New Year's in July!

New Year's always brings resolutions or new goals.  But we all know breaking down our goals to smaller pieces typically results in greater success.  Around New Year's I was still working on my two prior physical goals which was to run a half marathon and lose 25 pounds.  When I set these goals I was a little concerned that they might not be attainable, but I established a plan and just did the best I could each day.

As I've shared before I fell into the trap of allowing fitness to become my idol and had to reevaluate my priorities and make sure that God was first in ALL aspects of my life.  I'm currently going through Beth Moore's bible study 'David,' which I'm really enjoying (more on this journey at a later time)!  This has really helped bring my priorities back in line and draw me closer to Him.

After spending a lot of time in prayer, I've been able to refocus my priorities and establish some goals for the second half of 2013, which I'm really excited about.  First and foremost, my time in prayer in God's word is my first priority.  Time on the computer (or any other device at home) will not take place until my kids are in bed, ensuring that they don't feel like they have to compete with my time!  Keeping these areas, as well as my marriage balanced, will allow me to establish some new physical goals.

And without further ado, here's the new fitness goals!

1.  Run 1,000 Miles in 2013 (I've already run 503 thus far).  This will be a challenge, but I've got a plan and am just going to take one run at a time!  I use Daily Mile to log my workouts, which helps track my progress.

2.  Be able to plank for 7 minutes by the end of the year!  My plan is to begin with 1 minute planks and increase 15 seconds each week.  This will also be a challenge, but I'm hoping the increased focus on my core will help with reaching my first goal!

3.  I will also be using Turbo Fire as cross training on the days that I'm not running.  I needed something to change up my fitness routine to ensure that I'm working different muscles and ensure that I don't get bored!

One crucial lesson that I have learned over the last year is establishing a plan is crucial to success.  When I set up my plan to train for my first half marathon, I put every single workout on my digital calendar.  This ensured that I completed the workout and it also took a lot of thinking and planning out from day-to-day.  So, I set up the goals above, broke out the goals by weeks and then by day.  I'm still working on what the reward will be to myself when I reach these goals but I will get that figured out soon, which is half the fun of setting goals!  Here's a sample of my calendar for the next 6 months.  Having every workout established also helps me move workouts around if necessary when 'life' happens.

I'll admit, this process took me a considerable amount of time to put together, but I'm excited to have a plan in place!  I'll also be posting my weekly workouts on my blog for a couple reasons.  First of all to help hold myself accountable.  

The other reason is because I simply love running buddies.  If any of my girlfriends close by want to run with me on a day I'm scheduled to run, drop me a message and we'll set up a time and location (with a slight disclaimer that I usually run pretty early in the morning)!  I would absolutely love for you to join me for a warm up together, an entire run, or just whatever you have on your training calendar.  We're not on this journey alone and I ALWAYS welcome a running pal!  What goal are you setting for the second half of 2013?  Make it count!!!

Blessings to you on your journey,

Krystal