Fitness Goals for 2015

I’m joining in again on this week’s Fit Dish link up (hosted by Jill Conyers @ JillConyers.com, & Jessica Joy @ TheFitSwitch.org)! This week’s [optional] theme is on our goals for 2015, and as December is blowing by so quickly, it seems like a pretty fitting (heh!) topic!

…If you’ve been around for a while, you probably know that I have a ton (although thankfully, I have a longer time span to complete those).

• My 2013 Fitness-Related Goals
• My 2014 Fitness-Related Goals

Studying for boards and medical school in general have definitely thrown a ginormous wrench (or three) into a whole lot of my fitness goals. The only one I can definitively cross out for 2014 is #10, which I’m okay with, because I got to add on a whole ‘nother layer of badassery! *cue happy dance*

don’tjudgeme

I’m also super happy because yesterday’s Elf 4 Health challenge was the “fastest mile challenge.” I think we all know I’m not much of a runner, so I was honestly dreading it. Mile runs in PE were the bane of my existence back in the day and also the reason why I never got the “Presidential Award” in PE. :[ (I’d always beast the pushups/shuttle run and flexed arm hang though!) Still, though, a challenge is a challenge!

For the longest time, my fastest mile was a 9:14 that happened in third grade (I lay in the grass for 15 minutes afterward because I didn’t want to move). That was my “record” up until sophomore year of high school, where our grades were dependent on our improvement per mile, and I made the mistake(? or I was just overachieving) of running my fastest mile on the first mile run of the year (…). My best that year was an 8:02 (so close, yet so far to breaking that 8-min mark! *-*)…and 2004 was also the last time I ran a single mile.

I ran longer distances for about 2.5 months in 2010 because I got wooed into signing up for the SF Nike Women’s Half and my goal was to finish it without dying. (What can I say, I aim high! <3)

…After I finished that, I promptly went back to lifting and dancing and haven’t run ever since. I’m still in the process of recovering from a cold/the flu/a plague, but I figured I’d at least give it a try today (with the intention of stopping if I started coughing up a lung)…and I managed to make a 7:39! :)!!! (There was definitely a lot of positive self-talk going on to make it happen. I started wanting to die at about 3.5 minutes because I’d accidentally set the incline to 5.)

I powerwalked on an incline for about an hour afterward because I had things I needed to review/study, and one of the guys at the gym told me he was glad I’d slowed down, because seeing me running was making him tired, haha.

This is the fastest mile I’ve ever run to date, and I’m really glad Lindsay & Elle had it as a challenge, because I definitely never would’ve done it otherwise. :o

Alright, now that I’ve succeeded in completely derailing the original topic (tis a wonderful skill that I possess), let’s start over.

Fitness Goals for 2015

1. Incorporate interval training or endurance training back into my life! I will likely choose the former.
2. Be able to squat > 215 pounds, bench > 135 pounds, and deadlift > 310 pounds. They’re the same as this year’s goals because I didn’t get there. :[ Better than risking a potential injury though!
3. Try to keep dance in my life, in some way, shape or form! (Be it hula/Tahitian, pole, salsa, ballroom, or all of the above!)
4. Draw up a flexible and adaptable workout schedule! So that even if I have no idea what my schedule is until the week of, I’ll still incorporate some kind of physical activity into my life.
5. 15 pullups in one set! C’mon now, you were so close last year! D:
6. Drink enough water every day! No more of this cactus business, ya hear me?
7. Clean up my dietary habits. I’m definitely still going with my Saturday cheat days, but on the whole, it could stand to be cleaned up by a lot. I have a tendency to eat if food is in front of me, even if I’m not hungry. I’m also a social eater. And I eat to celebrate. Or to commiserate. In short, I love food, and although most of what I eat is usually pretty healthy, the quantity I consume per day probably is not. :O
8. Cut body fat percentage down by 4-6%. The percentage definitely depends on how ambitious I’m feeling, but I’m curious to see what I could do! :]
9. Celebrate small victories. I have a tendency to beat myself up for not reaching my super-reach, sometimes-not-too-realistic goals, so I need to work on that!
10. Extremely dependent on my rotation schedule: Enter another powerlifting competition and win all the things in my division! <3
11. Veryveryvery tentatively: Tough Mudder!? I was actually supposed to do this with my brother and our friends back in 2011, but I got accepted into grad school across the country and figured that higher education was probably more important (y’think?!). More info about that in the middle-ish of this post!