Some goals and a phrase for 2019

I'm sick at home, so I've had a lot of time to think about 2019. Boo, germs.

Anyway. I'm torn on the trend of choosing a word for the year. On one hand, I like it a lot better than a list of unrealistic resolutions. On the other, a lot can happen in a year. Who's to say the word you pick in January will still be relevant come August?

That didn't stop me from thinking about resolutions and words I could use as a guide for 2019. I kind of used "rebuild" as a guiding word for 2018, after a knee injury in November, 2017. It was appropriate, since all my goals were about rebuilding: Keep adding on to my runs, re-start Trainer Road for the bike, get back to the pool, establish and maintain a healthy work-life balance, etc.

So, I'm going to continue that trend and choose a loose phrase of the year and some loose goals, to which I am not beholden, and which I can update at any time. These aren't going to be terribly exciting, but more of a continuation of what I was using as a guide last year.

- Continue to rebuild running, SMARTLY. Slowly work up to 20-mile weeks, and then, if my body is up for it, 25. Keep adding a half mile or a mile, no more, to long runs until I'm at a decent place to train for a spring half-marathon. And if all goes well, actually train for a spring half-marathon. And if, and only if, all goes well, train for a sub-2-hour half-marathon.

- I'm only going to be able to continue to build my running if I continue with my PT. So I need to make my PT as much of a priority as running.

- Keep cycling on the trainer until it's nice enough to cycle outside. Test my FTP regularly and get better. I know "better" isn't measurable, but I haven't been training regularly enough to know what is achievable yet. I increased it by 30 points with my last test, so I'll say another 30 points throughout the year is my goal for now.

UPDATE: I figured out how to look up my FTP history in TrainerRoad and drudged up some elementary math to determine that the previous increase was by 26.5%. It will be challenging, but I think it's a reasonable goal to increase by another 26.5% by the end of the year. My FTP is currently low enough that I don't think it will be THAT hard, haha.

- Swimming has eluded me for two years. What I'm doing now isn't working. Figure out a pool schedule that works and get over my swimming anxiety or else give it all up, cancel the gym membership, and commit myself to duathlons.

- My lifting routine is actually going pretty well, so I'd like to stick with my casual rotation of videos, barre class, and a heavy/body routine I do at home. One thing on my list is to figure out squat and lunge alternatives that won't aggravate my knee like heavy lifting does.

- I've always had difficulty dedicating myself to yoga but I got into a good groove at the end of 2018 after a year of only a few minutes on Sunday or not at all. I need to remember that 15 minutes twice a week feels so much better than once a week or nothing. My problem has always been finding time in the day.

- I would also like to do a sprint triathlon again this year, assuming I can get back into a swimming groove. I'd love to do a fall marathon but I'm not going to put my knee recovery in jeopardy to do so, so that one is very tentative.

As far as a word of the year, I kept coming back to a series of words. After many revisions, I decided on: ARRIVE, DRIVE, STRIVE, THRIVE, ALIVE.

Arrive: As the great Des Linden says, "Keep showing up." You're not going to make any progress if you don't bother trying.

Drive: Put your head down and put in the work. Consistency is key.

Strive: Work to improve. Set goals and smash them. Set more goals.

Thrive: Running and other sports are hobbies for me. If I don't enjoy them, it's time to reassess.

Alive: This might be too much like "thrive" but I'm keeping it anyway. Do things that make you feel alive, training or not.
 

So, those are my thoughts one week into 2019. What can I accomplish this year? Will I feel like a runner again? Will I get back to racing? I don't know. But I have a plan and I'm going to try, so stay tuned.