A Very Special Sunday Goals

Welcome, one and all to a Very Special edition of Sunday Goals. Because not only is it Sunday, but it is the very last Sunday of 2012 (not okay, PS), so it’s as good a time as any to lay out goals for not just the upcoming week, but for the WHOLE YEAR. I am either overly ambitious or not ambitious enough to write two separate blog posts. Your choice.

I’ve never been someone who could be counted on to blog consistently enough to have what could be called a Weekly Feature, but maybe this is it. Goals every Sunday with sometimes-incomprehensible ramblings (or radio silence) in between. Hooray. But in all honesty, it really does help with motivation and not letting the week get caught up with tons of other things and before I know it, it’s Friday and I’ve done nothing but lazed around on the elliptical for 30 minutes before going home to eat Oreos.

But first things first: how did I do last week?

• 3 runs (I WILL DO THIS.) — 3, 4, and 5 miles – 1/3 fail, 2/3 success. Weather did not cooperate, and I was tired. But the one I skipped was the short one, and I had a really strong 5-miler yesterday. Longest run since marathon training, hooray!
• 1 gym or at-home yoga class (trying to be a little conservative with my money and not buy any more yoga classes until 2013) – done. GaiamTV‘s “Yoga Flow for Athletes” at home on Monday.
• 2 strength workouts (Uplift? Gym? Depends on schedule) – nope. Oops. Literally completely forgot about this.
• 1 Flywheel class – done, times two! Went to Ryan’s class on Thursday PM and Danielle’s class this morning.
• Foam roll 2×20 mins (maybe if I have fewer sessions to get done, I will actually do them) – 1/2 done yesterday, and I’m planning to do session #2 tonight. I think these should probably be a little more spaced out, but whatevs.

And, onto goals for this week. It is taking all of my willpower to take a week off from Flywheel, but those classes are pricey, and I need to conserve them after taking two classes last week. I also want to use an Uplift class this week, which takes up a non-running day, and let’s face it, I’m just not working out 7 days a week. Sorry I’m not sorry. <3 Sleep and TV. I might have a backup reservation for Thursday morning in case the weather looks too terrible to run or I’ve miraculously done two runs AND a strength workout by Wednesday. Who knows, it could happen.

• 3 runs. Let’s go for 3, 3-4, and 5. One week, I will get there!
• 1 yoga practice (gym, at-home, or studio)
• 1 Uplift class
• 1 gym strength workout
• 3×20 minutes foam rolling (wooo, reaching for the sky)

Okay, so, onto the rest of 2013. So, last year, I made a LOT of resolutions. And I even managed to keep some of them. But I want to seriously limit the number I make for 2013. 2013 is already shaping up to be a pretty amazing year with lots of challenges and changes, and I don’t want to feel like I’m making resolutions I can’t keep because I’m more occupied by keeping up with life. Also, as lame as it sounds, my biggest resolution is to try and keep up with a lot of things I think I did well in 2012. It was a good year, and I don’t want to lose that. So, here we go:

1. Log all my runs and workouts in Daily Mile. [or if you know a better workout-logging app/site, please advise] I want to keep track of everything I’m doing, and I’m super jealous of all the people now blowing up the Twitter-verse saying how many miles they ran in 2012. I have no idea how many miles I ran this year. A lot? More than some, fewer than others? Lame.

2. Become significantly more comfortable driving a car and riding a bike. Two things I have technically learned how to do in the past and have done without killing myself or others, but I am super uncomfortable doing because I never do them often/consistently enough to hit that comfort level. It’s a side effect of growing up in NYC. My kindergarten class looks like a Benetton ad, I spent rainy weekends at world-class museums, and I never had to pretend that bagels from anywhere else are remotely acceptable, but I’m a horrible driver and biker. I wouldn’t trade my upbringing for the world, but 2013 is as good a time as any to improve these skills.

3. Train FUN for my May half-marathon. Yes, I am hungry for sub-2-hour half marathon. I’m looking forward to getting more onto a training plan. But I’ve been thinking a lot about running and training in general lately, and about how happy I am with having a lot of variety in my workouts, how much I’ve enjoyed the runs that I have been doing, and honestly, how unhappy I was at the end of marathon training. I want to enjoy this training cycle, and if pushing myself HARD to get to 1:59:59 stops being something I enjoy and I find myself loathing the training cycle, it isn’t worth it. If this half-marathon ends up being run for fun, so be it. I don’t want the pressure of the PR to make me miserable all spring.

4. SAVE SAVE SAVE. Without getting TOO specific about money here, let’s just say that I would like to increase the amount of money in my emergency fund + liquid savings fund by around 40% by the end of June. This is ambitious, and requires some things to break my way this spring, but I am hopeful. Even if some expenses have to come out of these accounts (emphasis on have to, not, I really really want this random thing I want), I want to at least put that 40% figure INTO them. This will be re-visited for the back half of the year.

And honestly, that’s really it. Yes, we can all be healthier, lose a little weight, be kinder, sleep more, gossip less, take our vitamins, blah blah blah, but those things aren’t specifically things I want to do in 2013 — I kind of want to do those things all the time. Just because it’s January 1st doesn’t mean I’m really any more motivated to do those things. I think that the new year shouldn’t necessarily be a time to change everything about yourself, but should be a list of what you really need/want to make that particular year amazing, better, great, whatever you need. And I think all of the above are what I want to make 2013 pretty awesome.

So, there we have it: 2013 resolutions. And away we go! (After suffering through everyone’s least favorite holiday, but at least there is always champagne. And copious amounts of it.)

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