Earlier this year I made a few goals for myself. One was to run. A lot. The other was to write, a lot more than I have. Sorry to say I haven’t kept either of these really well. Sometimes life get in the way, sometimes things don’t work out the way you hoped, sometimes you set the wrong goals and sometimes you just plain fail. I’d like to say life got in the way and things just happened, but I have to be honest.
Major failures in the running department. As you can see from the graph below, things were going pretty well for a time. Right on track. However, around the 30k per week mark I started to have nagging shin splints. Not so bad that I was ready to give up running (the proper cure for shin splints) but bad enough I knew I should back off. So I did, only to later end up with shin splints before during and after every running session. It was finally bad enough for me to realize I needed to lay it off completely, like you are supposed to. This resulted in about one 5k run per week. Now I don’t have a problem with shin splints but I do have this random knee pain which makes me question lacing up my shoes. That knee pain is still a problem. Considering it is in only one of two knees and only really flairs up after a run, I’m fairly certain it is a legitimate injury of some sort and needs rest.
Needless to say that my running goals are all on hold for the time being. My pride is not worth a permanently damaged left knee. I also won’t be doing a triathlon or any other races this summer for that matter for the vary same reason. But did I have the right goals in the first place?
A better goal for a non-competitive “athlete” like myself would be to simply participate in some events and to maintain a healthy lifestyle while doing so. Pushing yourself to the point of injury is no smart goal, even if it is S.M.A.R.T. Sure I ran a lot this spring, but I also let myself eat junk and gain weight. Mix those together and you have a formula for injury.
While my excuse here is that I really don’t have time to commit to writing, the truth is that no one has time to commit to writing. As many people say you have to make time for writing or for any of your other goals for that matter.
I did write a few short stories, rough drafts at least. Writing fiction sounds like a lot of fun to me if not a little challenging. The actual process of creating characters, plots, scenes and putting words down on paper is a lot of work. Like most things though, I understand this takes time to learn and to feel comfortable and gain confidence.
I've read quite a few books (which I plan to write about) in the last few months, more than I normally would in a few month span. I've also been journaling, which I can't say I've ever done with any regularity. So this goal hasn't been a complete wash. However, my main, most publicly visible goal of posting to this blog has been an utter failure.
All in all I’ve failed at the goals I set out. However, I’ve made progress on writing and had some PRs with running. That’s the beauty of making goals I suppose. They still add value even if you don’t (or can’t) reach them.
Running
Major failures in the running department. As you can see from the graph below, things were going pretty well for a time. Right on track. However, around the 30k per week mark I started to have nagging shin splints. Not so bad that I was ready to give up running (the proper cure for shin splints) but bad enough I knew I should back off. So I did, only to later end up with shin splints before during and after every running session. It was finally bad enough for me to realize I needed to lay it off completely, like you are supposed to. This resulted in about one 5k run per week. Now I don’t have a problem with shin splints but I do have this random knee pain which makes me question lacing up my shoes. That knee pain is still a problem. Considering it is in only one of two knees and only really flairs up after a run, I’m fairly certain it is a legitimate injury of some sort and needs rest.
Needless to say that my running goals are all on hold for the time being. My pride is not worth a permanently damaged left knee. I also won’t be doing a triathlon or any other races this summer for that matter for the vary same reason. But did I have the right goals in the first place?
A better goal for a non-competitive “athlete” like myself would be to simply participate in some events and to maintain a healthy lifestyle while doing so. Pushing yourself to the point of injury is no smart goal, even if it is S.M.A.R.T. Sure I ran a lot this spring, but I also let myself eat junk and gain weight. Mix those together and you have a formula for injury.
Writing
If you’ve been following along with blog you'd notice I haven’t posted to this thing in several months (not counting last week' post). That’s below my minimum goal of one blog post a month and way below my goal of one a week.While my excuse here is that I really don’t have time to commit to writing, the truth is that no one has time to commit to writing. As many people say you have to make time for writing or for any of your other goals for that matter.
I did write a few short stories, rough drafts at least. Writing fiction sounds like a lot of fun to me if not a little challenging. The actual process of creating characters, plots, scenes and putting words down on paper is a lot of work. Like most things though, I understand this takes time to learn and to feel comfortable and gain confidence.
I've read quite a few books (which I plan to write about) in the last few months, more than I normally would in a few month span. I've also been journaling, which I can't say I've ever done with any regularity. So this goal hasn't been a complete wash. However, my main, most publicly visible goal of posting to this blog has been an utter failure.
All in all I’ve failed at the goals I set out. However, I’ve made progress on writing and had some PRs with running. That’s the beauty of making goals I suppose. They still add value even if you don’t (or can’t) reach them.
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