Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year - 2013 Goals

I meant to post on New Years Eve but things got away from me!  I wasn't near a computer yesterday so here I'm am today!

I hope you all had a nice New Years Eve/Day!  I ended up going to my friend Becky's house for a few hours and then a friend's house of the guy I've been seeing most recently.  All in all, it was a low key night but fun.

On my last post regarding some Christmas gifts, I got a few questions so I thought I would quickly take a few photos on a couple of my favorite run gifts that I got.  The first is Knuckle Lights.



I first found out about Knuckle Lights last year.  I half heartedly asked for them last Christmas and for my birthday since I was training for the Illinois Marathon in the Spring and was going to be doing a lot of running in the dark.  I pretty much just used my phone light though and never got the lights.  This year I really wanted them though and told my mom that either she could get them for me as a Christmas gift or I was going to buy them for myself.  She needed some gift ideas and ordered them for me.  I only used them once since I got them but really liked them.  They are a little strange to get used to and I kept blinding myself by looking directly at them when I turned them on (don't do that).

They feel comfortable to hold, they have a conveniently placed button on the top to switch them on and off, and they are really bright and illuminate a really large area ahead of you.  The down sides from what I can tell right now are that they are battery operated and I can see that I might go to turn them on one day and they won't be working and also that they have multiple switch features so I go to shut them off and I have to click 2 or 3 times (which I keep forgetting about and then look at the light and blind myself).  These are easily fixed problems as I might just keep an extra set of batteries in the car and I should be able to get used to the switch features.

One of the other gifts I got from my parents, I wasn't expecting.  It was the Moji 360 Massager.

I first used the smaller hand held one last May the day before my friend Susan's first marathon.  She had one and I tried it and LOVED it!  The balls roll all directions and it felt great (and hurt like hell) on my calf muscle and my shoulder blade.  You can use this product on just about every body part.  I instantly wanted one but they are so expensive.  When I originally asked for this, I asked for it for my birthday, which is in February, and I just asked for the small handheld one.  Right before Christmas, I started having hip pain (when I took a week off of running) and wished I asked for it for Christmas because I thought it would be useful!  So I was extremely surprised when I actually got it for Christmas (and the bigger one at that)!  I'm testing it out on my IT band/hip area above.  I think my hip pain was more from my tight IT band anyway, and this product really has seemed to help (along with some stretching).  Have you seen this product before or do you have one? 
I also got a pair of purple running socks and purple running shorts (from my Aunt and my Goddaughter).  Purple is my favorite color so I will be excited to try these out.

I've seen my other run friends and bloggers list their goals for 2013.  I feel like a slacker.  I can't seem to really wrap my head around any goals. The only things I have right now are the following:

2013 Goals

1. Run a fall marathon and reach my finish time goal of 4:30 (I'm at 4:44:54 right now).

2. Run a half marathon and reach my finish time goal of under 2 hours. (Yikes!!)

3. Do 30 minutes of some form of activity EVERY DAY.  Now this can include walking and it also can include breaking it up throughout the day.  The only thing it does not include is walking from the train to work (since that's just part of my day anyway).  It will include walking from home to the train since I tend to get lazy and drive a lot.

4. Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day.  I was doing relatively well lately at water but sometimes only got a required 6 glasses a day.  The past weekend I was really bad though and have been dehydrated.  Need to get into this water thing.

5. Do at least 1 strength training routine every week.  I have already been making this a priority and have been doing well the last few months with at least getting one in every week.  I'd like to get more but 1 a week is better than none.

6. Complete one sprint triathlon.  I had signed up for one last year but dislocated my shoulder 3 weeks before and therefore dropped out.

7. Lose 20 lbs.  This is actually my number 1 goal!  I'm not sure if 20 lbs is a realistic goal but I'm going to try.  I originally lost 90 lbs but put back on 20-30.  I've lost a few so right now I want to get back down 20 pounds to start.  I want to get back to looking like this...
This photo was right around 20 lbs ago.  Hello sexy lady!  :)

I know I felt better, looked better and until recently, ran better.  I'm actually getting back to running better and I know losing the extra weight will really help me.  Plus I'll be able to fit back into those clothes and my size 8 jeans I bought back then!  I can't lose weight while training for full marathons and that was one reason why I opted to NOT do a spring marathon.

8.  Be more confident in myself.  This is not running related although confidence in yourself does also play a factor in obtaining race goals.  I've noticed that even though I've really gotten a lot better with confidence in my 30's, I still have a tenancy to revert back to some old habits. I'm dating this guy and I find myself apologizing for "being difficult" or telling him jokingly "you are going to regret asking me out!"  I say I'm sorry a hundred times for really nothing at all.  I make things 10 times more difficult then they need to be.  He gives me no reason at all to doubt anything he says to me or does.  I've tried to just relax and realize that it's not an attractive quality at all to be apologizing for nothing all the time or putting myself down.  I actually believe the things he tells me so really I shouldn't be blaming myself for anything or putting myself down.  I'm not sure why I've always had trouble with this.  At first, I wanted to list all the things I consider "negative qualities" in myself so he has the opportunity to get out now!  lol.  I decided not to do that although a few of these have already come up...and he seems to have no issues with what I consider my flaws.


I guess I had more goals in mind then I thought.  That is why I love this blog.  Would I have sat down to write these goals if not for my blog?  Probably not!  I also reserve the right to update this list when necessary! 

I'm feeling pretty good about 2013 in lots of ways and really excited to improve my running in general.  I'm still doing speed work and hills and so far, it seems to be going well.

I wish everyone a very happy new year and I hope you all achieve the goals you set out to accomplish.

7 comments:

  1. Love your new goals and I think they're definitely reachable! And girlfriend, the 20 pounds in a year, absolutely, without a doubt attainable! YOU CAN DO THAT!

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  2. I think these are some amazing goals that you can totally accomplish!!

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  3. Great goals!! I like that we have similar goals so we can keep each other in check! :)

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  4. Great goals! Although I can't believe you wanted to make a negative qualities list! That's kind of funny but totally unnecessary! You are awesome!

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  5. If you were down 20 lbs once, you can def do it again! Good luck!!

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  6. Happy New Year! I know what you mean - I looked at pictures from just the summer of 2011 when I was 155 and could see the difference just 15 pounds makes in my body.

    We can do this!! Hugs!

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