2012: The Year Of The Marshmallow

I know I made my big blogging declaration last month with the promise of more blogging, and well, there has been blogging but not on this blog! Never mind. The general busy-ness of December descended upon me.

But that's behind me now.

Now I'm looking forward. I haven't been one for making resolutions, but I will admit, the calendar year is great for tracking progress.

2012 EXERCISE FOCUSED GOALS

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Run For It

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What I'm excited about 2012 is that it's been 2 years since I last did any real running of any way shape or form. For those of you that don't know, I have had problems with my left ankle and a reoccurring sprain. I basically continued to exercise on it (and we're talking 5 hours per day) despite it being in pain and very CLEARLY being injured. It took a physio to say to me "Are you *trying* to lose your left ankle altogether?!" to make me realise I needed to pull back.

For the last 2 years I have stopped running altogether, and began to integrate the impact exercise back.

Of course that doesn't mean I've been sitting around doing nothing for the past 2 years, oh hell no. I've been teaching between 4 and 9 classes a week, and that has been so demanding.

It will actually be really interesting to see how my first run back goes. I've ordered a new pair of running shoes, but my current pair have enough in them to last me until they arrive.

I know that I will seriously have to resist the temptation to go OMMA GAAAAAAAAAWED!!!

For that reason, I'm going to be following the Couch to 5K program. In the past I haven't followed it because I've been too impatient with the slowness of getting the running in there (which... probably explains why I kept getting injured), but this time, I think I could really use that form of control and restraint.

I've got a few apps on my iPhone which I'm going to try out and help me track everything - I've become a bit dependent on my iPhone since I'm always using it for my classes (to track when I'm teaching, where I'm teaching, and what I'm teaching), so it makes sense to find a way to use it for my running.

The other thing I'm going to try and do is avoid running during my lunch break. The reason being is this is the sure fire way to overtrain (and I know I'm probably overtraining as it is). So I need to *cut* some of my current training to make it work.

Because I've got to cope with both reduced gym hours and a more abundant teaching schedule than normal, my first week of Couch to 5k will be the week beginning Monday 16th January 2012.

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Pump It Up

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I do a large amount of cardio, so fitting weights in is a problem for me. I need to find a way to make this work. This may happen after or during the Couch to 5k, and can include BODYPUMP.

I'm aiming for once per week. At the moment I can go for weeks, even a couple of months without strength training, though at the same time I'm doing 10+ hours of cardio per week. In theory, I should be able to trade at least 1 of those hours to work strength.

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Stretch it Out

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Not only do I do a lot of cardio, but the amount of cardio that I do do tends to completely overload my quads to the point where it compromises my range of movement. This means I need to do more stretching, not less, yet that's exactly what I'm doing.

I tell the members in my class "If you have a moment, take the time to stretch out your legs", though have I ever done that myself? Nope. So much for practising what I preach, huh?

2012 NUTRITION FOCUSED GOALS

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Eat Something

Yep, I'm deadly serious. This is probably one of the most important goals.

I have been so guilty of not eating properly in 2011, especially towards the end of the year when I started picking up classes.

Quite often when I teach a morning class I'll be getting up before 5am, driving 30-40minutes to the gym, teaching the class, then driving 30-40 minutes to work, then getting in the shower, which means that it's about 8:30am that I sit down to have breakfast. That's too long without food. By that time, I'm barely functioning. I need to at least remind myself to have a banana or a protein shake in the car to have both before and after class.

2012 TEACHING FOCUSED GOALS

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Most of these goals I'll be writing about on my other blog as the year goes on, though let it be said I continue to want to be the best instructor I can be and try to reach as many people as I can through group fitness.

Currently I face a few challenges in that one of the gyms I teach at is one where group fitness is quite a low priority, and in the past they have hired instructors that have been... well... awful. That leaves a bad taste in the members mouths, and leaves them walking away with a bad impression of group fitness in general.

I'm not claiming to be the best instructor in the world. But at that particular gym, hearing from the members, I *know* I can deliver a better experience than the past instructors did. Now it's just encouraging members who have 1) not tried group fitness to give it a go (difficult), and 2) members who have tried it and had a bad experience (incredibly challenging) to come in and give my classes a go.

IN SUMMARY

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• Run
• Lift Weights
• Stretch
• Eat
• Teach

Yeah. I think I can do that.