Tag Archives: goals

20 January 2012

Get Lighter!

By Nicki

Get lighter!! This is the motto for 2012…lighter, lighter, lighter. We can all do it. And, it will apply to all different parts of our lives. See my goals for this new year.

Body/Fitness/Health


Lose 25 pounds.

My son is getting married in August so ultimately, I would love to have this goal achieved by the end of August but taking all 12 months is probably best. As I have written about many times, I have lost approximately 60 pounds to date. In October of 2010, I came within 8 pounds of my goal weight but I have put a little back on so if I lose 25 pounds, I will be at approximately the middle of “healthy” weight for my height and body/frame size.

Run at least one race a month February through December.


Truly, the possibility exists that I will run a race a month including January but I am not totally into the January race potential. I do believe, whether I include January or not, I will run 15 races in 2012. The tentative race list is coming any day now.

Home/Living Arrangements


New Living Room Furniture


I cannot tell you the last time I had new living room furniture. I will not be buying brand new this year. I will, though, get slip covers for the love seat and the oversized chair. It is possible I may add one new piece to the seating furniture. I may also add a new television but that is far off and may be an addition at the end of the year as I first need to get a few other things off the list.

Bedroom


Declutter all surfaces and the floor of my bedroom. Get rid of things that are not being used. See if it is possible to keep all the Clean Eating magazines in the bookcase as they are truly cookbooks. Try to giveaway the stamping magazines that are not wanted to keep.

Garage


Declutter the garage. Keep only those things that are usable now. Get rid of all baby clothing except those few outfits with sentimental meaning. Get rid of childhood toys. Sell toy box on Craig’s List.

Bedroom Closet


As part of the lovely farmhouse, my closet is one of the only ones in the house. I have clothing in there that belonged to my ex and need to get rid of those. I also have clothing in there that will never be worn again – hopefully – as it is too big for me. I want to clean it all out and giveaway what I can. If there is something that can be sold, I will do that also.

If you want to get lighter in 2012, please join me by posting how in the comments.

6 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts

19 January 2012

By the Numbers

By Nicki

I realize that my year in review talked about my running last year. Then, I finally got some stats from last year via email from Dailymile.com (thanks, guys!). I now can look at this second full year of running and racing from a numbers point of view. Having always been very good at math, I like numbers.

I had 334 workouts last year. This included race days. Now, I did have several days where I would have two or three workouts. I know that sounds crazy but prior to my February marathon, I was swimming three mornings a week and going to kickboxing three mornings a week. Those workouts did not deter me from running on two of those days each week, at least. That basically means if I had one workout a day, I only took off one month the entire year. Since I had my first running injury this past year, I know that I did take off more than one month of rest but those double and triple workout days helped.

Strangely enough, January and August were my biggest mileage months. Both were in the 160’s. Neither were as high as August of 2010 when I hit 194 miles. I am unsure why this year seemed to be less miles in those big months. January of 2011 was cold and snowing but was the last big month prior to my first marathon so I got those miles in. I did some of it inside but the majority of it was outside. August of 2011 included a 5K race and two half marathons ten days apart. All three races were personal records.

The other odd thing for me to look at is that I had three months that were under 100 miles. I do not know why I trailed off at the end of the year. Maybe I was finally tired. Maybe I was just realizing I needed to let the muscles recover. I don’t know but I am hoping to not see that again.

I ended 2011 with 1331 miles on my legs. I had started the year with the goal of running a race a month. While I did not run a race each month, I did run 13 race throughout the year with August being the biggest racing month with three races covering 29.3 miles. My secondary goal was to reach 1500 miles. It took three years of having 1000 miles as a goal to reach it so to come within 169 miles of the 1500 mile goal on the first try is good for me. Had those last three months hit 100 miles, it is possible I would have hit that goal.

Off to make my 2012 goals!

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9 January 2012

Resolutions

By Nicki

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? What is so special, other than the term new year would indicate a fresh slate, about January 1st?

I realize that having a new calendar makes my life seem like I am getting a fresh start. I also realize that tradition dictates that I make resolutions. Yet, as is the case in many areas where I just cannot bring myself to conform, I try to not do the resolution making.

I want to spend the end of December and the beginning of January looking over how the past year went. I want to evaluate and analyze where I could have done things better. I want to see if the goals I set for myself are ones that were achieved.

