I don’t have a tradition of setting and following New Year’s Resolutions, but I did so going into this year. By the end of August I had already accomplished both items on my (short) list.
The first goal was to host a group of friends at my family’s cottage. Most people will probably see this as a strange goal for a New Year’s Resolution, but I have wanted to do this for years and had not put in the planning to make it happen. Possibly my favorite place, I try to spend as much as time at the cottage as possible each summer. I have had a few friends visit over the years and I have watched my parents host large groups many times, but this was my first time attempting to pull that off (10 friends plus my family). The hardest part of accomplishing this was finding a weekend that worked for everyone and we were able to do so. Then there was the meal planning and cooking for such a large group. And lots of cleaning afterwards. Mind you I did not do all of this, Kelly did a lot as did my parents. We spent the long weekend swimming, tubing, skiing, wakeboarding, and game playing. Of course there were stressful moments (how could there not?) but it was an absolute blast.
The second resolution was to complete the Luray International Triathlon. Kelly did this race last year. It was her first triathlon and I went with her to support her. I was pleasantly surprised with how exciting I found the race! When we left I had the idea in the back of my mind to try and do it this year. In January, I began training for a sprint triathlon at the end of April. I stuck to my training plan and beat my stretch goals for that race. I took the month of May off from training and started training for the Luray triathlon in June. I kept up my training although I did not follow it strictly due to lots of summer trips. Fast forward to August and I completed the race in under 3 hours and 19 minutes. This was slower than my goal time but I did it! I’m keeping up my training and hope to do more triathlons next year.
A former boss of mine used to say that if you’re accomplishing all your goals, you are being too conservative in your goals. Right now I don’t have any resolutions prepared for next year. I guess I have a few months left to figure that out and next year I should aim a little bit higher.