Happy New Year friends!🎉 I hope you all had an amazing night…whether that involved drinking and dancing until dawn or snuggling up on the couch with loved ones and wine or a warm beverage.🥂 I fell into the latter category, but no complaints there! 😛
2017 was definitely a rough year for me, but it had some awesome moments too, especially my wedding!💍I reflected briefly on my run yesterday, so I am not going to reflect here. Rather, I want to leave 2017 behind and run straight into 2018 with a fresh perspective and clean slate.
Who’s with me?!🙋🏼
I strongly believe that you should set goals year round and not wait until a holiday to start working toward them…BUT, with that being said, New Year’s Day is a perfect time to sit down, write out your new or ongoing goals, and come up with an action plan for accomplishing them!
So where to begin?!
Well, people do not meet their goals without a system of accountability or a way to track their progress toward their goals. Another reason that people do not meet their goals is because they make ones that are TOO ambitious for the given time frame. Although, I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing to set SOME lofty goals. I think it’s good to dream big, but to also have some smaller more attainable goals. 🙂 I have a good mix of both for 2018 and some of them have been a goals of mine for a while, as indicated on my goals page!
To hold myself accountable this year, I am going to do a minimum of 4 check-ins on the blog. I will check-in during the spring (March), summer (June), fall (October), and winter (December) and more times if needed. Some of the goals below are specific to certain events in my life (i.e. my first marathon in October), so I will only check in with them when it makes sense. So, without further ado, here are my 2018 goals! 🤗
Black Bean Queen’s fifteen 2018 goals💃
1. A minimum of 5 minutes of stretching/foam rolling after EVERY RUN
2. Strength training a minimum of 2x/ week (particularly glute/hip exercises)
3. Yoga 1x/ week (a class or YouTube video)
4. Finish my first marathon in October (my ultimate goal is 3:30 or faster so I can Boston Qualify)
5. PR in the 5k and the half marathon by increasing my mileage (SLOWLY) and adding in more track/speed workouts (5k goal is sub 18 minutes & half marathon goal is 1:25)
6. Run my first 10k race
7. Run a trail race of any distance
8. Hire a coach in the spring/summer to help me with Chicago marathon training
10. Join a running group or racing team
11. Read 24 books (2 books/month)
12. Connect with more liked minded people by growing Black Bean Queen to 1,000 subscribers. I also want to grow my social media presence on Instagram and Twitter to at least 1,000 followers and my Facebook and Pinterest to at least 500 followers.
13. Be kinder to and less critical of myself by reflecting on the positives in my life at least 1x/week
14. Take my vitamin everyday
15. Cook a new vegetarian/vegan recipe with my husband 1x/month
What are YOUR top 2018 goals, running related or not? I’d love for you to share, so we can support each other! 🙂
I didn’t set any running goals for 2018. I did set a goal to volunteer more. I am just going to see where the year takes me and not bother with goals for running. I ended 2017 rather disappointed for not meeting my goals, and I have a big-girl job where we have to set goals which makes it not-so-fun when it comes to goal setting for hobbies like running too.
I hope both of us can recover in 2018 and be healthy! Foam roller-ing helps so much! Yoga helps too, although my current injury is aggravated by some yoga poses which makes that tough.
That’s okay! I think it takes courage to acknowledge that goal setting in running won’t serve you right now. I am so sad to see you struggle with injuries, but it makes the time when you are running healthy all the sweeter. 🙂 Volunteering at races is a lot of fun and I hope to volunteer at some myself 🙂 And yes, here’s to healthy running in 2018 for both of us! So far, so good on my end, but we will see. Happy New Year!
Great post and love all the accountability – excited to see you work towards your marathon goals!
Thank you so much Jamie! Any tips for training/running longer distances? I see that you’ve done some longer races! 🙂
I think hiring a coach is a great idea!! I just started working with one and I’m really excited about it. I’ve been feeling out of focus and having someone else help me focus and keep me accountable is exactly what I need. I definitely need to hop on with you in regards to goals #1, #3, and #13. Especially #13. <3
Hi Jennifer! That’s awesome! 🙂 Are you training for anything specific? And yes, I think EVERYONE should focus on #13- self love is so important!
Oh man, I need to get better about a few of these myself– especially the stretching thing!! Best of luck with all your 2018 goals; I’ll be looking forward to hearing more about your adventures!
You can do it! Join me in making more stretching and yoga your goals this year! Are you training for anything specific or just want to increase your flexibility? And thank you- that means a lot to me 🙂
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