It’s the perfect time for discovering your brass ring for the New Year. Or is it?
For all of us, this time of year is pretty darn full. The calendar with events, the coffee with egg nog, the brain with dreams.
After all, during these few weeks, we will be hunkered in our mad labs concocting “What can I accomplish?” plans based largely what happened this year. Maybe 2016 went according to plan, and you can aim for loftier goals in the next year. Or perhaps your goals were just out of reach, and it is time to reassess.
Either way, we’ll try to build endurance and speed and push beyond our barriers to achieve whatever we’re chasing in the coming 365 days.
But this year, I did something different. I’m not celebrating when the clock strikes midnight on January 1.
I celebrated the start of my new running year two months ago. Why? I got antsier than a runner 12th in line at a prerace porta-loo.
Everything was going really well – I was running better, faster, just chipping away – and I wanted some kind of metaphorical starter pistol to go off. I wanted an official opening to a plan, to a goal, to something. And I didn’t want to wait to ramp up until the world counted down.
So I decided that the New Year wouldn’t be my New Year – one that will not go from January 1 to December 31, but one that will go from birthday to birthday. On that day, I didn’t take out party hats and make resolutions. Instead, I started a new document, plugged in new goals, and got to work on filling it in.
Since that day, I’ve been thinking a lot about assessments – how we gauge how we’re doing and managing the balance between being aggressive and realistic. For now, I’m just looking at small benchmarks and hoping that when they’re all put together, I’ll be closer to reaching my own high points.
There’s nothing big for me in those numbers – just focusing getting a 5K PB in 2017. For this year – my year – that’s where I want to be.
And I’m loving every step of it so far.
