In this blog’s inaugural post, I gave myself some goals. Here’s what they were:
Goals for January 2010:
- Drop the holiday weight
- Increase my lifts
- Squat – 245
- Bench – 200
- Overhead – 135
- Deadlift – 250
- Be able to run 8 miles again
- Move into my new home
- Meditate three times a week
I’m tracking well against these goals, but I’m definitely a little concerned with only 11 days left in January. My most important goal, which was to drop the weight, has been going great though. I’m down to 212 from 219. I imagine within the next week I’ll drop to 210, and hopefully more weight will come off as I continue. As for the lifting, well, I’m getting there, but the goals I set were big. On squats, I managed to do 5 sets of 5 reps of 225 pounds. Given that I feel that I could squat 245 for 1 rep, but I won’t make that attempt until closer to the end of the month. For bench, I’m comfortably benching 175 also 5×5, and made my first attempt at 185 pounds. Next week, I’ll try for a full 5 sets at 185. Again, I think I’ll be very close to doing 1 rep of 200.
This all sounds like it’s going great, so why the concern? Well my overheads are pretty much stalled around 110 and I haven’t deadlifted since catching the flu in November. To top it off, between being sick and travel, I’m not going to get any lifting in this week. I’m confident that I’ll be able to get close to these goals, but I’m uncertain if I can meet them at this point. We’ll see.
Well then, “How’s the running going?”, you ask. I went for my first run in months last weekend and managed a nice two miles. My next run, I’ll shoot for 4, and then go for 8. However, given the torrential rain fall and my big move happening this Sunday, I’m dubious about my chances of getting two runs in before the month ends. I did, however, sign up for the Bay to Breakers in May. I also put myself in the 9-minute mile corral. It’ll be my third year running the Bay to Breakers. The first year I did it was my first experience with actually running, and the experience jump-started me into running two half-marathons. This year, my goal is to run 7.62 mile race in 75 minutes or less, essentially under 10 minute miles. I’ve never been able to maintain a sub-10-minute mile pace for more than 4 miles, so this will be a big jump, but something I believe to be within my reach.
My move is also going well. I’ve got the keys to my new home, which is a mere two blocks from my old one. I’m about one third through packing, and the movers are coming on Sunday. Saturday will most assuredly be spent packing, but I’m comfortable with the impending move. All the other pieces of the move are in place as well.
So out of these, the only goal I’ve really flubbed is to meditate three days a week. I haven’t meditated at all in 2010. I still believe in the value of meditation, so I will keep this on my list and hope that I can pick it up again. Maybe in February or after my move I will make progress towards this goal.
Overall, I’m pleased with my progress here, and think that monthly, public goal setting is a viable technique for achieving a goal. Tomorrow, I’m heading off to Seattle where I’ll be speaking at Avvocating, a technology conference for lawyers. It’s my first speaking engagement of the year. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll talk about it when I get back.
Until then, enjoy a picture of a rainbow from yesterday’s storm