Here in lies the problem with the typical New Year’s resolutions. People make them. Some may even put them in writing – a definitively good move if you want to actually attempt to keep some of these. Most do not ever think about these resolutions again through the new year.

Do you currently belong to a gym or fitness center? If so, do you avoid it the first couple of weeks of the year so as to avoid the crowd? People go all gung ho and then realize that the resolution they have made is not sustainable.

Another problem is people make New Year’s resolutions that are vague. How many times have you made the resolution to lose weight? Well, drink nothing but water for a day and weigh yourself. Chances are you have lost weight. Resolution achieved. Unfortunately, this type of instant weight loss that will come back once you start eating normally again is most likely not what you meant by a resolution to lose weight. The resolution was not specific enough. Most people do not want to make a resolution like this very specific because then they can face defeat when they do not achieve the resolution.

So, as you put your new 2012 calendar on the wall – unfortunately, mine is already getting quite a mark up for January – think about your resolutions as goals. Make them specific. Make them achievable. Make them small and make many. Write your resolutions down. Break them into achievable chunks and do each part as a step on the way to achieving the bigger resolution.

Have a great 2012!

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25 September 2011

Goal Time

By Nicki

I know that goals not put in writing are just dreams.  Next Sunday’s marathon is not a dream but an actual race so my feelings are I need to put some goals down in writing.

 

By this time next Sunday, I will have started my second marathon.  I have never run Wineglass before but have been to the race twice.  While there are some slight changes to the course this year – and the relay is gone, having been replaced with a half marathon – I am familiar with where I am going to be running.  You can see my photos from the past two years and my thoughts: 2010, 2009, and thoughts on running.

 

The good news is that Wineglass is a local marathon. Many people will think this makes running it easier.  I am thinking it actually makes running it harder.  With my first marathon – a destination marathon of sorts, I got away from home. I had kids who came with me and helped. I didn’t have to worry about the day to day pieces of life as I was not at home.

 

Enter Wineglass. The expo is Friday afternoon/evening and all day Saturday with the race on Sunday. The start is approximately two hours from my home with the busing location about an hour and 15 minutes from home. Friday I have a 6:30 pm dinner meeting so my initial plans of a Friday packet pick up have been pretty much ruled out. Saturday, my son has his SATs in the morning. My other son is home from college for a break and needs to be taken back to Oneonta for a Sunday morning work shift. There is no escaping life with the marathon close to home.

 

Now, on to the goals.  My training has been going well. In August, I ran two half marathons as part of my training plan. These were ten days apart and very different in terrain and topography.  I cut two minutes off my best time with each run. Then, September happened. We had hurricanes and tropical storms influencing our weather. The week of my last 20 miler roads were closed all around me. It was near impossible to get 20 miles in between the missing pieces of highway and the weather.  While I am not as prepared as I wish, I am ready.

 

My A goal is to finish in 5 hours and 30 minutes or less. I can do this but it will be a stretch.

 

My B goal – and probably not a stretch but very realistic – is to finish the marathon in under 6 hours.

 

My C goal – as it is for any race I start – is to finish.

 

I have a plan.  I just have to remember to run to my plan and not get caught up in the race.

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Fitness, Just my Thoughts

31 December 2010

2010 in Review

By Nicki

I did my last review of my big goal for 2010 in July.  This review took place at about the half way point of the year and had already seen one revision in my goal for the year.  My big annual goal had started out being that I was going run a race in every month but January and February.  I immediately ran a February 5K and altered the goal to be run 12 races in 2010.

 

People may say, so what?  Well, to be totally honest, I never ran a race until December of 2009.  To run 12 of them in the 12 months following that first race was a daunting task.  On top of that, I did not choose just 5Ks.  I will have run 15 races since my first race in December of 2009 when tomorrow’s Resolution Run is over.  Of those races, three were half marathons.  Two were ten milers.  Five were 5Ks.  There were also two 10Ks, a 20K, a 15K , and an 8K.  So, for those of you like me – who like numbers, that is a total of just under 95 miles in race routes for the year.

 

On top of those races, I put in almost 1500 miles in running this year.  It is looking like I am going end the year just shy of 1450 miles.  This is an amazing feat to me.  For the two previous years, I had set a goal of 1000 miles for the year and had failed to meet my commitment.  I had given up at some point and not continued on.  This year I didn’t set the goal for x number of miles but for so many races and the training around those races helped put me over the 1000 mile mark the beginning of October.  Since then I have added over 330 plus miles to that total.

