It's that time again...goals for the New Year

The end of 2013 approaches and the beginning of a new year looms on the horizon.  For a good amount of people, this means resolution and goal setting time.  That happens to include me.  However, I don’t set “resolutions” anymore.  Resolutions make things I want to accomplish sound more like obligations.  So, instead, I refer to them as “goals.”  That makes them sound more like things I’d *like* to accomplish as opposed to things I *have* to accomplish.  It makes the journey to achieve them more fun and lighthearted for me.  It worked for me last year and it worked for me again this year.  I believe I achieved almost every single one of my “goals” for 2013…with the exception of reaching my goal weight.  But, you know what?  I’m totally fine with that.  Why?  Because I’m damn close to reaching that goal and, well, frankly, I did some pretty amazing things this year.  I ran a sub-9 minute mile.  I ran an organized half marathon.  I figured out how to not be a running-snob and became okay with walking during a run.  I did manage to shed about 5 pounds this calendar year after all the losing and gaining and losing and gaining and losing again.  Sure, it’s not 100 pounds or even 75 or just 50, but that’s okay.  I made progress.  I bettered myself.  I came to terms with a lot of things.  I’m a whole heck of a lot closer to being a balanced person...and let's be honest, that's what this is really all about.

I work a lot of extra shifts at work so I can buy things that make me happy, fix my car and start saving for a trip home to visit family and lifelong friends that I don’t get to see anywhere near as often as I’d like.  All these extra hours at work mean a lot of missed workout opportunities.  Sometimes I’m only exercising once or twice a week.  But, again, I’m okay with that.  I found a published diet that works for me and that I enjoy completely.  I do still constantly struggle with my disordered eating issues…but I’m getting better at dealing with my urges when I have them. 

So, with all that said, I’d like to take a few moments and tell you about my goals for 2014....
  

• finally reach my goal weight of 160
• train for and run a full marathon (yes, that’s 26.2 miles!!!)…I’m aiming for the Rock’N’Roll marathon in Las Vegas
• buy a second gun to carry in my purse
• save enough money to pay for a 2-week trip home to visit family/friends and be comfortable while doing it
• once I’ve reached 160, I want to maintain it
• exercise 2-5 days a week for at least 30 minutes each session
• run twice a week…a long run (60-90 minutes) and a short run of intervals (30 minutes)

I know, this seems like an incredibly long list of things, but these are all things that I’m confident I can do.  All the fitness related ones are basically just extensions of what I have done this year with the exception of aiming for more balance with my workouts.  I overdid it a LOT this year.  That’s how I hit burnout in October and just plain didn’t exercise AT ALL for over 3 weeks.  I was running 3-5 days a week and the vast majority of those were looooooong runs (over 6 miles and up to 15).  I was exhausted and when I tried to shift gears in how I was doing my workouts, I just stopped altogether and it took me over 3 weeks to get back into gear.  And then I ran the half marathon last month with only 1.5 hours cumulative of running (intervals on a treadmill) in the 6 weeks preceding it.  I couldn’t walk right for 3 days.  Never again.  And then, on the 8^th of this month, I ran the Brown Santa 5K and won my age group with a 10:04 min/mi average pace…but I again did it without training.  I hadn’t ran once since the RNR half.

A note on doing a full marathon in 2014…when I was running the half at the Rock’N’Roll, I remember thinking a LOT and some of those thoughts were about running (duh).  A few of those thoughts were of running a full.  As I was running strong up to mile 11 (amazing since I had no training) and was feeling good the whole time (my legs hit the wall shortly after the mile 11 mark), I was thinking to myself that I could definitely do this for twice the distance.  I mean, heck, they do say that if you can do a half, you can do a full.  You just have to have faith in yourself and train appropriately.  I’m not sure if I’ll run another full after I run the Rock’N’Roll in Vegas later next year.  It all depends on how I feel post-race.  I chose the Vegas RNR because it happens at night and it’s a flat course.  

I’m running the half at the Austin Marathon in February.  I’d like to find another half to do between then and the RNR Vegas.  I’m thinking I want to try to find something in Oregon or Washington when I go for my visit in May-ish.  I’ll have to do my research.  If I go in June instead of May, I could hit the Yellowstone Half on the way up there or on the way back to Texas…but I’m not sure how that would fare with the way I would have to schedule my time off.  I think finding something in Oregon or Washington is the best bet.  Maybe I can find something along the coast or in Portland.  Even if I have to drive a few hours and stay the night to do it.