2011 is nearly done, and it’s been one heck of a year. The highlights include:
- forty-three posts (this one makes forty-four!)
- twenty-eight pounds lighter
- four half-iron distance triathlons
- three months meat-free (and mostly dairy-free)
- two 24 hour running relays
- one beer mile
- one (nearly sub-four hour) marathon
- one major injury
Speaking of the injury, I’m slowly recovering. The PT’s diagnosis was basically ‘tight hamstrings’, so now I leave my desk at work every couple hours to stretch in the stairwell. As of today I can run four miles pain free… well, mostly. I can still feel a tightness on the outside of the knee, but it’s definitely getting better.
I’ve always sworn off making new year’s resolutions, for silly reasons that never made much sense. I think I just felt that, lacking any self discipline, I would only be setting myself up for failure, and that I was prone to making unreasonable, unreachable goals. I was a pretty negative guy before I started self-medicating with ridiculous amounts of exercise .
I feel that these days I have a better handle on where I am, where I want to be, and how I’m going to get there, so let’s give it a shot:
- complete a full Ironman.
- Coeur d’Alene, June 24, 2012. The other resolutions all feed into this. To finish is the main thing, but secondary goals are to finish injury free, and under 12 hours.
- lose another 20 pounds.
- training for Ironman will take care of that. If the resulting muscle growth counteracts the weight loss, that’s fine. I probably ought to just say “get lean”, but I think another 20 pounds is pretty likely, and it’s a solid, quantifiable goal to work towards.
- abs.
- I think I’d look pretty good with a six-pack. Again, training will take care of this. Well, mostly. I’ll also have to stop drinking beer, which will be sad.
- continue to be meatless, try to eliminate dairy altogether.
- I’m strictly vegetarian at this point, but I still break on the dairy sometimes for certain things, like cookies. Especially cookies. Good golly but I do love me some cookies. Abs or cookies… this is my struggle.
Heading into the new year my plan is to continue recovery of my knee, plus weight training: hypertrophy to start, then strength. Around March I’ll start training for the Ironman in earnest, and the weights training will flip to a maintenance routine.
Happy New Year to you and yours. If you’re thinking of trying out a triathlon in 2012, stop it. That is, stop thinking about it, and sign up already. All you have to lose is fear, fat, and fatigue.
Go for it!