2011 was wonderful and unexpected. I started the year off at a job I hated. I cried on my drive in every morning and felt as though I was wasting my life away. I spent every day scouring the Internet for job postings, feeling like a jerk for being lucky enough to have a job in this economy and complaining about it. Thankfully, a friend and previous co-worker recommended me for a job at her new company. By the end of March, I was on my way to a great and rewarding position that I thank my lucky stars for every single day. The rest of the year was a whirlwind spent traveling with aforementioned job
training and not training for races
and planning/celebrating my SIL’s wedding and all the events that went along with it!
So this brings me to reviewing my 2011 goals and setting new ones for 2012.
My 2011 goals as referenced from this post:
1. Train and finish my first half marathon. Bonus? In under 2 hours. I have already signed up for the Princess Half in Disney on February 27. I’m a little nervous about it. Although, I didn’t think I could run 6 miles, and I did that. So 13.1 isn’t an impossible feat.
Outcome: We decided to run the race together and finish together. We had a string of injuries, Sarah with a pesky IT band, and me with plantar fasciitis. We had lofty aspirations of finishing super fast, I even said I wanted to finish sub 2 hours. With the lack of training (I only ran once a week) and string of injuries, we finished in 2:53. I am beyond proud of that, but we can do better. You can read my post about the Princess Half here.
2. Obtain my personal training certification by March 2011. I’ve already received and read through my study materials, and was going to take it in December, but my grandfather passed away and a lot of time was spent visiting him in the hospital and with funeral activities. After that, the holidays were in full force and the testing site wasn’t open. I’d like to do a full refresher of the materials and buy and take a practice test before taking the real thing. I’m not trying to do this multiple times.
Outcome: Goals and people change. That’s really all I can say. I spent some time in and out of gyms, observing trainers, training with them, and I ultimately decided this was not for me. While I absolutely love working out (debatable), I don’t think training people is for me.
That brings me to my goals for 2012:
1. Train and finish my second half marathon, under 2:30. I think this is entirely within my reach. I have a training plan this time, that requires running at least 3 times a week and strength training with my trainer twice a week. I was very naive the first time around and thought that running once a week was plenty. So stupid. My second race will be held in the Outer Banks on April 22nd.
Oh and it’s not just a half marathon, we’ll also be competing in the challenge which requires us to run a very hilly 5k the day before!
2. Establish and maintain a budget. Which includes seriously reducing the amount that we eat out. I’m leaning towards twice a week. Our current rate is bordering on disgusting.
3. Recommit to the blog. I’m not sure what this will entail, because I don’t want to post if I have nothing to talk about. This might mean a post every month, a post every week, maybe a post a day, whatever. I do want to continue on with it, I’m just not sure yet in what fashion.
Apparently I like to set the bar low, because that’s it! I’m not one that wants to set unattainable goals. That’s really lame. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!
