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Monday, January 5, 2015

Fitness 15 in 2015

This post will be brief, mainly because it's 8:00pm and tomorrow begins semester two of teaching. After two weeks of 9-10 hours of sleep per night (and waking up between 9:00 and 9:30am), tomorrow's 5:48am wake-up call is going to be a tough one. That being said, I am ready to get back into a routine. I like being busy, and I like feeling as though I have a sense of direction and purpose. But don't get me wrong, I l-o-v-e-d having a little bit of time off. Teenagers zap your energy, and I now have a lot more respect for my sweet parents!

But because I haven't posted in a day or two, I thought I would list 15 fitness-related things that I hope to do in 2015. 15 is a nice, divisible number, and some of these things are simple, day-to-day things, while others are a bit more ambitious. Enjoy!

1. Drink more water.
I've always been pretty good about staying hydrated, but the amount of water I drink often dwindles once I get home from school. I want to be more conscious of drinking more later in the evening, before the body dehydrates while asleep.


At school, my purple CamelBak is with me at all times (Source)
2. Run 2,015 in 2015.
I mentioned this one in an earlier post. Together, my friend Amira and I are going to run 2,015 miles in 2015. That amounts to 1007.5 miles apiece. That's a lot of miles, but I'm already 22.4 miles in. Yeah!

3. Complete a triathlon.
This one may be a little more difficult, seeing as I no longer have a racing bike, but I know that many bicycle shops have a check-out program, sort of like a library. I'll have to look into that, but why not combine my love of swimming, biking, and running? It will be a shorter distance, of course, but it will certainly be a good challenge for me.

4. Foam roll.
Okay, I'll admit it. I'm the world's worst stretcher, and that's not a good thing, because I love things like running and cycling, and those things leave you feeling tiiiiiight. This increase in running has already left my hip flexors feeling tight, so I am going to try and take the time to foam roll for a few minutes after each run.


(Source)
5. Run a new-to-me race.
I am signed up to participate in the Austin Half Marathon, which I have run two times before. I am also signed up to participate in the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, which is not a race I have completed before (read: broken toe in 2013), but it won't feel new because it's in my very own city. I think what I mean by this goal is to run a race in a new-to-me city. Fingers crossed it's somewhere fun!

6. Try not to sit for more than one hour at a time.
This one will be hard. It's not hard for me when I'm at school, because my kids keep me up and moving almost the entire day, but when I get home, it's easy for me to sit down at my kitchen table and work on school stuff, or sit down on my couch and read, that I want to be better about alternating an hour of sitting with at least five minutes of walking or standing.

7. Yoga.
Does this one look familiar? Yeah, I've made this goal before. And maybe yoga isn't the best angle to take, because clearly it doesn't mean enough to me to force me to actually follow through with it. Maybe PiYo is the answer, but whatever it is, I vow to take at least one yoga-related class per month. That's only 12 a year. If I can't do that, then we have a whole other set of problems!


(Source)
8. Pull-ups.
My upper body is weak. You would think from years of volleyball, my upper body would be stronger than what it is, but my strength can be found in my legs. And normally when asked to do a pull-up, I laugh in that person's face. But this will be the year that I learn how to do a true pull-up.

9. Sprinting.
Because I played volleyball, I grew very familiar with the art of sprinting. After all, my side of the court is only 30 feet by 30 feet. So, I think I developed an aversion to sprinting, and I really want to re-incorporate it into my workouts on a regular basis. The Miracle Mile I blogged about a few days ago? That's one that easily incorporates a bit of sprint work!

10. Relax.
This one may seem counter-intuitive, but it's not. So often I get so wrapped up in exercising every single day, that I forget to take a day off here and there. Giving your body and your muscles time to rest is just as important as getting into a regular exercise routine. And one that I need to pay a bit more attention to.

11. Touch my toes.
It's a little bit sad that I would need to make this a goal, but sadly, I'm one of the least flexible people that I know. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm horrible about stretching, and I think it's time that I take those extra few minutes to stretch out my muscles so as to prevent an unwanted injury. 


(Source)
12. Take a new-to-me exercise class.
I am the type of person who finds what she likes and does not deviate from it. As a result, it's very easy to get stuck in an exercise rut. TRX is something that has forever (and by forever, I mean since its inception), interested me, but it is also something that intimidates me. What's the only way to overcome that? Learning how it's done!

13. Fun Race.
With all of the color runs and obstacle races out there, it's hard to dislike running. Race organizers do a lot to make running appeal to the general public. For so long (and I have to admit that I am part of this club), coaches have used running as punishment, and people despise running. You all know that I love to run, and while I often feel it in my knees, it has excellent health benefits. So, I would love to discover a new, fun race that makes me rediscover the joys of running, especially when I start complaining about how many miles I have left to run this year!




14. Look into instructor opportunities.
As a teacher, I have summers "off." I put that into quotations because, if you're a teacher, you know that that's not technically true. Anyway, because I have both my spinning and PiYo certifications, I would love to look into becoming an instructor somewhere, even if it's just a very part-time thing.

15. Swim 100 yards of butterfly.
For those of you who are familiar with swimming, you probably shuddered a bit when you read this butterfly bit. Butterfly is hands down the most difficult (and the most taxing) stroke, and just 25 yards of it absolutely wears me out. When I did summer league swim team I was able to swim 50 yards of it, but 100 yards will surely be a challenge!


(Source)
And that's that! Do you guys have any fitness-related goals for the new year?

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