I feel stuck in some sort of limbo. As I addressed in my last post, although not everything went exactly as I might have liked in 2017 I did technically achieve my main target of PB setting across the board. Now, as the time approaches to set goals and targets and all that other stuff regarding resolutions or not, I find myself somewhat at a loss.

Most of this malaise is simply that I don’t know what to expect. Baby number two will inevitably throw some fun into the mix and makes the idea of goal-setting pretty much redundant because it could ultimately result in untold levels of failure.

So, my goals are limited but achievable (with some effort on my part, I guess.)

Running Goals

SOAR Summer Mile

If I only manage one race in 2018 I hope that it’s this one. I had a blast racing around the Battersea track for four laps (plus 9m) in July this year. Whether I can emulate my winning performance is questionable, but I might hope to get a 5:20 mile and not appear quite so early in the evening’s racing schedule. I also found the shorter sessions required for mile training hugely enjoyable and they are likely to be more conducive to an appropriate work/life balance.

Summer track league

I enjoyed my time on the track this summer but Lyndsey’s work and our holidays meant that I could only get to one race. I hope to be able to do a few more races this coming season, but this will only be achievable if some of the destinations change; the league area is ridiculously huge (the entire South West) and I really don’t think I’m prepared to sacrifice that much travelling time to be an also-ran.

Revisit 10km Goals

Of all the goals I set myself for 2017 I am most upset about missing the 40-minute mark in a 10km race. My hope is that if I do get some track work done over the summer then I can have another attack on the Putney or Jigsaw events at the end of the year. Over the last two years, I have been less than a minute from this somewhat arbitrary time. I also think this is the longest distance I can really hope to train for with any consistency.

Other Goals

Frequent yoga

I am going to set myself the target of completing 15 minutes of yoga five days a week. In an ideal world at least one of these days would actually be a thirty-minute routine, but I’ll not become beholden to that idea just yet.

Weight

I feel like I’ve really faltered here recently, or maybe that’s just a result of my rather gluttonous approach to the Christmas break. I am cautious of setting an arbitrary figure on it as body composition changes could, of course, mean I get heavier but trimmer. What I do know is that in the summer I ducked under 70kg for the first time in a very long time and was running quick and consistent times. I felt fantastic, but I let it slip. So one of my goals is simply to feel that good in myself again.

Inspire

Since Delilah turned four this year she can now register for parkrun and we can start going to junior parkrun events. When I signed her up this week I was amazed to see that her barcode ID is in the 4,100,000 range; it is an incredible sign of how truly remarkable the parkrun movement is. The joy I see on Delilah’s face each week at Mini Athletics* is a wonder to behold and I think she’ll really enjoy parkrun if we get her down there.

Cook / bake

We have a lovely house in a wonderful location. Aside from a downstairs bathroom, which is more annoying in the night than anything else, the worst part of the house is the fact the kitchen is so small and everything is electric. I grew up absolutely loving cooking and baking, but in the last few years, I have come to really hate cooking on an electric hob and the lack of control that it provides. As a result, I never seem to do much cooking other than fairly simplistic stuff.  In 2018 I want to experiment a bit more and see what I can achieve in the horrifically tiny space on such an awful cooking method.

* If you want to try out Mini Athletics with your own small person at a class in Guildford, Woking, or Godalming then please mention that I sent you there.

Are you planning on setting any resolutions?  Or do you prefer the ‘see what happens and embrace it’ approach?  Anything big planned for 2018? Any tips for effective cooking on an electric hob?