 

As I said back in July:

The benefits of this training are that my body is looking pretty good.  I am not a skin and bones person by any means but I have dropped four pants sizes since I started running in September of 2007.  I have dropped bra sizes from a 42D to a 38C.  I have more muscle in my body composition than I have had in the past.  Singing – actually anything that involves breathing – comes easier, even with allergies and asthma.  My abdomen is actually developing some definition – nope, no 6-pack abs but some definition.

So, I am officially declaring 2010 a success!!

 

Did you set goals in January of 2010?  Did you review them throughout the year?  Did you meet the goals you set?  Are you setting goals for 2011?  What are these goals and how do you plan to hold yourself accountable?

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Fitness, Just my Thoughts

30 December 2010

Goals or Aspirations or Resolutions

By Nicki

In a quick glance, the three words – goals, aspirations, resolutions – may all look and mean the same to you and to me.  This is not the case at all.  If you are sitting around trying to figure out what your resolutions for the New Year are going to be, you are probably setting yourself up to fail.

From Dictionary.com, I take the following definitions:

goal: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed;aim; end.

resolution:  a resolve or determination

aspiration: a goal or objective desired

So, now that you can look at those three definitions side by side by side, which two are best for what you set for yourself and your life to start a new year?  Hopefully, you actually follow some advice I gave last year in a post called “Goals and How to Reach Them.”

 

Do be sure that you set something to reach for as you look to make 2011 a fantastic year.

 

Do you set New Year’s resolutions?  Do you set New Year’s goals?  Do you check back in on these directives throughout the year or is it just lip service to a tradition?

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts

19 September 2010

Goal Adjustment

By Nicki

When you set a long-term goal, how do you tell if you are making progress?  Do you break it down into small steps and check those off as you go?  I am talking about my running goalS for the year.

My first goal, which was set near the end of January, was to run a race every month this year.  To date, I have run 11 races this year: 3 half marathons, a 20K, a 15K, two 10 milers, and four 5Ks.  I am not a fan of the 5K as it literally takes me a mile or two to get going and hit my stride.  Five kilometres is just not long enough, though I run them for any number of reasons anyway.

Then, back in July, I decided I was going to run a marathon this year.  I started training for one just twelve weeks out and was pretty sure I could do the training.  The only big problem with the training has been the 20 mile run.  I have yet to finish one without a problem of some sort.  Do I know why there is a problem?  I have guessed at what has been the issue in both my failed attempts.  I have narrowed things down and rethought the very long run obstacle.  I do believe, in my mind, that I can run this distance and the distance of a marathon – 26.2 miles.  I do not believe that I should do it this year.

You see, I had never run a race until December of 2009.  I ran my first 5K then.  While I can do the distance, I do not think I am mentally ready to run a marathon.  I think part of my mental block is that I had my heart set on running a marathon that was local – Wineglass.  Evidently a lot of people have decided Wineglass is a great marathon to run.  The registrations closed this year in August.  The number of runners has doubled.  I did not get my registration done in time.  I kept training and started looking for a new marathon to run.

I settled – a word I do not like to use at all – on Hartford the weekend following Wineglass.  I have a lot of friends running Wineglass and wanted to be there to watch and cheer them on whether I could run it or not.  But now, I am truly thinking I don’t want to run Hartford.  I want to wait.  I want to go back to my original thoughts of running Wineglass and my first marathon next October – 2011 – a month after I turn 50.

Do you adjust your goals as time goes on?  When you adjust your goals, do you feel like you are failing or just resetting what you want to achieve?

14 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Fitness, Just my Thoughts

8 July 2010

Mid-Year Review

By Nicki

Yes, the midpoint of the year has come and gone and I didn’t review my goals, my aspirations.  To be totally honest, the only public aspiration I have is to run a race every month this year.  The original goal – announced in a guest post at Motherese –  was to do so for every month but January and February.  Then, I ran a 5K in February.  I modified my aspiration to run 12 races this year.

Okay, so you are thinking, what’s the big deal?  Not to blow my own horn, but all good musicians do so…  It is a big deal.  My body is getting little rest from constant training.  You may ask what training.  These are just races.  To date the six races this year – in chronological order – have been a 5K, two half marathons (that is 13.1 miles each – and don’t think that .1 isn’t important!), a ten miler that was all hills (and included seeing people getting IVs put in on the side of the road), a 20K (that is 12.43 miles) and another 5K.

