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August 2014 Goals

Hello friends and Happy Monday! I was up early in order to spend some quality time at the office catching up on emails before French lessons and a busy day of work. Waking up at 5:30 isn’t early but it’s nearly impossible when insomnia or jet lag wakes me up at 1:30am after 3 quality hours of sleep. I hope that fun is over because home girl needs a good nights rest tonight.

I find it hard to believe that August is here! This evening I spent some time reviewing my July goals and well, let’s just say, I didn’t exactly achieve them.

July Goals

I completed the Geneva Triathlon, I got my Swiss drivers license and I was fully present with my friends and family during our vacation. But, I did not complete all my run workouts, practice yoga weekly, or make the blog updates. I have started making some back end updates to the blog but still have some things looming on my to do list, including updating my race recap and travel section.

This month, my goals are a bit more focused in hopes that I’ll achieve them.

August Goals

Fitness: This is the most important month of marathon training in preparation for my September 28th marathon. Coming back from my vacation break this month is all about building confidence and a strong base. I’ll run my first 20 miler this month along with 3 other long runs. But, I know that the long run is no more important for my confidence than the weekly tempo and speed runs, which by the end of the month will reach 8 miles in distance! So far I’ve really enjoyed the Run Less, Run Faster training method but with only 3 runs per week missing them isn’t an option these final 8 weeks. In addition, now that I’m back in Geneva, I have no excuse not to practice yoga once a week at InnerCity Yoga!

Personal: Whenever I visit a museum or city I find myself buying postcards and fun cards. Now that pile of cards has turned into a stack of more than 30 cards waiting to greet someone and bring a smile to their face. Today I took the first step and bought stamps for all these cards which, by the way, is $1.90 from Switzerland to the US. Now I just need to start writing!

Blog: I’m using my Pinterest upcoming race board to capture all the races I’ve signed up for or want to do over the next few months. My goal is to update this board tonight and then ensure that I keep updating it as I register for new races. While I’ve made progress on the back end of the blog I hope that the third time is a charm for finally updating my race recap page!

How did your goals go last month? Any big, hairy audacious goals this month?

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July 2014 Goals

So I guess I’m not perfect. I had great aspirations to do a June goal post, just like May, but somehow the month sped away. Speaking of speeding away, how the hell are we already half way through the year?

So, while I may not set formal goals each month as June proved, even if I do them every other month that will be 6 times more than last year. I know that July is going to be a tough month for me due to some work stress at the beginning of the month and then two weeks of vacation mentality at the end of the month. Hopefully, by sharing these goals with you all I will stay accountable!

July Goals

Fitness: Woah! I just put out a time goal for my first triathlon! While of course I will be proud of myself to finish, I spent some time researching last year’s times and this would put me in the middle of the pack for my age group which is 19-34. While I feel pretty good about each of the individual sports, I get hives thinking about all of them together. Having a time goal in place motivates me even more to get my ass into my wetsuit and hop in the lake this weekend then get out and hop on the bike. I add the goal about prescribed run workouts because I know it’ll be easy to make excuses when work is busy, next week, and when we’re on vacation in Savannah. But, since I’m my own coach this year, I need to be a hard ass. I know the goal I want on September 28th is going to be tough but if I put the training in now, I can achieve it. Yoga should be an easy one as I know I’ll go in Geneva the first 3 weeks of July and I’m excited to try out a Savannah Power Yoga when I’m home.

Home: I am leaving this one blank this month as I really believe there are bigger, more important areas to focus. Bo has put a lot of effort into our flat these past two months and while to the naked eye it looks very much like it did before, to the person who lives here it is a whole new home. There is better organization, brilliant new gadgets, a laundry room and storage closet which is being used super efficiently, and lots of other improvements Bo has made since moving here.

Personal: I’m able to use my New York state drivers license for one year after arrival in Geneva. As luck would have it, on July 12th I’ve lived here for a year. That means that if I want to drive Alpy, our cute car, I have to get my act together and get my Swiss license. The second personal goal is the most important one for me this month. I have the opportunity to be home in Savannah with Bo for 11 days. I want to soak up every minute of time I get with my family and friends. In order to do this, I’m going to unplug from social media a bit so I am really focused on the moment. I will blog in the mornings or evenings, but otherwise I want to focus on the memories we will create together. It’s such a gift to have this time with them.

Blog: June was all about updating my About Me section and getting my Pinterest plug-in up and running. Now that those two are done the next goal is updating the race recap and travel section. We still haven’t decided how to organize the travel section so if you have any ideas, let me know!

What are your goals for July?

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May 2014 Goals – Check In & Reflection

As May comes to a close, I wanted to take time to reflect on the May goals that I made 30 days ago.

May Goals

This was the first time in ages that I’ve truly set goals for the month and thought about them throughout the month. The fact that I shared these goals on the blog and with Bo made me more accountable and also allowed me to make them a bigger priority. Since you all seemed to like seeing the goals shared and they were helpful for me, I’ve decided to make this one of the regular features similar to my monthly favorite things posts.

Fitness: Overall, I would say my May fitness goals were a huge success. None of these goals would have been as successful without the support of great friends. My new half marathon PR is 2:02 thanks to Charlie and Laura’s great pacing and motivation. Katie, who is quickly becoming a good friend in Geneva is a yogi and therefore encourages me to practice yoga frequently. Thanks to her, I found myself at InnerCity Yoga 5 times this month. Each practice was 90 minutes which pushes me more than the typical 45 minute or 60 minute classes I used to take in NYC. The only fitness goal I didn’t achieve was swimming. Due to travel and missed alarms I only made it to 5 swim practices versus my goal of 8.

Home: I owe accomplishing this goal to Bo as he has really made organizing our flat his #1 priority this month. In fact, I think he has taken more trips to Jumbo, our local Home Depot like store, than any other person in Geneva. In order to bring our lives and our stuff together it meant making use of our space in the most efficient way – similar to NYC. Every closet, bin, drawer, and shelf has a purpose and is organized in a way that makes sense..at least to him. One of my projects was to go through the closet and drawers and donate anything that I don’t wear anymore which included shoes, swimsuits, coats, and all my clothes.

Personal: This is the goal that had the biggest impact on my life. Catching up with friends and family members via phone versus just over text helped me feel reconnected to some of the most important people in my life! It was scary just how easy it was to go a month or even six months without talking to a girlfriend or loved one on the phone. Since May 1st I’ve spent more minutes on the phone than I did the entire 10 previous months. Each Tuesday instead of taking the tram from work to yoga I spend 30 minutes walking there so I can call someone. Since it’s 3pm in the states when I’m leaving work I tend to chat with my friends who are on maternity leave or who have flexible work schedules. But, I’ve also been able to schedule phone calls with friends for weekends when we both find ourselves with more flexibility. This is a goal that is going to continue each month until it has become a habit.

Blog: This is the one goal which gets a complete fail. While I did make some headway on the future of the blog I didn’t make progress against the goals I made for the month. This goal is getting carried into June along with a few additional things which will make my blog more updated and reflective of my life NOW versus a year ago!

Now it’s your turn – how did your May goals go?

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