2011 Goal Progress

Here’s what I wanted to do last year, and how I did at actually *doing* it.

Resolution 1.  First and foremost, I need to get a handle on my free time.  I spend most of my weeknights just dorking on social media because it’s easy, I haven’t had a chance to look at it all day – and then all of a sudden it’s bedtime and I’ve done nothing.  I’d like to start with a goal to not have my nose in my lappy all the time.  I’d like to make one weeknight per week a reading night (no laptop after dinner), and 1 day per week gaming (again, no laptop after dinner).  I need to accept that I don’t need to read EVERY tweet or facebook update if I don’t have time.  I love keeping in touch with people, but if they care that much, they can @ me or tag me.

I’ve done *better* here, but there is definitely room for improvement.  I’ve read more this year than I have since I was in college.  I’ve taken some nights where I close my laptop, turn off the tv, and do something else.  But I also accepted this year that sometimes there is not enough time (when I have less than 2 hours from get home time to bed time) or I don’t have the mental capacity after a tough day at work and tough workout to do anything else than just veg.  I am a little more tied to Facebook and Twitter than I’d like, but it’s less of a compulsion than just an intentional timewaster.

Resolutin2.  Race goals –

-I’d like a new half marathon PR (goal – 2:05).  I’d love a sub 2 hour, but improvement is all I care about…
Wasn’t in the cards this year.  I ran 2 halfs, neither were PR-worthy but just for training.

-I’d also like to feel that I could run 10 miles at any time (do at least 1 double digit run per month)…
The first part of this year? Nope.  August on?  Yep.  Each time I grow my distance from 10k to double digits it gets a lot easier, so it’s probably not necessary to feel like I can just bust out 10.

-Do another sprint and olympic triathlon, PR at least 1….
Only did sprints, which was an intentional choice.  Major PRs, getting better each race (I took 11 minutes off last year’s PR, and the bike distance was 3 miles longer, so effectively like a 25 minute decrease in time).  I decided to focus on my short game and it paid off!

-I’d like to attack my 5k, 5 mile, and/or 10k PR…
Wasn’t in the cards this year.  I suck at running 5ks lately, while I ran a great 5 miler it wasn’t a PR, and didn’t run a 10k.

-Do a trail half marathon/duathalon in one weekend…
This was a non-starter.  I realized I needed a mountain bike, which wasn’t on the docket.  Maybe someday, and this race is still on my bucket list, but for now, I’m enjoying road biking.

-Do each workout in the new tri training book at least once…
Once I started to work about the short game, I didn’t always have an hour to dedicate on each sport per workout.  I’ll pick this up again next year.  I did all the pre-season ones though!

-Do a destination race outside Texas (any distance)…
I tried really hard with this one, but vacation schedules got all mucked up and I never made it anywhere beyond Texas.  However, I raced in Conroe, Flatonia, Rocky Hill Ranch, Kerrville, Azle, Cedar Creek, and Spicewood.  Nothing more than 4 hours away, but 5 of them are new places I never would have visited without my racing habit.

-Adapt these as I see fit next year… the goal is mainly to get better at the distances I’ve do…
So far so good, looking to expand next year though!

Resolution 3.  Weight Loss/Maintenance goals – get down to and maintain 150 by summer. Once i get down to 15o, never go above 155… that will allow me to fit in all my clothes, still have flexibility to gain a little during race training that I can easily lose after, and once I get there, feel super fit, awesome, and hot while not being a weight I have to only eat celery to maintain.

Nope!  However, I’m getting help and working on my nutrition.  I’ve not taken any weight off, but I have been feeling a lot more capable and my body feeling like I can tackle more, so that’s good.  We’ve started counting calories again but also using the ratios, and I have a feeling this is the silver bullet (though it’s HARD, it’s at least something concrete to do).  While I can’t really say WHEN I’ll solve the problem, I won’t give up trying.

Resolution 3b.  Continue with strength training, yoga, and things that don’t immediately contribute to torching tons of calories or race training but definitely helps build definition, makes me look thinner, and most importantly, helps me improve my race times.

Ehhhh…. when I haven’t been injured, I have at least ONCE a week done weights (crunchtime class).  I have endeavoured to do at least one more session but I’d say it’s at about a… 25% success rate.  Yoga, I did horrible at.  Once I injured my back I stopped going to class (except for the once I went back and REINJURED myself).  This fall I’ve done a little better about taking some time to stretch, but still, I should be stretching each and every workout and I’m just not.

