonderful, fantastic partner I could ever possibly ask for.  We also decided to shorten the commute to my new job by moving, and happened upon the absolute perfect house in the most perfect location, but had to frantically prep to move the day after we got back from our backpacking honeymoon.  Oh, and the wedding was a completely DIY affair, which we self-hosted/designed/made/planned/catered at our house, for 50 people.  Not exactly relaxing.

Image credit: The totally amazing Lucy Schultz Photography ❤

Backpacking in the Maroon Bells with my favorite person

In July, we moved, and I started my new job.  So… things have been a little crazy!  Fortunately, I’m liking the job so far, so that’s good.  It was a leap to leave academia and planetary science and go into industry and computer science/geospatial data analysis, but I’m enjoying the challenge, and find myself looking forward to tackling the next day’s work, so that’s good.

The biggest issue with all this chaos is that I was never able to establish any kind of routine or do any major running like I had initially thought I would with my May and June “vacation.”  So now that things have calmed down and we’ve gotten back to our new normal, I’m struggling to get my feet back under me and get momentum in rebuilding my physical and mental health.  I had to let go of the Ute 100 for this year (Maybe 2019?  Too many variables for now…) and focus my sights on something that was a bit further down the road and slightly shorter, so I could actually get some training in.  So I signed up for the Bear Chase 50 miler at the end of September.  If that goes well and I’m feeling it, I’ll sign up for the Javelina 100 miler that happens Halloween weekend in Phoenix.  I expect that I’ll probably decide to hold off on the 100 for this year, but you never know.  I’m trying to be smart about my race choices lately since I’ve had so many DNFs and DNSs in the past few years.  I keep trying to bite off more than I can chew with all the things going on in life, and I need to be smarter and more realistic about my time and ability to get the long runs in.  I like having at least one day on my weekends to do stuff with my family and take care of other things that need to be done, and while it IS possible, 100 miler training doesn’t really allow for that to happen easily.

So now that life is more settled again, my short term goals are:

1. Write regularly again.  I really enjoy this blog as my creative outlet and way to sort through my thoughts about training and racing, even if nobody reads it but my mom. 🙂
2. Work on establishing a morning workout routine.  This means ACTUALLY GETTING UP WHEN MY ALARM GOES OFF IN THE MORNING AND NOT SLEEPING FOR AN EXTRA TWO HOURS.  Do you hear me, 5 a.m. Sarah???
3. Get back into the habit of cooking dinners for my family.  I love cooking and we eat so much better when I do it several nights out of the week.  It also helps now that we’re settled in our new home and our commutes are shorter – no more driving a half hour+ to get home!  (I’m really digging the 15 minute commute.)
4. Bike to work at least once a week.  Normally this would be NBD, but it’s 11 miles one way and there are some REALLY BIG HILLS.  It’s a commitment.

I think that’s a pretty good list for now.