2013: Might as Well End it Here

It's the halfway mark of December, but it might as well be the end of the month and thus the end of the year, because that's how it feels. I'm done with 2013. Here is my take on the obligatory "year in review" post that everyone is doing now.

Don't get me wrong. This has been a momentous year, all except for when it comes to my running. While being fit and healthy is important to me, it just wasn't a top priority this past 12 months. And that's OK. There's always next year. But first, let's take a look back.

We have to start with my goals for 2013, which I didn't bother to announce until Oct. 11, exactly a month after my son was born. My goals were meager, but still mostly unattainable. They were:

• Break 1,000 miles 400 miles 200 miles.
• Weigh 170 pounds 175 pounds 180 pounds
• Return to the Akron Marathon and run two trail races Run a 5K this winter
• Run barefoot 10 percent of this year's total mileage

Let's see how I fared!

You Take the Good
At 13, my barefoot mileage is actually more than 10 percent of this year's 129 miles. I should probably keep my not-running streak going to make sure I maintain this singular running achievement.

However, if you want the real good stuff, you have to look beyond the miles I ran in 2013, because babies be life changing. I ran three times after Baby Viper was born, and that was all in October. Instead, I've been focusing on being a dad, which is way cooler than slogging out a few miles a day.

Baby Viper has put on nearly 10 pounds since he came into the world a month early. He's smiling up a storm, and that wipes away any disappointment I may have in regard to other aspects of my life.

Mrs. Viper and I are adjusting well to life as a couple married with children. We're tired and sometimes cranky with each other, but I sense we're growing stronger and learning to better communicate our needs.

Although I haven't played as much music as I had hoped to this year, I've made great progress in learning to play the fiddle. Once I found I could play in the mornings and not wake up Mrs. Viper and not make my son cry in holy terror, I started to get into a good practice routine. There's still a long way to go, as old-time banjo and fiddle guru Dwight Diller says, "It takes 10 years just to start learning to play the fiddle."

Our holiday gift beer should be ready to taste on Tuesday, though I'll probably let it condition a little longer before testing to make sure recipients won't gag on their homemade Christmas gift.

Which brings me to our debt situation. We've paid off one credit card and 25 percent of another, taking us to more than 8 percent of our total since signing up at ReadyForZero. That's good progress in two months.

You Take the Bad
Unfortunately, the rest of my running and health related goals were a bust. I'm sitting at 129 miles for the year, well shy of my revised goal of 200. My weight continues to hover around 190 pounds, but this past month it's consistently been below that undesirable mark by two or three pounds, so hooray for movement toward that 180-pound goal line. As you are all well aware, I didn't run a single race this year, and it doesn't look like Mrs. Viper and I will get ourselves to a 5K this winter. Maybe the spring?

And There You Have the Facts of Life
OK, so I purposefully kept the bad parts of this review contained in one paragraph while lauding my non-running triumphs, but as Johnny Mercer says, you have to accentuate the positive. I know I'll get back to running eventually. I know things won't always be this hectic. Time won't always feel so crunched. Everything ebbs and flows.

Flashback Friday: A World of No

It's going to be a homebrewed Christmas.

This is how we spent our Sunday. What you see is the beginning stages of the best chemistry experiment I know of, boiling the wort for a holiday ale.

It's hard to believe it's been three years since the last time we brewed a batch of beer, but life has been a bit busy since then. There was marriage, buying our first house, having a kid, etc.

On that most recent life event, becoming a dad has been awesome. Every day I'm amazed at the new life in my life. He has enriched our lives in weighs we can't even quantify. But there's a catch.

As new parents, we find ourselves living in a world of nos. There's no time, no sleep, no energy, no exercise and no money. Yes, Baby Viper has changed everything, as "they" said he would.

It's been so long since my last run, there's no point in even counting. It has gotten to the point where I've considered abandoning this blog and starting a parenting blog, because there aren't enough of those. If I also started a food blog, I could complete the trifecta of most abundant blog categories.

The reality is, I don't have the energy to start up a new blog and try to get you guys to switch over. This one will have to do. It would be different if I were making money from this little hobby. (Oops.)

The lack of money is why we found ourselves brewing beer last weekend.

Even before Baby Viper was born, Mrs. Viper and I were doing our best to save money and pay down the debt we amassed in our more reckless days. Living on the cheap isn't all that new to us, but having a baby in the house has compounded our financial circumstances.

As our son spent nine days in the NICU, parenthood has come with an unexpected deluge of new medical bills to pay on top of the added expense of having another mouth to feed, another body to clothe and another doctor to visit. We are lucky that our family has been able to help us, but still the budget is tighter than ever.

I keep reminding myself that it won't always be like this. It takes a lot of work and patience to pay off debt. We're using ReadyForZero to help us stay on track with our financial goals. According to our plan, we'll pay off all of our credit cards by the end of 2017. We've already paid off one account since signing up in October. It feels good, but we've had to say no to a lot of temptations.

We've had to cut back on most of our entertainment spending. Dining out is down to a minimum. Personal spending is virtually nil. We pay our bills and have just enough for food and gasoline. Christmas is going to be tough.

That's why we decided to make this year a homemade affair. Everybody gets a photo of the baby and something we made. I'm not crafty like my wife, but I have the tools to make beer. Our holiday ale is fermenting as we speak. I'm still not sure what we'll do for our nieces, nephews and younger cousins.

Not being able to spend money has reinforced one of the reasons why running became my exercise of choice. If you don't get caught up in buying all the fancy gear, it's one of the cheapest ways to stay fit. Add in body-weight exercises like push-ups and pull-ups, and I could be super healthy -- you know, if I actually did those things.

Sadly, exercise has fallen by the wayside for both Mrs. Viper and me. She has a YMCA membership that has languished since before the baby arrived. I haven't run in more than a month. I haven't even been walking much since the weather took a frigid turn this past week.

You'd think living cheap would help us lose weight. If we don't buy as much food, we can't eat as much, right? That hasn't been the case for me. Every morning it's the same. My weight stays around 190 pounds, which is 10 to 15 pounds heavier than I'd prefer.

As the holidays approach, the temptation to eat poorly will only increase. We'll have to find more willpower to keep saying no. Saying no is no fun, but it can be rewarding in the long run.