This time last year, I was feeling a bit flat and uninspired and I lacked the courage the set big bold goals (fitness or otherwise). My friend challenged me to run 1000 miles over the year, but I just couldn't see how I could make that work. By the time March rocked by I was running well and averaging 100 miles per month. I set myself a goal to run 1200 miles in 2017 and it felt good to have a target which was going to stretch me and I realised I had nothing to lose if things didn't go to plan. I smashed it and ended the year on 1246 miles and bagged more PBs than I could ever have hoped for.
I am someone who is very motivated by 'having a plan'... if I set my mind on something I very much go after it at about 110% effort!
I like to see a plan of what future me is going to do - I like to visualise all the details, like dates, what time I need to be where, how I'll travel, what I'll eat etc This can get overwhelming and has definitely prevented me setting longer term goals before. Over the year, I've learnt I can sit back and figure out the finer details later. I've learnt to break down my goals and plans into more manageable chunks and to not stress too much about every single detail. Okay, so that's still something I'm working on but it feels pretty liberating to be able to through a big plan out there, for the whole year and suss it out as I go along.
So here's my 2018:
Monthly Goals: I'd like to have a monthly fitness focus each month to keep it fresh. I've not got through the whole year yet, but this is what I have so far.
January - Veganuary, Run Every Day (RED) January, and I want to push my longest running distance by the end of the month, so I've planned in a long run of 17 miles, on the last Sunday of the month.
February - Run at least 2 x half marathons this month - not particularly 'events' but two 13 mile runs, with one of them being as much trail/off road as possible. Review how Veganuary went?
March - Back to the pool - I want to start open water swimming again from May, so back to pre-work pool workouts in March to regain some swimming fitness before then.
April - Run at least 150 miles this month.
May - Back to the lake. I'll be renewing my membership at Blue Lagoon Triathlon club which gives me access to swim open water regularly.
I'll come back and edit / add to / continue these as the year goes on.
Year Goals:
Thanks for reading. My blog is still work in progress, so a perfect example of this mindset - I hadn't blogged for a while as I wanted a new blog, but I needed to learn new blogging skills, both technical and practical. I honestly haven't had the time recently to sit down and lean how to set up my blog exactly as I want, so instead of delaying for longer, I decided to get on with it regardless. I'm still learning, hope you'll stick with me as I develop my blogging skills!
I am someone who is very motivated by 'having a plan'... if I set my mind on something I very much go after it at about 110% effort!
I like to see a plan of what future me is going to do - I like to visualise all the details, like dates, what time I need to be where, how I'll travel, what I'll eat etc This can get overwhelming and has definitely prevented me setting longer term goals before. Over the year, I've learnt I can sit back and figure out the finer details later. I've learnt to break down my goals and plans into more manageable chunks and to not stress too much about every single detail. Okay, so that's still something I'm working on but it feels pretty liberating to be able to through a big plan out there, for the whole year and suss it out as I go along.
So here's my 2018:
Monthly Goals: I'd like to have a monthly fitness focus each month to keep it fresh. I've not got through the whole year yet, but this is what I have so far.
January - Veganuary, Run Every Day (RED) January, and I want to push my longest running distance by the end of the month, so I've planned in a long run of 17 miles, on the last Sunday of the month.
February - Run at least 2 x half marathons this month - not particularly 'events' but two 13 mile runs, with one of them being as much trail/off road as possible. Review how Veganuary went?
March - Back to the pool - I want to start open water swimming again from May, so back to pre-work pool workouts in March to regain some swimming fitness before then.
April - Run at least 150 miles this month.
May - Back to the lake. I'll be renewing my membership at Blue Lagoon Triathlon club which gives me access to swim open water regularly.
I'll come back and edit / add to / continue these as the year goes on.
Year Goals:
- Run 1500 miles
- Run on trails more (at least once per week)
- Get back into open water swimming and enter the Snowman Snowdonia swimming event in July
- Enter a half marathon in an inspiring/beautiful place. Possibly a trail half? Maybe this November North Wales one? or May for this fairly crazy Bluebell Trail 10?
- Make 20 miles my long run distance
- Pledge to make more of an effort for ethical and environmental consciousness. I'm doing Veganuary and I hope to continue this, plus we're going to make big changes as a family to our plastic usage. More on this at a later date
- By mid year start cycling to work at last once per week. This is a biggie for me, I've a decent bike but never use it. Work is 15 miles away....not too hard but I work in city centre and am terrified of traffic. Dylan does it 5 times per week so surely I can manage once?
- Blog more and drag as many people along for the fun as I can!
Thanks for reading. My blog is still work in progress, so a perfect example of this mindset - I hadn't blogged for a while as I wanted a new blog, but I needed to learn new blogging skills, both technical and practical. I honestly haven't had the time recently to sit down and lean how to set up my blog exactly as I want, so instead of delaying for longer, I decided to get on with it regardless. I'm still learning, hope you'll stick with me as I develop my blogging skills!
Great goals! Looking forward to following your progress.
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