So, last year, I drove myself positively bananas trying to ACCOMPLISH ALL THE THINGS and pretty much after May, if it wasn’t work or training related, I shied away from anything productive or goal-tracking-oriented.  I’m not proud of it, but it’s what I needed.

After some hibernation – I mean literally, I did not leave the house, except for on foot, for 4 days at one point, it was glorious – I’m ready to embark again with some accountability and goal setting.  However, I want to make sure I do this in a manner that is productive and not exhausting.  Also, I intend to list WHY each thing is important to me so when I want to procrastinate, I know what each thing means to me.

No racing goals this month.  If I do jump into a race at the last minute, which I’m considering on two accounts, because supported long runs are nice, it will be assessing progress for the marathon.

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Training goals:

1. At least 4 runs longer than a half marathon.  I’ve built up a nice base over December, but my longest run was just over 12 miles so it’s time to go long and strong.  This is important for being ready for my marathon Feb 28th for obvious reasons.  I’ll have a stepback here at some point but I want to keep the long run at least 14-15 miles minimum.

2. Run at least a mile a day as per the run streak.  Maintain decent (40+ miles) the weeks of 1/5, 1/12, and 1/26, with a stepback week on 1/19 (30-ish miles).  Reintroduce the garmin gently on speed days and maybe long runs.  I think streaking will help me maintain a higher mileage base without breaking down, and will be an invaluable asset during triathlon season to help me maintain a decent amount of run miles without dedicating a lot of time to it.  One mile per day is 7 per week, which was half my run miles on some tri training weeks.

3. At least one swim per week.  I feel so much less broken by lots of running if I can also get in the water, even if it’s for only 10 mins.  I love long swims, but I’m finding a lot of merit in the 15-20 minute 750-1100m swim during times where I’m not focused specifically on triathlon training.  Also, I can fit those in on a lunch break or right after another session at the gym easily.

4. Stretching/strength.  Fit this in.  If not actual sessions at the gym, pick a night and do the dozen split up between a few episodes.  Get up 10 mins earlier and do yoga if nothing else.  Twice per week.  Even though I feel ok now, I am going to break down eventually if I do not prioritize this and since I can do it in my living room I have no fucking excuse besides the fact that I want to be injured.

5. Cycling as I can, but not at the cost of anything above. For example, Monday, I hopped off the bike early to eat dinner, stretch, and do the dozen.  I believe this was time well spent for me.

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Food/Eating/Scale:

1. The return of tracking.  I plan on tracking my food intake this month to get a baseline.  Tracking the weight at least a few times a week.  No judgies on either account.  I am where I am, and I’m finally back to the point where this doesn’t seem like torture, so whatever slacking it took to get me here is fine.  I also don’t plan on trying to stick to x calories (yet), if I’m hungry, I’ll eat more healthy food.  However, it’s time to get a status report this month.

2. No booze January.  I can’t think of a time since I’ve been 17 21 that I haven’t had some drinks at least once every week or two.  It seems like a skill a responsible adult should have in her arsenal.  Zliten is on board.  Instead of drinks, we’re going to do something else fun and eat something that may not be strictly on the plan.  First up – Saturday night gaming session, taco feast for dinner, and homemade key lime ice cream for dessert.

3. Besides that 1-2 times a week, stick to meat, veggies, fruit, nuts, cheese, olives, butter coffee, with a sprinkling of corn and potatoes and beans (1-2 times per day). Aka – normal (since August) eating.

Work:

1. Things are still up in the air, so let’s just go with “roll with the punches and not punch things”.  Keeping my sanity is most important of all.  We make video games, not launch rockets or perform open heart surgery.  Sometimes that’s hard to keep in perspective but it’s important.

2. Get some levels!  It’s embarrassing too me to not be current on what I’m working on.  No excuses.

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Life stuff:

1. Focus on establishing good habits with my purging efforts.  This month I want to focus my attention on:

a. the kitchen.  I’d love to have less things on the counters and everything fit in a cupboard.

b. my car.  That shit is embarrassing, I look like I live in it.

c. my closet/drawers. I have more clothes than hangers and that violates my rule of not doing that.  I need to donate some things, cycle some things into storage, and consider the use of my empty guest room closet for special occasion items (that I validly use, but not often) that are cluttering up my main closet.

2. Play a game or read at least once a week for a few hours at home per week.  Establish a habit of not always retreating just to the internet and episodes.  Finish the book you’re reading.  Make progress in the games I’ve started over break.  It may seem stupid to have to set this as a goal, but I have a bad bad bad habit of zoning out and refreshing my social media feeds and then not feeling relaxed or escaped from reality because I’ve been firmly ensconced in it.  As I put it to Zliten often when I catch myself mindlessly surfing social media in bed when I should be preparing to sleep – “putting my phone down – the little people on my screen are not that interesting”.

3. Spend as little money as possible.  We had a really expensive home repair on Jan 2, so the goal is to relax at home as much as we can.

This is my first go at it in a while, so this may be overwhelming, but I’ll give it a try!  January is usually a great month to establish habits for me, though not a huge “progress” one, so it’s mostly about setting myself on the right track and maybe getting my wheels turning a little.  We’ll save the whistle and the full steam ahead for February, ok?

Question of the week: What’s on tap for you for this first month of 2015?