Turning 30 and setting goals.

First... look at this monster of a cat eating my balloon... :D

Well, there is no more hiding it... my 20's have officially ended. It's funny, looking back I can pretty much divide my 20's into three phases.

- My early 20's, when I knew everything about anything and had everything worked out for the rest of my life (that is, up to the next day / weekend at least)

- My mid 20's, when I stubbornly held on to the choices I had made in my early 20's, grinding on towards my ideal outcome.

- My late 20's, when I accepted that I didn't know crap about basically anything, and that my life was open to new things every day.

I think the biggest thing I've learned over the last decade is to let things that don't really matter go. I used to be terribly hot headed, running friendships and relationships into the ground. I convinced myself that I was "no nonsense" and that I liked the roller coaster ride, but actually I was just an asshole. Don't get me wrong... I'll always have that good old Tennessee boy side to me, but I think I've grown a lot in that I can now look at things and laugh whereas 10 years ago I would have been ready to fight.

Enough retrospective nonsense though. I'm 30, I had a great birthday (thanks much in part to the wonderful Jenny, who got me a very thoughtful present, below) with my family and friends and I even got an 11 mile run in...and hey, my knees didn't even hurt!

I'm a big Charlie the Unicorn fan. Can't believe she found a T-shirt to proclaim it! Awesome!

Anyways, birthday aside, it's time to start setting up the race schedule for next year, along with a couple of goals.

This is going to be (hopefully) a big year for me. I've had a long stretch of "healthy" training (closing in on a year with no real hiccups) and I've got a couple of big races already locked in (or at least paid for) so I'm hoping for big things. Of course hoping and executing are totally different, but we'll see.

First, the schedule. No cycling races (yet) and probably not all of the sprints I'll end up doing. Not totally sure how much pure cycling I'll be doing this year, probably less than 2013.


Current Race Schedule for 2014

Turkey Trot 5k - November 24

New Years Day 5k - January 1

Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon (1/2) - March 30

Trideltathon - April 14(?)

REV3 Knoxville Olympic - May 18

Westside YMCA Sprint - July 6(?)

USAT Nationals Olympic - August 9

USAT Nationals Sprint - August 10

REV3 Cedar Point 1/2 Aquabike (Aquabike Nationals) - September 7


Goals for 2014

- Swim a 20 minute (or very close) 1500m in the pool by April.

- Sub 19 minute 5k by the first of the year. Should be there.

- Sub 1:30 at the Knox Half. I was right around 1:32 last year so hopefully this one is in the bag. 1:27 or under is what I'll shoot for.

- Have a good race at Rev3 Knoxville. I've so far never had a good day there. If things go well, I will be shooting for a 2:05 or so Olympic.

- PR at the Westside Y Sprint (my "tri birthday" race)

- Finish in the top 19 (Q for team USA) at USAT Nationals Oly/Sprint. Need to be fast...  as in 2 even Oly for a shot. Going to have to have a good day and everything to go well leading up to it.

- Finish on the OA podium at Aquabike Nationals. I think I have a shot at the win but it'll depend on who shows up.

- Stay healthy all year, build towards longer distance racing in 2015.

- Have fun :)



So that's the rough outline at the moment. The goals are set, so now all I have to do is meet and exceed them... right!

Thanks for reading through my muddled thoughts. I appreciate it!

- Christopher Morelock

(Birthday Ninja!)

Neon Yellow jacket and giant Garmin, the ultimate urban camo.