So at the midpoint of the year, I have run six races.  The six races have totaled 54.83 miles of race routes in the last six months.  More importantly, I have run, including the races, 643 miles in the first six months of the year.  I may break 1000 miles this year – a goal I have often set for myself and never achieved.

The benefits of this training are that my body is looking pretty good.  I am not a skin and bones person by any means but I have dropped four pants sizes since I started running in September of 2007.  I have dropped bra sizes from a 42D to a 38C.  I have more muscle in my body composition than I have had in the past.  Singing – actually anything that involves breathing – comes easier, even with allergies and asthma.  My abdomen is actually developing some definition – nope, no 6-pack abs but some definition.

If you are interested in following my training, I post it all at dailymile.com (my profile).  I also cross post those workouts to Twitter (find me here) and Facebook.

And, just so you all know, I have a page on my blog that lists the races I am running once I pick one.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Fitness, Just my Thoughts

25 March 2010

A Quarter Ending

By Nicki

No, I have not taken up reporting my taxes on a quarterly basis.  I am, though, thinking it is time to review any of those goals, or if you use the term, or resolutions that were made back in January.  Without accountability, goals and resolutions and aspirations are just words – but hopefully ones that you wrote down somewhere.

Goals and dreams are hard work to attain.  I know as I have reached a few and watched several friends chase and reach theirs.  It is not, as I said back in January, just a matter of setting something to chase after.  There are small steps to reach the big goal.  There are training runs to do before the big race.  There are resumes to write before getting the dream job.  There are interviews to attend.

I set a goal, in a post at Motherese in January, to run a race every month but January and February.  To that end, as the race in March was a half marathon, I started training.  I ran just under 100 miles in January (99.3 miles – if I had been paying closer attention I could have broken 100), 117.2 miles in February – including a race I had not anticipated, and 84.6 miles so far this March.  Yes, I have two races under my belt and a third coming up on April 11.  I am working my goal and finding additional races throughout the year to fill in my race calendar.

Now, as I did in January, I wasn’t paying attention.  I could have gone over the 100 mile mark for the month – which I would like to do but it is not necessary – had I worked it harder.  But that is not what has brought me to looking at where I am so far at the quarter into the new year mark.  There has to be a better wording for that but it is 6:43 and I have to be out of the house in 45 minutes for a conference.  As I have said before, I get these emails and I got one that made me think of reviewing my annual goals and aspirations to see how I was doing.

The things that are hard to bear, are sweet to remember.

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca


So I leave you with a question and it is a doosy.  How are you doing on whatever resolutions or goals you set for the year 2010?

17 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Fitness, Just my Thoughts

26 January 2010

One Month Into That New Year

By Nicki

I was checking out a list of blogs I follow over the weekend and happened upon an update of The Wild Mind’s New Year’s Resolutions.  Her measuring and weighing got me to thinking.  I do not bring out the measuring tape ever!  I do weigh myself about once a month and it was time.

Back in October of 2007, shortly after starting to run, I wrote about measuring progress.  Looking back, I have come a long way since then.

I can no longer wear three of my bracelets that I always have on when I run.  They fall off.  As a matter of fact, I found one on the kitchen floor Sunday.  It had fallen off while I was doing dishes.  I have shirts that I have only owned a year that do not fit properly any longer.  These are the ways I measure day to day progress.

My miles are increasing while my times are decreasing – as a general rule.  Another way to  measure what progress I make.

Then, I did the one thing I have always hated.  I stepped on the scales.  I have always, even at my skinniest in college, had a love-hate relationship with scales.  This relationship continues to this very day.  Yet, once a month, whether I need the re-enforcement or not, I get on them.

Well, this past weekend was the month and on the scales I hopped.  When I started getting fit, the goal was not inches or pounds, it was to be fit.  I feel fit now and am probably in the best shape since I was in college.  Unfortunately, I have always, in the back of my mind, wanted to get back to what I weighed before I had my first child.  This is not an uncommon weight for a woman of my height and build.  It would not make me skinny.  It is just a number.  At one point in my past, I weighed almost 80 pounds more than that number.  Now, I am less than 25 pounds away from it.

I am not going to starve myself.  I am not going to obsess over my running.  I am going to continue to live and run and eat and lose hopefully.

Did you make resolutions?  How do you measure success in your resolutions?

11 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Fitness, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

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