This time last year the excesses of the festive season had taken their toll. I was overweight and I had done no significant physical exercise for weeks. With my New Year’s glass of Champagne in hand I made a commitment that the same wouldn’t happen next year. Of course I’ve made resolutions before, but they’ve always been too vague. Promising to ‘get fitter’ is destined to fail as it isn’t definable or measurable. So this year I decided to focus on 5 very specific goals, chosen rather arbitrarily as you might expect when under the influence of Champagne:
- Complete the Coast to Coast in a Day Cycle event (150 miles) – Completed on 24th June. A great experience cycling across the country from Seascale to Whitby through 3 beautiful National Parks and including the hardest climb in the UK.
- Cycle 1000 miles in 2017 – Completed in June. Lots of early morning training for the Coast to Coast added up to just over 1000 miles.
- Achieve a Personal Best in a Half Marathon – Completed on 1st October in the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow. I managed a time of 1:45 improving my PB by 7 minutes. This is the first time I actually trained for a running event and (unsurprisingly) it makes a big difference!
- Run 500 miles in 2017 – Completed in December. I thought this would be easily achieved by training for the half marathon, but in reality I had to keep regular running going through the year to hit the target.
- Run at least 3 miles every day in December – Completed on 31st December. This was the challenge that was specifically intended to curb the festive excess, and it worked, although there were a few days when the 3 miles was a bit of a slog!
By doing these things I re-learned two valuable lessons. Firstly, having clear goals is invaluable. It focused me on what I wanted to achieve and gave me a real sense of satisfaction when I was able to tick each one of the list. Secondly, maintaining a consistently high level of fitness throughout the year makes a huge and positive difference to mental and physical health. I have been happier, more motivated and more productive as a result of my five challenges.
So this Hogmanay I will again take a glass of Champagne in hand and look forward to 2018 by setting a fresh set of challenges that will keep me active all year. One thing is for certain though, after running 3 miles every day in December there is no way that any of my 2018 challenges will involve running on New Year’s Day!