In the past, I've made huuuuuge sweeping lists of health and fitness goals at the beginning of the year, which have invariably crashed and burned, despite me not even falling into the sneaky trap of calling them resolutions!! ;) So, this year, I'm taking a little pressure off myself, whilst also giving myself challenges to keep me focussed over the year, to get fitter, get focussed, and build on what was a truly great year last year.
The weight thing, though, has to change. I'm tired of yo-yoing up and down over the years, losing a couple of stones, gaining a couple, losing one, gaining two, losing five, gaining 2, and suchlike... It needs to be sorted for good. And so to that end, this year I'm putting all my eggs in that one basket: weightloss. And permanent weightloss, at that. So this isn't going to just be about eating better and doing more exercise - hell, you saw how much I did last year, and I gained a couple of stone! No, it's going to take a three-pronged attack this time: Food. Fitness. Mindfulness. It's time to fix my brain.
It's difficult to go into my plans in that last area too much at this point, so let's move on to my fitness plans. As I said before, I don't want to bury myself in huge goals that overwhelm me, so with that in mind, all of the following are purely there to help me lose some weight, and help me build self-belief and confidence, while definitely challenging me, to keep me on track and motivated!! If they don't happen, they don't happen - there's no pressure here, but I've still picked things that are aimed at helping my one main goal above.
Firstly, I owe it to myself to go back and do the EMF Half Marathon and the Southside Six 16 mile races again. Properly. I also want to work on my speed, and try to get my 5km time down to 30 minutes - consistently running the full distance without walking. To keep me motivated, and working on the shorter distances, I hope to get a bit of parkrun tourism done, and am aiming for running at 10 different parkrun courses in 2014. But I'm also signing up for a couple of 10km races too, to stretch myself and hopefully get a PB. Finally, I'll be keeping up the social running aspect that was such a massive part of 2013 for me, and this may be the year I finally pluck up the nerve to join a JogScotland running group, we'll see!!
Away from running, I've signed up to the Sport Relief Swimathon, with the aim of swimming 1500m towards the end of March. This is a HUGE challenge for me, but one I think will be good for me to train for and achieve. Additionally, I've made promises to myself to go back to indoor climbing, and beat some of those inner demons that stopped me going last year. And finally, having left the Virgin Active gym, and my personal trainer of 3 years, I'm going to push myself to remain focussed on my weight-training, keep up the work with the kettlebells, and regain the core strength I lost a bit last year.
I'm excited about 2014, I have to admit. There's a big challenge ahead, and I want to lose around 25kgs this year and keep it off, but with some focus, dedication, accountability, and surrounding myself with a whole load of supportive dafties, I'm finally starting to believe I can crack this for good. x x
P.S. 2014 Plans also include a fair bit of ultra marathon crewing, supporting, and volunteering, but I'll be covering that in the blog over the year. :)
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