December goals

This past week I tried two new things – this rope thingy at the gym and getting up at 5 a.m. Still not sure how I ended up in a rope pulling competition with my friend on Sunday night. (I lost.)

But the early mornings are all me. Way, way back in the day (think university) I would get up at 7 a.m. to work out. This was usually after a night of partying or studying.

These days I drag my sorry butt out of bed before 6:30 a.m. I stay up way too late and it no doubt affects my morning routine.

Run before the sun rises

But it’s the last month of 2017, and I thought hey, what the heck – why not get up an hour earlier? I’m struggling getting everything done at night. Hence why I stay up so darn late. When I went to CrossFit at 6 a.m., my days were much more productive and focused.

I can totally do this.

The first week was slow-moving. I’m trying to run at least an hour before work on the treadmill. So far, so good. The biggest challenging is getting my body to move on demand. Clearly I need to warm up longer before I start running. Right now it takes me a good 15 minutes before my body feels awake. 

Another challenge is getting to bed early. After the first couple of days, I’ve had no problem crashing at 9 p.m. It’s staying asleep that I need to figure out. 

Streaking

Oh and I’ve also joined the 7th annual Strides Run Streak on Strava – where I commit to run at least a mile a day for the month of December. I haven’t done a streak in years. I’m not even sure why I signed up but it’s been 10 days straight and I am still running. I am not sure I count as part of the official group because I am not in Calgary but I am still going to run every day in December. 

Building that foundation

I picked a random number out of the sky. It’s 70. For the next two months, I will run at least 70 kilometres each week. In the winter months, this is usually a crazy goal but I now have a treadmill so anything is possible. It’s been so mild lately that I hope I won’t have to rely on it too much. I have some big running goals (more on that later) in 2018 so I have to keep up my mileage. 

I didn’t have a good year in running in 2017 so I don’t really need to pare down my running in the winter. In fact I need to do the opposite – time to build my endurance. 

I joined GoodLife Fitness. It’s a pretty sweet deal. I pay $48 a month. In order to balance the added expense in my budget, I cut my cable. I paid $60 a month for a bunch of channels that I don’t watch. Now I pay $38 for the basic package. Besides isn’t everything on Netflix now anyway?

I’ve let my strength slide since I stopped going to crossfit. I wish I could go back but it doesn’t fit my budget and my schedule. If you’re in Red Deer, I highly recommend Pure Fitness. Great group of coaches and people! For me, I will be doing some crossfit-like WODs at the gym. 

That’s it so far .. I have been super busy lately with volunteering and working on some personal projects. I am really looking forward to the new year but I know there’s a lot left of 2017 so I am going to make the best of it.

What are your December goals?