Goals for 2012: Fitness

And my list of goals for 2012 continues!  I wasn’t kidding when I said I was taking this year’s resolutions seriously.  Today I want to share my FITNESS goals for the new year – or more appropriately, my FITNESS challenges.  Exercising has never been a chore for me.  I have always been either running around the house like a wild child (my younger days), participating in sports (my high school days) or exercising on my own (now).  What is a chore is challenging myself to step outside my comfort zone and try something new…something that might be daunting initially…something that takes me outside my comfort zone.  A few of these items will certainly accomplish that! 

FITNESS

 Finish a Tough Mudder

Learn to Box Jump

Participate in the Krispy Kreme Challenge

Another Half Marathon (still undecided here)

 Strength Train 3 X a week (30 minutes or more)

 Keep a exercise journal

A few of these items are self explanatory, like keeping an exercise journal, strength training, and possibly running a second marathon.  But I want to expand upon the first 3 items.  Let’s start with the Tough Mudder.  This is basically a 13 mile obstacle course.  The obstacles include running through live wires, monkey bars, jumping of a 20 ft high ledge into freezing cold water, climbing up a quarter pike…  Fun stuff, eh?!  Just say yes.  For my sake.  Please.   My brother ran a Tough Mudder last March with his friends and convinced me to sign up for this one.  Okay.  It didn’t take much convincing.  It sounded like a blast!  I was stoked.  I mean, what could be more fun than running through 13+ miles of obstacle?  It’s like being on the playground again, except now you’re running 13+ miles.  Then it hit me that this race is in February…the dead of winter.  Panic set in…panicing now.  I am not a cold weather person!  Then add to that ice cold water and…oh god…what have I gotten myself into…  I think I’d be ok if it weren’t fo the fact it’s going to be freezing!  So you see, my mentally barrier is the cold weather.  If I can overcome that (maybe by buying and wearing a wet suit), I’ll be okay on race day. 

On to the second item.  The box jump.  It seems simple enough.  Place a box (not cardboard) in front of you and jump onto it with both feet.  Then jump back off with both feet.  Pretty easy, right?  Wrong.  Everything’s fine and dandy until I stand behind the box, them my mind goes haywire with all the horrible things that could happen.  Like having my feet miss the box and scrape my shins (I can feel the pain just thinking about it).  Fall forwards and land on my face.  Fall backwards and break my butt.  Mental barriers, galore!  I am determined to do this, though.  It may involve holding onto something the first time just to convince myself nothing bad will happen, but I will end up doing a very beautiful box jump by December 31, 2012. 

Before I explain the third item on my list, please pretend I never said I wanted to be a dietitian.  Also pretend that this is not a health and wellness blog.  Oh yeah, and pretend that donuts are healthy.  Thanks.  So, the Krispy Kreme Challenge is a local race held every year in November.  In involves running 2 miles, eating a dozen donuts, then running another 2 miles.  All in under one hour.  When I first heard of it two years ago, I thought it was gross and so very unhealthy (which it is).  Those were also the days I was extremely strict in my eating habits and the idea of eating a Krispy Kreme donut was forbidden by my food god.  Now that I’ve relaxed a bit - taken on a healthier (don’t laugh at the irony) view – I’ve decided to give it a try.  My brother and sisters jumped on board as well!  Like any race, I have decided we need to train.  This training I speak of is more an excuse to eat Krispy Kreme donuts a few times before the race.  But it’s all in the name of preparation, trust me.  Fun fact, this race is sponsored by a power washing service (because a few people lose their donuts after mile 4…gross).Well, there you have it.  If I don’t freeze to death in the Tough Mudder, I’m going to break my shins learning to box jump and throw up a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts after running 4 miles.  It should be a fun year fitness-wise….I think…I hope.

Share one fitness goal you have set for yourself this year.