I started my current fitness journey about a year and a half ago, while having a mini mid-life crisis sorting through photos and seeing how skinny I used to be.

Fast forward to now and I thought it was probably a good point to have an “annual appraisal” of my progress so far:

  • At the start of January 2018 I weighed close to 110 kgs. I’m now currently floating around the 100 kgs point.
  • Since taking up swimming properly at the end of 2017 I’ve improved my average swim from 800 metres to 1500 metres in a session, and halved my time. (Thank you MySwimPro!)
  • I’m swimming at least 5 times a week, work and life dependant.
  • I started taking part in my local parkrun in February this year, adding in a weekly 5K run to my workout week. My current PB is 37:03.

While not as much of a drop in my waste line as I would have hoped, 10 kgs in a year is not bad. Especially as I’ve not gone on any major diet – just exercising more and paying a tiny bit more attention to what I put in my body.

My goals for 2019 are hopefully to:

  • See the weight carry on dropping – another 10 kgs would be awesome.
  • Get my weekly 5k parkrun time down to 30 mins with a continual jog/run around the course rather than stopping for the occasional walking rest.
  • Master the tumble turn in the pool.

One of my stretch (and therefore unofficial, official goals) is to take part in the Guildford12 challenge in 2020. Swimming a mile every hour, for 12 hours. I’ll see how my training goes before entries open up before I decide if I want to make it an official goal..

I know these are not extreme goals (talking just about the official ones….), but they are achievable. I see people every day setting their final goal right at the start and losing motivation as they struggle towards it. Setting a smaller, more manageable goal means I am more likely to achieve it while at the same time getting a motivational hit when I do make it.

What are you goals in the coming year? Drop into the comments and let me know.

Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels