Goals for my 43rd Year

 

After running the Chocoholic Frolic with my oldest on my birthday

This is going to be my healthiest year yet. In the past I've struggled with my eating choices, and although I'm a healthy weight, my blood glucose and cholesterol numbers haven't been great. Eating too many sweets is the main culprit along with too much refined grain, so this year I'm setting some serious goals to bring my cholesterol and glucose back into the normal range.

Here are my goals for the year:

1.  Eat/drink one sweet a week or fewer.

Eating or drinking one sweet a week will be a big change for me. I've set this goal in the past, but haven't stuck with it as my sweet tooth won out. This year I'm going to be more dedicated and choose a sweet I really like rather than to just satisfy a sweet craving.

2. Drink one alcoholic beverage per week or fewer.

This one won't be too hard, but in the past I've had more than one drink in a sitting, even though I don't drink more than a few times a month.

3. Run a marathon.

I'm already signed up to run the Twin Cities Marathon for Team World Vision. I'm hoping training goes well and I can run a little faster than this year's race.

4. Break 20 minutes in the 5K.

This will be an over 75 second improvement from this year, but I think it's doable.

5. Run over 1,111 miles.

I ran 1,109 this year, so next year I'm going to bump it up by 2 miles, or 0.04 miles per week.

6. Hit race weight by May and stay there.

7. Write 14 blog posts.

8. Average one hour of strength and mobility per week.

I'm feeling optimistic about my goals as I'm pretty motivated to improve my health. I want to make my 43rd year my healthiest yet.

My 42nd year

Eagan parkrun

Last fall I set some goals for my 42nd year of life. I very much enjoyed my 42nd birthday as I once again ran the Chocoholic Frolic with my son. I decided to stretch my goals to Nov. 9 rather than my actual birthday, Nov. 5, since I didn't race a 5K for the whole year. Instead, I've been running the parkrun races with my son, so today he sat out so I could race. 

Here are the results of my goals:

1. Run a marathon.

I ran two marathons, but I'm not going to give myself 200%. I enjoyed running the Madison Marathon and really enjoyed running the Twin Cities Marathon.

100%

2. Do strength and mobility work at least 45 minutes a week.

I averaged 49 minutes. 

109%

3. Break 19:15 in the 5K

I didn't put in the training I needed to in order to run this fast. I was happy with 21:18, which was even a little faster than I thought I could run.

91%

4. Run 1,000 miles for the year.

I stayed fairly consistent and didn't manage to up my miles much for marathon training, but I still ended up running 1,109.

111%

5. Hit race weight by May and maintain for the year.

Didn't do so hot on this one. 

10%

6. Write 12 blog posts.

I only managed 10.

83%

Total for the year: 84%

The weight goal really brought me down. Next year I have some ideas on how to improve in that area.

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll set my goals for my 43rd year.