Resolution 4.  Continue with my job in the same position at the same company continuing to improve, grow, and become a better producer capable of handling more things with more ease.  I have much more specific goals here but that’s about all I’ll say publicly.

Yes indeedy.  It’s been a hell of a year volume-wise, I may be sprouting more grey hairs than I did last year at this time, but I believe I’ve definitely grown and made progress as a manager, and my game has definitely been successful because of it.

Resolution 5.  More one liners:

-Smoke less.  Continue to allow smokes only with alcohol, and I’d like to get to the point where I can take it or leave it.
A little, yes.  Not sure if there has been much progress with the number.  My one triumph this year: I can have a few drinks in a social situation where it is not convenient/appropriate to smoke, and not really want one.  Wine especially.

-Less hangovers.  I hate getting one of my weekend days eaten being laid out on the couch.  I just need to quit just BEFORE that switch flips where it’s on like donkey kong and all of a sudden it’s 10am and I feel like death warmed over.
I’ve gotten better at this later in the year.  I’ve been better at not going too crazy this fall, and found that just a touch of caffiene before bed or right when I get up cures most ills.

-Pay off the car (January), pay off Zliten’s college loan (August), and continue to meet our savings goal of 1k per month.
Car paid off.  Loan almost paid off (more due to forgetting to pay rather than not having the money – this should be taken care of early next year).  Savings goal highly exceeded.

-Visit one new city I’ve never seen before.  Denver? NYC? Seattle? Portland?
Technically, yes.  Not counting all the new places we visited racing, we saw Roatan (Honduras), Belize City, Houston, Port Aransas (Texas), and Montego Bay (Jamaica).  However, I think what I was going for is a non-Texas in the US city.  This I didn’t do, but I can’t really complain with the other trips we took.

-Begin one new major house renovation.  Failing that, start planning and budgeting for it and establish a timeline (windows, bathrooms, counters, etc).
We got estimates for the windows.  We decided to get more and find a place that doesn’t just do replacement windows, because it would make us lose 3 inches on each side of the beautiful windows we fell in love with in the kitchen.  Non-replacement windows are expensive.  So we need to do a little more planning.  Hoping to undertake this next year.

-Find something that makes me happy that is not goal oriented.  Some people knit.  Not to be the best knitter and to make x scarves per week and improve by March to be onto stripes instead of solids, but simply because they enjoy the act of it.  Same with Zliten and reading.  I’d like to find mine.
I don’t know that I made any progress here.  I didn’t really concentrate on this, I just really tried to shut off the competition and the drive when I’m not either a) working or b) training.  Maybe that’s a good thing?

-Continue to do things that frighten/excite/challenge me (like trapeze lessons or flight lessons) and continue to pick out of the hat – the whole life goal of one truly memorable thing per month.
January: Ran in Austin in a Gorilla Suit
February: Visited Roatan, Belize City, and Cozumel
March: Did Warrior Dash, saw the biggest aquariam ever, and saw NASA
April: Rookie Tri (Zliten’s first tri!)
May: Our first splash and dash, Yelp Goes Gaga party (aka, an excuse to leave the house in fancy sunglasses, a feather boa, and a tiara)
June: Did a haunted tour of Austin in a Hearse Limo, Pflugerville Tri
July: Saw Judah Frielander at Cap City Comedy Club, took back the summer and started training outside
August: Yelp Finn and Porter Fancy Party
September: Port Aransas Trip, Six Flags minus all the lines with M and her awesome company
October: Kerriville Tri PR, 1st place AG at Dash for Dads 5k
November: Second place AG at Azle Lake Half Marathon
December: Jamaica (and probably much more by the end of the vacation)

…some are bigger than others, but definitely something awesome each month.

I had big goals this year, and I hit quite a few of them, missed a few, and abandoned some.  Although I have not made the progress I want in some important areas (weight, some PRs, some personal growth, some projects), I definitely have had a year to be proud of.

NOTE: Pictures are not from an episode of Hoarders, but from our very own “office”.  Since we have laptops and have never really needed an office (the living room is our office), it became the storage room for junk we didn’t know where to put or didn’t have a place for.  One spoiler goal for 2012 is to make it into an actual, usable space and we got a jump on it yesterday.  Here is the after:

Closet organization instead of piles of boxes spewing forth…

There’s carpet in there now, and a usable desk!  There’s still a long way to go until it’s actually set up the way we like and everything is put away completely and set up properly, but we’re much closer after a solid afternoon and evening of work!

Goals for 2012 coming up sometime before, well, 2012.  How was your 2011?