I was so busy on New Year’s Day I forgot to write about my fitness resolutions.
I’m tempted to just do as Reluctant Runner did and write that my resolution is to finish the NYC Marathon. That is the One True Goal, still! But obviously it’s just not as simple as showing up at the starting line.
After considering my weaknesses and other goals, here’s what I think I should do in order to get myself to that starting line uninjured and finish strong:
Run a few spring halfs to get comfortable with following a training plan and gain confidence in the distance as a building block for those long runs. Those will be RnR NOLA, the NYC Half (yeah, I was that “friend”… heh) and probably the Brooklyn Half as well. As far as a schedule, I dialed up a free Runner’s World Smart Coach plan that is working really well for me so far (more on this in another post), so there’s hope for me yet.
Find a complementary strength and flexibility plan that I will STICK TO. That last part is the most important; I am always trying to do this but normally the trying ends at a few classes or circuits or something.
Get back to my fighting weight. Hard truth folks: I’m up 15 pounds from my lowest weight ever. Granted, that weight was “achieved” after a bout with the flu so it was probably not meant to be, but the rest of it can be attributed to poor eating and not following the guidelines I made for myself that helped me lose so much weight and that I know I can live with. I’ll start by going back to how I started eating better, with writing down my food (I HATE how well this works!)
Try new forms of cross-training to keep it interesting. One great dividend of being healthy has been the potential to try things I automatically would have written off when I was less fit. It’s good to remind myself that I’ve got the power! A few examples I was thinking of: Bikram yoga, fencing (thank you Groupon), pool running, those scary abs classes. (Note: if you can actually find me a class called “Scary Abs,” I will take that for you.)
So who’s still excited about all the new year will bring? I have a 2-mile run on the schedule and it’s sunny outside!
