Well 2015 didn’t go as planned. I had great hopes and as each month passed I still thought I could reach all my goals. It was around April when I think I finally came to terms with the fact that my hamstring injury was not going to let me move forward with most – okay, all of my running goals.

It’s one thing to be injured but it’s another thing to be injured and doing all the right things, treatment wise. The biggest lesson I learned is to trust yourself. Seek treatment right away, even if you think it’s just like any old injury you’ve had before…and I’ve had many pulled muscles playing soccer.

The other thing I learned that took 4 months of physiotherapy is to seek out GOOD treatment. If your current medical professionals are not helping, go somewhere else. Once I switched to a sport physiotherapist (who worked on athletes at a University) vs a newbie (2nd year as a PT), I saw great changes. Don’t get me wrong, my first PT was good, friendly and I felt like I could totally hang out with her but she wasn’t moving me forward. Lesson learned.

2015 Goals

I had a number of goals last year  but again just couldn’t physically meet them.

Running:

Run 5k by the 5th of each month of February to May Challenge. Let’s be honest – I hobbled through each of these “runs”. Most were on the treadmill but I did managed to increase my speed from February to May.

Run a sub 25 minute 5 k (currently 27:06). Didn’t happen. I did managed a few sub 30 minute 5k’s during my training runs later in the year. Speed wasn’t a focus in 2015. I did run one 5k run and it was a Santa run without any clocks – just for fun.

Run a sub 52 minute 10 k (currently 55:58). Nope. All my 10k training runs were just over the 60 minute mark. However, I did rock pacing the 1:10 – 10k finish time in 1:09:59 which I am super proud of. Pacing wasn’t a goal of mine in 2015 but it sure will be in 2016!

Run a sub 2 hour Half Marathon (currently 2:05:10). Nope! I barely ran my 3rd half marathon. I finished the PEI Half Marathon in 2:13:30 and I can honestly say I’m super proud of that finish time. It wasn’t a race about getting a PB but more of enjoying a new course in another Province and finishing the race uninjured.

Run a FULL Marathon. I had big hopes and dreams for this distance. Originally I had a spring Marathon picked out and then put that off until the fall only to have to drop down to the half marathon distance. This is one goal that didn’t happen and it took a long time to get over that – ask my husband or running buddy and they can tell you how disappointed I was. It’s not on my list for 2016.

Total mileage for the year: 1250 kilometers. I felt this was a reasonable goal since I ran over 1000 in 2014, little did I know that I would struggle until June to get my mileage up. I ran 844 km last year and have to admit, I’m very proud of that number. It’s far from my goal but reminds me how determined I am at remaining active and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Other goals:

• Yoga 3x week. This started off good but I stopped as my hamstring couldn’t handle it. I did pick it up again in the fall and managed to achieve crow pose, birds of paradise and even tried my first inversion (headstand against a wall).
• Cross train more. This was okay, I’d give myself a B-.
• Stretch more after running / working out. Yup. Even though this was a goal of mine, it took running my 3rd half marathon to realise I need to take care of myself post race right away and not wait to watch your friends finish. I was in pain for a week with my hamstring.
• Take a pottery class. Nope and disappointed I didn’t do this.
• Take a photography class/course. Nope, but it’s been on my list for years.

Family

• Date nights / lunches with my husband. A-
• More patience with my girls. C+
• Play outside *all year round*. B+
• Family adventures together. A

Blog

• Post 3-4 times a week. Completed. 
• Share blog on my personal FB page more. Not really. I only shared it when  the post was about my family (Dad’s heart attack and Ava’s surgery). I’m pretty sure I didn’t even share 1 running related post. I guess I don’t want to bombard my Facebook friends with my blog page. Weird, eh!
• Continue to write for Thinking Outside The Sandbox – Family. Completed.

That’s it! Those were my 2015 goals and I feel like I’m not the only one to say a happy farewell to 2015 and welcome all the new adventures and opportunities that 2016 will bring. I’m still trying to decided my 2016 goals – can’t seem to bring myself to make any decisions!

This is a late post I know but I’ve been down and out with a nasty head cold and it’s going through our whole family.

Do you set goals each year? OR resolutions?

How did your 2015 goals go?

What’s your biggest 2016 goal? Looking for some motivation 🙂

Happy 2016!