Growing up, February was my least favorite month of the year. The thrill of a new year was over and I was faced with a long month of no school breaks at all. Spring Break seemed incredibly far away and Valentine’s Day is probably my least favorite holiday. (Halloween is a very close second.)
February really doesn’t have much to offer itself to me. I have a long month of homework, half-marathon training, and regular ole work ahead of me.
But I’m also happier than I’ve ever been. I’m not sure why, but I’m going with it! There’s such joy in unexplained happiness!
Onto my goals for February…
Establish a bedtime routine. I don’t have much of a bedtime routine. I’m usually watching TV while reading blogs until 10:30pm, realizing how late it is and how tired I am and hurriedly rush through my bedtime routine before collapsing into bed after 11pm. Since I wake up at 5am, I really need to get to bed by 9pm. I want to establish a better routine of shutting down my laptop, taking Dutch out, washing my face and brushing my teeth, as well as preparing my school bags and breakfast for the next day. I’m aiming to hit the sack at 9:30pm this month and hopefully inching my way up to the 9pm time slot by March.
Run 3 times a week, hitting my goal half-marathon pace at least once. Lately, I’ve been having some really, really good runs. I’m actually enjoying it, even if my time is slower than I like. I’m trying to take the focus off the numbers and onto just running and having fun. So far, it’s working. I’m shooting to run the marathon in 2:55, which puts me at a 13:21 pace. For me, that’s incredibly fast. (For others, incredibly slow. Ha!) Just once, I want to hit that pace to give me the confidence I need to be able to run this way on race day.
Begin to create recipe cards. Stefanie is the one who got my gears spinning on this one. My mom and I have the hardest time coming up with meal ideas and the problem stems from a) we are members of the National Society for Indecisiveness (well, maybe. We haven’t made up our minds yet.) and b) we don’t meal plan correctly. I’m hoping to be able to start a little collection of meal ideas so we can refer to them while meal planning, making the process so much easier.
That’s it. Just three goals, because I think it’s the perfect amount. They all seemingly have to do with health and fitness (sleep, running, and eating) because that’s all that seems to consume my thoughts nowadays. If I can complete all these goals, I am treating myself to an Otterbox cell phone cover. I’ve been coveting this for a while but it’s pricey so I want to work for it!
Do you have any goals for February? What are you hoping to accomplish this month?