Last year's resolutions

I refused to make any resolutions for this year. I have goals for the year, but the whole "resolution" thing just doesn't make sense. Instead, I'm trying to work on some good habits that don't require a new "resolution" every year. Plus, the statistics on how people do with resolutions are pretty pathetic. But, last year, I posted six resolutions. I'll summarize each and discuss how I did with them:

1) When I weigh in for the race on 6/27, I will either be at 12% BF or lower OR I will be at 175 pounds or lower.

I was at 182 pounds and just over 13% BF when I got to WS. So, I just missed this.

2)Over the next six months, every workout, every meal, every skipped alcoholic beverage, every supplement, and every night of sleep will be dedicated to getting ready for this race.

If I had truly done this, I would have met goal #1. I came close, but like #1, not quite.

3) While I focus on my race prep, my family will still come first in my life.

I certainly did this last year. I think. Maybe I should have my wife "guest-blog" her response to this.

4) As much as I love skiing and teaching skiing, I will reduce my number of skiing days this winter to focus on this race.

I did this, skiing the fewest days I've skied in almost a decade. I typically ski about 50 days per year, and I'll teach 40 of those. The other days are free skiing or PSIA clinics. Last year, I skied only 39 days, and the first 37 days were teaching or training for teaching. My first "free skiing" day of the season occurred in April. I took no PSIA clinics last year, which means I'm required to take one this year to maintain my certification.

5) After the Western States race is over, I will not revert to bad habits for the next 6 months. I will maintain or improve the results of goal #1 through the end of the calendar year.

Fail, fail, fail. I ended the year with my body fat percentage just barely under 20%. I added muscle mass in the second half of the year, and but I added body fat as well, and my weight is close to 200 pounds right now. These changes certainly affected my marathon in early November.

6) I will recognize when I am overtraining and I will rest when I need to do that.

I was successful with this one and I had a relatively healthy year overall. I took my annual downtime at the end of the year and enjoyed a break from running. My November and December mileage totals were pretty low and I ran my typical yearly mileage - 1725. That's about my average for the past 4 years, although it's less than the 2500 miles/year I averaged in 2003-2004 - the years I ran Wasatch and Hardrock. This year, I have a "target" number of 1200 miles that I would like to run between now and the start of Western States. That's well below the 1500 I ran in the six months before Hardrock, but it should be adequate for me to run well at WS.

Another goal I had for the year was to lift weights 100 times or more. I lifted on 12/29, and when I logged it in my spreadsheet, I realized that it was my 100th lifting day of the year. I hadn't paid special attention to getting to this goal, but it happened. And, I ended the year much stronger than the previous year.


So far, in this calendar year, I've mostly skied. I did a 3.5 mile treadmill interval workout on New Year's Day after some brief morning skiing, and then just skied the past 3 days. Tonight, I'll start my next lifting cycle - a cycle focused on full body workouts and fat loss. Tomorrow, I'll start to get serious about my running for the year. I'm hoping to mostly do snowshoe runs in the morning and then speedwork in the evenings on the treadmill. Every other Friday, I'll do a longer treadmill run, probably starting at 15 miles or so next week, and building to 30 miles by the end of March.

It looks like I'll be pacing at Umstead the weekend after I'm finished with my ski teaching for the year, so I will need to get my mileage up to 30 or so to be ready for a slow 50 at Umstead.