Goals and Progress at the 2015 Halfway(ish) Point

At the risk of sounding really cliche, I can’t believe it’s already July!  We’re halfway through 2015, and it’s a great time to reflect on goals made at the beginning of the year–I dug up my own goals post from January of this year.  Going through my list doesn’t just mean assessing whether I’ve succeeded or failed in meeting goals, but also asking myself whether I still believe they are worthy of pursuing, and whether I need to refocus with new ones.  What I thought was important 6 months ago isn’t necessarily what I find important, exciting, and compelling today.  And of course, after 6 months you might’ve had changes in your life or bumps in the road that you didn’t expect.  I’ve certainly had a few of those!

My progress for the first half of 2015

Increased my max front squat from 105 to 115 and my overhead squat from 80 to 90

Increased my max snatch from 60 to 75

Did my first muscle-up

Put up a bodyweight clean and jerk

Completed all 5 workouts of this year’s CrossFit Open as prescribed, ranking in the top 47% versus the bottom 1% last year

Hiked the Grand Canyon rim-to-river-to-rim in one day

Visited two new places: Las Vegas (twice!) and Durango, CO

Added a bunch to my speeds collection (hehe): tonka stripe flare, fossil split pea, ray in the correct size, flash jacquard in the correct size, chevron, menthol, harbor blue, and ivivva sailor stripe speedies

Launched AA’s site redesign as well as redefined my content focus

Launched the AA YouTube channel with my first video

Looking back on this, I’m actually surprised to see how substantial this list is!  It’s so easy to forget about all the things you have accomplished and bury them underneath the pressure and busyness of doing the next thing (especially if you are a very type A person).  Be sure to remind yourself of your wins. :)

Things that maybe haven’t gone so beautifully

I’ve only read 6 books so far this year!  My goal for the year is 20, so I need to step up my game, big time.  I have no shortage of books  on my “to read” list, it’s just a matter of taking the time to do it.  At the beginning of the year, I said I would aim to set aside one evening (or portion of an evening) a week to read, and that totally hasn’t happened.  Seems like it’s time to revisit that.

In January, I set out to double my blog traffic in the first 6 months of the year, but that was a little too ambitious.  After refocusing my content (i.e., publishing less posts), my traffic dipped.  This wasn’t too surprising to me–my expectation was that I’d have to live with the traffic dip for a little while before the blog really hits its stride with my current posting habits.  I’m still working on building a critical mass, if you will, of archived posts.  Also, traffic and pageviews aren’t the only metric worth paying attention to, and some other important blogging metrics have been doing great, so although traffic isn’t where I hoped it would be, I can’t really complain.  Of course, I still wouldn’t mind hitting that goal at some point later this year. :)

A couple of months ago, I lost 3 or 4 lbs I really didn’t want to lose.  I’m not really sure why this happened since nothing really changed, but it definitely was a fitness setback.  Losing muscle mass basically meant I turned into bambi trying to squat heavy weights.  Since then, I’ve managed to gain some of it back, but my muscle mass still seems to be lower than it was before.  So, I’ve had to make a new goal of putting back on and maintaining more muscle mass.

I wanted to take up some casual trail running this spring/summer.  Where I live, there are seriously trails EVERYWHERE, plus being outside is great, and my running and endurance could use improvement.  Guess how many times I’ve gone trail running?  Zero.  Yikes.

More of what’s next for 2015

On the fitness side of things, I had a talk with one of my trainers recently, and it motivated me to go after more virtuosity with my movements.  I’m a very small person, so I don’t really have a hope of becoming some kind of elite athlete in the world of crossfit.  While greatness in that sense may be unreasonable to pursue, what I can work toward is doing the ordinary extraordinarily well.  I don’t want to cut corners or just mindlessly pile on weight because I can.  I want to work toward impeccable, beautiful movements, from the simple to the complex.  The great thing about doing this is that when your mechanics are efficient, bigger numbers follow naturally.  Definitely a win-win.  I’m still hoping to see some more milestones, though, like learning to string together muscle-ups and improving my benchmark scores.

This isn’t an official goal just yet, but I’m seriously considering signing up for a half marathon (likely something in spring ’16).  Running has been my nemesis forever for a few reasons, and it might be time to get into the proverbial ring and wrestle with my oldest, most formidable fitness demon.

In addition to where I’ve been so far this year, I’d like to take at least 2 more day or weekend trips to new places.  Some possibilities include Canyon de Chelly, AZ; Moab, UT; Supai, AZ; and Bryce Canyon, UT.  I also need to write up a new list and start crossing off some interesting local trails and cool spots during these next 3-4 months of good weather.

For this blog, I have a long to-do list of additions and improvements I’m working on (as always… #bloggerlife).  I want to try out at least 3 more new brands and hopefully find some new favorites.  I also have a few ideas brewing for some blog series, projects, and experiments that aren’t quite nailed down yet, but I’m excited to get working on and share.

I hope 2015 has been a productive year so far for all of you!  I’d love to hear about your successes (or fails), too.