I might not have accomplished too many of my goals (actually just one), but I had a fantastic year.  I had an amazing summer, met some great new friends, fell in love, and finally got to teach a class at UGA.  I even had two papers published and recently got back from presenting one of them at a conference in Phoenix.

If you’ve been reading, you’ll know I started CrossFit last April.  I worked in India this summer, and woke up every morning at 6 to head to the gym for my workout.  I did the best I could with the equipment available, and after a rinse and some delicious breakfast, I’d spend my day teaching video games.  After class, I returned to the gym for a CrossFit Endurance workout (rowing, running, or biking).  I managed to improve my endurance and maintain my weight while dropping body fat.  Sadly, I didn’t ease into running with my new FiveFingers, and wound up stress fracturing both of my feet.  That put an end to my 20 minute 5K plans.  My feet have finally healed now and I’ve started training again, so 2012 will definitely be my year.

As I finished the summer working at Texas A&M, I had access to a much better gym and a training partner.  He wasn’t too keen on doing CrossFit, so we decided to build up base strength while practicing our form.  We spent months doing StrongLifts 5×5, and I am very pleased with the results.  I can see my quad muscles for the first time in my life, and 3 separate people have commented on my abs, so I’m going to call that goal successfully completed.  I highly reccommend StrongLifts for those who are new to weight lifting, and if you don’t have access to equipment, you can always try out hundredpushups.com, fiftypullups.com or any of their other bodyweight exercise sites.

I have started on all my other goals for the year, but haven’t quite found the time to finish them up, so I’m going to roll them over to this year (along with a few new ones).  I’ve got a busy year ahead of me, but I know it’s going to be a great one and I’m going to get tons of stuff done!

Here’s my new list for 2012:

• Learn French (current vocabulary 450-500 words)
• Learn Spanish (planning to start July 1)
• Run a 20 min 5k
• Start an Automated Business
• Bike a Century
• Finish PhD
• Watch the AFI Top 100 films

I just realized that I haven’t posted anything on this site in over 6 months and that’s just unacceptable.  I know I’ve been busy trying to get some of these goals accomplished, but there hasn’t been any real progress since the last time I posted and that just makes me feel bad.  A lot has been happening lately, so I feel that some of my goals are just around the corner.  I’ve landed several clients for consulting work, and have made a lot of progress on several games, so I really feel that 2012 is going to be the year that Ginger Magic Games takes off.

In fitness news, I’ve challenged a good friend of mine to a half marathon in November, so I have to actually get back in shape.  I ran for the first time since my triathlon today and it was rough.  If you ever want to feel like puking all over your gym, eat a DQ Blizzard and then go run intervals (60 seconds on, 90 seconds off) for half an hour.  6 of my 10 intervals were in the 6:30 – 7:00/mile range, so I’m very happy with that.  Since I injured my knee last year running, I started reading up on barefoot running and tried my hardest to run with a forefoot strike tonight.  That part of the run was amazing.  With proper form I was hitting that 6:30/mile time without feeling like I was running fast.  I’m curious what pace I can get from an all out sprint now.  In order to train for this race, I’m doing a 2 week warm up and then I’m going to start hitting CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance up for 10 workouts a week until race day.  Later this week I’ll post some “before” photos and measurements, and then we’ll see what a few months of CF can do.

I’ve pared my goal list down to six things I want to accomplish for the remainder of this year:

• Get a Six Pack
• Run a 20 min 5K
• Start an automated business
• Watch all the movies in the AFI Top 100
• Learn French
• Learn Spanish

I fully expect CrossFit along with proper nutrition to take care of the first 2.  I have no idea what my PR is for a 5K since I never paid attention to the numbers when I was younger, but last season it was about 26 minutes, so I need to shave 2:00 off my pace.  I expect all the speed work in CrossFit Endurance along with learning proper form to get this done also.

Starting the automated business is just a matter of paperwork and a hard summer.  I’ve already got the business plan, the URL, and a lot of the system worked out, I just need to implement and successfully market the business at the end of the summer.  If it takes off, I’ll be using the profits to set up an office for Ginger Magic Games.

Watching movies is no bid deal.  Between Netflix, the public library and the local rental store, I should be able to find all 100 movies.

As for learning two languages in the next 8 months, I don’t think it will be a big deal.  I’ll be using a combination of Pimsleur, LiveMocha, and conversation with native speakers to get this all done.  I’ve already started the French lessons and now “Je comprends un peu le français.”  The Pimsleur lessons are 90 days long, so I expect it will take me 4 months or so to be conversationally fluent in each language.  I just need to make sure to continue using each once I’ve acquired it.  This is much more difficult with French as I currently don’t know anyone fluent that I can converse with.  I’ll just have to find a French club at the University and attend their meetings.

What are your goals for this year?  Are you working towards any life long dreams or just the standard New Year’s resolutions?