2016 Goals

Well, we’ve all officially made it halfway through the work week! Surprisingly enough, the days have been going by fairly quickly for me lately, but I’m more than ready to kick back and relax this weekend. And watch some football of course. (Go Broncos!!)

Even though this post is a little late, one of my favorite things to do in the early parts of a new year just like almost every other person on this planet is to set goals for myself. I usually end up achieving about 50% of them throughout the course of the year, but this year I’m hoping for even better results. One of the beauties of having all of you lovely people reading my blog is that I tend to hold myself more accountable for things I tell you I’m going to do. So in hopes of setting myself up for a successful 2016 (yes it’s February, but better late than never!), I figured it was about time I wrote up a post covering my top goals for 2016.

1. Race Goals: Sub 4-Hour Marathon and PR in a Half Marathon (break 1:42)

 

You all know I had my longest tempo run planned for last Saturday and I ended up holding paces far quicker than what my coach and I had anticipated e!). Even though my legs are still recovering from the hills, which I don’t typically have to deal with during the week since I train on a treadmill, I have this innate feeling that I’m about to have some of the fastest runs of my life so far. Having a coach to help me avoid overtraining and teach me the beauty of paces and tempo runs has helped me improve so much over the past few months, so I’m STOKED to finally get in the racing groove and see just how fast I can be.

2. Run more outside

I’m a sucker for the treadmill because it’s safe and warm and predictable, but my favorite training runs are always outside. I’m hoping once the weather warms up and it gets a little lighter in the mornings I’ll start training majority of the time outside. Right now, my goal is to continue to run outside at least once a week and once summer hits, to swap out the treadmill for the open road.

3. Learn Italian

Yes, this is because of my trip to Italy in a few months. I figured this goal needed to be included.

4. Volunteer More

I’m pretty sure Bart and I have made this promise to each other more than once, yet we still haven’t had the chance to find somewhere to volunteer on the weekends. I’m hoping (work level permitting) to get involved with Girls on the Run this coming Spring and potentially start volunteering at the Children’s Hospital with Bart in the next few weeks. Overall, the goal is to get involved with at least one charity and help out on a semi-regular basis.

5. Make one of my personal marketing ideas come to life at work

In my current role, there is a lot of room to be creative and drive positive business results through fresh ideas. Although this isn’t necessarily always the case as majority of the ideas come from leaders in the company, my goal is to come up with my own marketing campaign and launch it within the coming year.

6. Bring back date night

For the past few years, Bart and I have always celebrated our “month-a-versary” by going out to dinner or doing something special on the 21st of every month (we started dating 10/21/2012). Over the past few months, things have come up and we’ve had to scratch our date plans due to other commitments. It’s my goal to start bringing these date nights back, even if it’s just a quick froyo date after work 🙂

7. Unplug every now and then

It seems like now that my work life is taking off, I’ve constantly been on my phone or accessible at any given time. This year, I’d really like to work on setting boundaries for myself and spending more time with people than on social media and email.

Hopefully I can stick to everything! Enjoy the remainder of your week 🙂