fitness goals for the rest of 2019

​Have you ever experienced a set-back which puts you behind with your training?  To read more about falling off the fitness wagon, click here.   I recently had a relapse, which meant that the weight loss and fitness goals I worked towards in 2018 were nearly completely undone.  While this was very upsetting and it was difficult to get on the horse again, I am determined to develop a positive mindset and continue with my fitness journey. 

I have set myself some awesome new fitness goals to help me give me greater focus.  Since we are nearly half way through 2019, this is a good opportunity to look back at the goals that I set myself for this year, re-evaluate and re-define them.
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•          Continue to attend Les Mills Howick – While I wasn’t well I put my gym membership on hold, but now that I’m feeling better, I’ll continue to go to Les Mills Howick every morning and train as usual.  At the moment, I’m focussing on strength training and classes to help me improve on my fitness
•          PT with Alice Jackson at LM Howick – While I wasn’t well, I put PT on hold but I’ve recently started seeing Alice every week to help me work towards my fitness goals
•          Sri Chinmoy 10k race 15 September 2019 – As with the other Sri Chinmoy races during winter, this takes place in the beautiful Auckland Domain.  Last year, I competed in two 10k Sri Chinmoy races during winter even though I was very overweight, but this year I have decided to continue with my own training throughout winter and invest my energy into preparing for the final race in the Auckland Domain, which takes place on the 15th of September, which happens to be my birthday.  This may be a bit over-ambitious but it would be great if I could achieve a time as close to an hour as possible.
•          Introduce swimming into my training programme – As my goal for the summer is to be able to compete in swim and run events such as Stroke and Stride, I thought it would be a good idea to start integrating swimming into my fitness regime from now so I can gradually work on increasing distances and speed.  I won a free one month’s membership to The Olympic in Newmarket, which has a fantastic 50m indoor swimming pool (pictured above).  Unfortunately, it’s a bit far to travel there from Manukau every day, so I’ve decided to make use of the great pool in Otara instead, which is much closer to home.
•          Compete in Park Run at Barry Curtis Park – Back in January, I went along to the 5k Park Run at Barry Curtis Park in Flat Bush.  For those who haven’t heard of it, Park Run is a free 5k run which takes place world-wide.  Don’t be fooled by the distance!  It’s a challenging 5k event.  The course at Barry Curtis is mixed terrain – concrete, gravel and grass, with both flat and hilly surfaces.  This will be a great way to train for swim and run events such as Stroke and Stride, which I hope to compete in during the summer, as the run distances are typically between 3-5k.
•          Compete in swim and run events – As discussed in a previous blog post, I became very interested in competing in a swim and run event last summer.  Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to do this but after much consideration, I have decided to focus on these events rather than 10k races this summer.  I have been training for and competing in 10k events during the past decade and I’m getting a bit bored.  I love the idea of a new challenge.  Ocean swimming is completely new to me and the mix of swimming followed by a run will definitely push me outside my comfort zone.
•          Compete in some YMCA 10k Summer Series races – Competing in the YMCA 10k Summer Series events, which take place in the Auckland Domain every Thursday from the beginning until the end of daylight saving, isn’t high on my list of fitness priorities this year given that my main focus will be on swim and run events.  However, I will certainly try and make it to a few of these if I can.  I may do just the 5k option, given that the run distances for swim and run are between 3 and 5ks, which is considerably less than 10k.