Welcome back to the blog! If you're new to the blog, welcome to the blog!
My purpose with this blog was to keep you updated with what is happening with my life and with my training and to keep it as real as possible. My goals are not to make the blog uberly depressing or super filled with motivational "you can do it too!" type of writing. I want the blog to show different aspects of my life as an athlete, but also as a person. So I will admit, I have wondered a bit on what to do with this next blog post, mainly because my life over the last week and a bit has been in a major flux.
Personally, I was not having the best week last week for several reasons. Life decided to give me a good kick in the ass and handed me some setbacks. I have not eating the best and have been feeling very stressed out. Now, I am a full supporter of, when you need to feel your feelings and stew (in your sweatpants like a classy adult while Netflix binge-watching and eating chocolate) well then you need to stew and have your moment before you can pick yourself back up again. So, yes, I did some stewing and some Netflix binge-watching, but a major personal goal I have set for myself over the last few months is to work on being more positive when faced with setbacks and rough times. It has not been easy, and it can't always be easy but I am working very hard to change my mental perspective so that I can attract good things to me. This week I tried to make the little things count, like making my homemade granola and having some fun in the kitchen; listening to Christmas music on my phone; enjoying spending time with friends; celebrating a recent engagement of two close friends of mine and screaming like a maniac down the street when I heard the news; and also enjoying with every ounce of my Royal Family obsessed being, The Crown's season 2 release on Netflix this past weekend. Seriously, if you haven't watched it yet, DO IT. You are welcome.
Now the major event of the last week has been the Thomas Fire. If you have not heard of the Thomas Fire, it is one of the several wild fires going on in southern California right now causing a lot of devastation. It began in the Ventura county outside Santa Barbara and over the week has grown to encompass about 243,200 acres of land and make its way well into the Santa Barbara county. As of now, the fire is only 20% contained, many people have had to evacuate their homes and many people have lost their homes to the fire. Schools are closed everywhere across the county until after Christmas and the air quality is so poor you cannot go outside without a N95 mask so you don't breathe in the ash that covers everything in sight. It.Is.Crazy! Even before the fires were getting waayy to close for comfort, our practices were cancelled because of poor air quality and we had to find ways to do workouts inside. Last week, Becky, James and I took advantage of 24h Fitness and did some bike, treadmill and weight lifting. You can take a look at us running on treadmills here!
On Saturday and Sunday things started to pick up with the fire. Westmont College, where we train, went into emergency evacuation meaning that all of our practices are to be cancelled until further notice. Because of the air quality, it was suggested that if we could get out of town we should until things died down. I took up an offer from a training partner to go up to San José to escape the hazardous ashy air and given the fact that my current place backs up into the mountains and the voluntary evacuation zones were only 2 miles away at this point, I decided to drive the five hours north of Santa Barbara at night as a safety measure just incase things got any worse during the night.
So now here I am, safe and sound with clean air and my most important/valuable items with me, awaiting for Santa Barbara to not be on fire. I am extremely grateful for the people who are allowing me to stay with them during all this craziness. Lucky for us as well, we have access to a local track here so we are not without the ability to train. My place in Santa Barbara is currently safe from the flames so I will have a place to go back to. Until then, I will just be breathing in the fresh air and taking life as it comes at me.
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I would also like to take a second to thank those people who have already donated to my GoFundMe page, or have taken the time to share my campaign with their friends and family. The support means more than you could know! If you have not seen my GoFundMe page, you can find it here. Please take a moment to share or forward my page amongst your friends and family, and please consider donating if you can. I appreciate any support that I can get!