Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Summer Goals: Background

This summer, our school has decided to add to our summer reading assignment.  We have chosen the theme of goal setting and each student (and participating faculty) must choose one of the six books listed that focus on goals to read and discuss on the first day of school.  In addition to this, everyone must set at least one goal to attempt to accomplish over the summer and keep track of the progress made towards that goal.  (If you want to see a more detailed explanation of this project, go here.)

As part of this, I have chosen to pursue two goals over the course of the summer and, in order to make myself accountable for following through on these, I've decided to blog about them here.  If I've published it, I have to go through with it, right?  I'm going to be posting updates periodically, divided by the goal that I'm talking about.  I would appreciate if those of you who are actually interested in my progress can occasionally check up on me to help motivate me a bit.

So, what are my goals, you are probably asking by this point?  One is physical while the other is more creative/emotional.  Let's go with the physical one first:  I've been wanting to be able to run a 5K, without having to stop to walk, for at least the last three years.  I've continually attempted to do the Couch to 5K program, which is nine weeks long, but I've never been able to get past week 6 and, usually, I have to do some of the program for a couple weeks in a row.  Part of this is due to the fact that I'm not in as good of shape as I'd like to be while part of it is simply my exercise-induced asthma.  The closest I've come to completing this was during the Buffalo Corporate Challenge when I ran about 2/3 of the 3.5 miles in 42 minutes.  Not great and my back started hurting partway through, but, still, a place to start.

I don't have a particular race in mind yet.  I've looked for local ones that are a little more than nine weeks out to allot for doubling up on a couple of the weeks, but I have to be careful not to schedule anything at the end of August or the beginning of September because of the girls moving back in, orientation, and the beginning of school.  I think I'm leaning more towards the end of September or the beginning of October so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.  Anything I write about this particular goal will be tagged "running goal" if you want to search the blog that way.

Now, on to the second goal.  The creative one.  I would like to write a play.  I came up with an idea I fell in love with a few months ago and I would like to see it come to fruition.  At this point, I'm not sure how much of the play I can feasibly write before the school year begins again, so part of my goal setting process is determining what a reasonable amount to have accomplished by the end of the summer would be.  Anything I write about this goal will be tagged "writing goal" if you want to keep track of that one.

If you do read this, feel free to cheer me on or make suggestions.  Even if you don't, thanks for providing the possibility of an audience to help me stay on track.

No comments: