I haven’t done a goals post in a while and I thought it is necessary to move forward.  Not having a set of clear goals for the month kind of messes with my head and it just seems better when I know I am working toward something.  I know that I’m always working toward something, but it’s easier to fudge on those goals when you haven’t written them down and held accountable for them.  So here are my goals for August 2013.

1. Not to overly workout.  The other day when I was reading Ashley’s blog, she linked to an article about how often a person should work out.  The article suggests you need 150 minutes of exercise per week and it doesn’t really matter how many days you go to the gym. I love being active and working out, but I’m trying to cut back on it a wee tiny bit.  I don’t want to get any overuse injuries while I’m training for my marathon.  You’re probably sick of hearing about my marathon training, but I still have a long way to go!  Here was my workout report from last week:

The sad thing is, this was a light week for me. I spent almost 8 hours of my week working out. That’s not a bad thing because I love to do it, but I’m overly worried about injury. Especially since I’m nursing some knee pain. I went to the doctor about it and he said everything looked great and I had nothing to worry about so I would like to keep it that way. I’m trying not to do double intense cardio in one day because that might be a little excessive. There would be days I would teach double spinning courses or run and spin or do some other insane things. I read another article (which I can’t find right now) about doing too much and this totally changed my mind. If I do double up, it will be a weight/cardio or cardio/yoga thing. I think my workout intensity is always amped up so I probably need to chill.

2. Get more sleep.  I feel like something has been happening to me lately and I know I’m not getting enough sleep.  You know what that tells me?  I’m doing too much.  I make it my mission to get up every morning at 4 AM to make it to the gym by 5 AM to do my weight training and teach my spin class.  The one week day I don’t have to get up at 4 AM I’m up anyway and I probably need to use that day to sleep in.  The body clock sometimes stinks, right?  And I started staying up a wee bit later too.  I really should be in bed by 9 pm if I’m going to wake up that early.  I hate that it’s so hot because I feel the need to run in the mornings when the humidity is at it’s highest instead of the evening.  No evening runs for me purely because I’m tired and I don’t want to be out “late” running if I have to get up early the next morning.  If I have to run in the evenings I will but I prefer not too.  And I definitely prefer not to run on the treadmill but sometimes I just have to do it.

3. Stay positive.  In July I let a lot of things get to me and manifest in my life.  I did a great job of keeping positive and moving forward, but I don’t feel like I was positive enough.  This month I want to really focus on all the positive things in the world and in my life.  I want to celebrate all the good things and not have the negatives become the focus.  I’m looking into the future and I love what I see so I should really celebrate and rejoice!

4. Work smart and hard on my marathon training.  Ha, you thought I was already doing my marathon training, right? Well you’re kind of right, but I picked a very long training plan because I need to arrive in Memphis healthy and strong for my first marathon!  (Which I’m so glad Willie and I reached our fundraising goals.  We’ve raised $1000 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  It’s truly amazing!)  I’ve basically been doing the prep work, but my real training begins on Monday!  I got my training plan from the No Meat Athlete and it’s a really good beginner plan.  I found some other plans that seemed good, but this is the plan I am most comfortable with and fits into my schedule.  Make sure you find the plan that is right for you because there a lot of plans out there when training for a race. He also has a plan for half marathoners!  I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made so far because I have been running consistently and I feel like a runner.

This was July! I’m really proud that I was able to stay consistent. The only days I took off from running were my injury days or days I was just wiped out. I think I only missed three running days out of the whole month. I missed those days because my knee was giving me problems. I think I’ve figured out the source of my knee problem which might be my running shoes. This kind of makes me upset because I love my shoes, but I think running in any type of support shoe really messes me up. My feet may be one way but I think my running gait says something different. Neutral shoes just seem to work better for me. Back to the drawing board.

By the way, it’s been super hot and I really can’t stand it. I hate being super sweaty because I sweat a lot. I always have. I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter if I’m 338 pounds or 148 pounds, I sweat the same and I sweat SALT and tons of it. I also hate the heat because I feel like I’m not running like a normal person. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that when it’s hot and humid I’m going to run slower. And sometimes I have to take walk breaks. I just don’t like it. Especially because I was capable of running long distance without stopping. I want to feel like I’m making progress and not doing a backslide. I just have to keep patient because when fall hits I’ll hopefully be a running superstar. We shall see.

So what are your goals for the month of August? Are you working toward a big goal? Share with me your goals for the upcoming month and I’ll help you stick with the road to accomplishing your goals…only if you help me accomplish mine!