It's a new year...

It is a new year and I am pretty excited! There are a few things I decided to work on this year (in no particular order): organization (home and work), fitness, diet. I am a member of a secret online group to help with the health and fitness goals. For the organization goal I am on my own. Of course, this year I am not training for Ironman, so theoretically I should have a little more free time to use towards that.

Anyway, with my online group I posted the following goals for 2010:

1. healthier eating - make better food choices by consistent and honest journaling,
2. run faster - last year my focus was long distance; this year my focus is on short distances and I hope to consistently do speed work to improve my 5K and hopefully 10K times; I plan to sign up for a number of 5K races and some sprint and Olympic triathlons, possibly one 10K (Pikes Peek, which I've always wanted to do); will journal my training,
3. build muscle - requires actually getting to the gym and lifting or doing the work at home; aiming for 2x a week and plan to journal these workouts, too,
4. lose weight - if I accomplish 1-3 above hopefully this will fall into place - or fall off - I have maintained a certain weight over the past year or two, however in the past two months I've gained a significant-ish amount; the first step is getting back to where I was, after that I will reevaluate where I would like to go.

I have been journaling through December quite consistently, with the exception of Christmas weekend. I also got an iPhone this week and found a fun and free app called MyFitnessPal where I can take the journaling one step further. By entering my stats and along with my daily food and exercise the 'plan' calculates my net calories to help keep me in line for my daily calorie goal. So far I've done pretty good! {fingers crossed}

Another thing I will be working on is just a for fun project. I've got bags and bags of t-shirts (over 50 of them) from various races (run, tri, swim) and I've always wanted a "T-Shirt Quilt" - but I don't want to pay someone $300 or so to make it for me. Now, I have a sewing machine and I can sew a straight line...so I decided to make it myself. I found directions at Goose Tracks Quilts and will just take it one step at a time. Today I am going out to by the 'fusible interfacing' required for the backs of the t-shirt squares. Last week I picked out the 36 shirts required to make a Queen sized quilt. My goal is to first make one square a night. I have a few shirts that just have a small logo on the front. I may use those to make a quilt pillow to go with it. Hmm, maybe I should 'practice' with the pillow first? Nah...I am going for the real thing.

So, how am I doing with my goals (above) so far? Well, on New Years Eve I went to the gym where I did a 10 minute bike warm up and 35 minutes of circuit lifting (3 sets each of 7 different machines) followed by 3 sets of plank exercises and squats with a resistance ball against the wall. The plank exercises were in an article on Perfect Post Run Yoga in Women's Running and with the exception of yesterday have done them every day this week. I hope to incorporate the rest of the exercises in the upcoming weeks. Also, to ring in the new year I went on a 4 mile run outside. I am currently following a half marathon race plan for the March 21 Shamrock and so far so good! Yesterday I registered for the JFK 5K on January 16 and found the By George 5K on February 13 that I will sign up for as well. I will be building up my distances and work on speed and hills. I am really excited about this year!

Tomorrow will be my first day back in the pool! I am a bit nervous as I think it has been four months since I was in the water. That seems like forever. For at least the first quarter of 2010 I will be swimming most Sunday mornings with my old Masters team - JCCNV - and will start back swimming with Team Z on Thursday mornings. I guess January 7 will be my first day back with them. At the end of January I start a 6 week spin class at =PR= in Falls Church led by Margie Shapiro.

So...I am headed in the right direction, I think.