Date: 1/1/22
Training Day: 27
Miles: 2.2 (treadmill)
Shoes: Xero HFS
Activity: Strength – Foundation

How It Felt: Nothing like starting off the year with doubles! Today’s run felt a lot better than yesterday, and I can feel my running fitness slowly coming back! My left hammy is still unreasonably sore, but I needed to get my strength workout in anyway. Thankfully the hammy didn’t impact my workout, and the workout felt pretty darn good. I can tell I’m getting stronger!

Commentary: In the Running Motivation Group on FB, Chris Beal wisely said in one of his posts about 2022, “Goals, not resolutions.” He listed out his goals, and they were specific. Not the usual resolutions you see like, “lose weight,” “workout more,” “start eating healthy,” and other vague new year – new me proclamations.

I originally started writing this 2022 New Year’s Day post a few days ago. Although I had listed my goals, it wasn’t until reading Chris’ post that I realized I, too, had made vague new year – new me goals.

My original list:

• Do more yoga and meditation
• Go on more backpacking/fishing trips
• Complete the Wind River High Route
• Ride my bikes more
• Run and train consistently throughout the whole year
• Bring running shoes to all my races

“Do more” just means I doing more than I did in 2021. So if I do 33 yoga practices in 2022 then I did more. How lame is that? Sure, it would be an improvement, however slight, but that’s not the kind of change I’m after.

Many businesses have quantifiable goals. I’m not saying life is like a business, but for me, having quantifiable goals makes them easier to attain because they are easier to track.

So, I revised my list of goals for 2022 and came up with this:

• Practice yoga at least once a week
• Practice gratitude and meditation daily
• Go on at least one backpacking/fishing trip a month (May – September)
• Go paddleboarding at least once a month (May – September)
• Complete the Wind River High Route
• Ride my bike outside at least once a month (April – October)
• Earn all four Garmin 2022 running challenge stage badges (1,200km by the end of the year, 300km per three-month stage)
• Train consistently throughout the whole year – run and strength training at least three times a week
• Bring running shoes to all my races

Odds are I won’t be able to meet all of my goals. Does this make my goals unrealistic? I don’t think so. And setting easily attainable goals won’t force me to push myself and grow. I know I’m capable of achieving everything on my list, but shit happens. But regardless of what happens, I need to stay committed to my goals.

This means that if I miss a day of meditation I don’t start slacking because my daily mediation goal is botched. It means that I commit to not missing another day. It also means not giving myself a hard time for missing a goal, but patting myself on the back for what I have achieved and pushing myself to achieve more.

If you’re interested in my 2022 races, check out my Races page. And if you’re interested in my training plan for the Beaverhead 55k, check out my Training Plan page.

Training Journal cross training exercise fitness goals journal new year's resolutions running strength trail running training treadmill volt athletics