theSmudge.com

In January 2014, I posted 13 goals for the year. There was nothing special about the number — I just made the list and stopped when I was done. I posted recaps of the months, and watched as many of those goals went out the window. That’s OK, though some were definitely dream-shattering. I never got around to posting November and December’s summaries, I think because I hated the repetitive “nope, didn’t meet that goal” updates. I’m doing things differently this year, and that post will come next week. But for now, I decided to at least wrap up 2014.

1-3, and 5: Running-related goals that included meeting my marathon time, qualifying for the Boston Marathon, beating my half-marathon time and running 1,500 miles in the year. None of these things happened. For the first time since 2007, I did not log my running miles — because there was nothing to log. The IT band in my right leg (and apparently everything attached to it) gave up, and after it wouldn’t get better, I set out to try living my life without running. After all, I was never supposed to be able to run in the first place and I’ve had one injury after another, so I had always feared the day when I would no longer be able to run and clear my head. Well, it was a pretty miserable year, and I alienated people in the process. So, yeah, four goals unmet right there out of the gate. I did do some hiking and walking, though.

4: Do a century bike ride: No, though I got up to 75 miles in one ride on my hybrid bike, so that’s not bad. Until this year, my longest ride had been 47 miles.

5: Bike at least 700 1,500 miles (increased the goal since I met it in July): Finally! A goal I met! I rode 177.57 miles in November and 158.62 in December. The grand total for the year was 2,128.23 miles. THAT makes me hopeful.

7. Go to the gym at least 150 times this year: Nope, this didn’t happen. I went 11 times in November and eight times in December. The year’s total was 87. That comes out to about $5 per visit, which is much higher than I want it to be. I think it was definitely worth it for one spin teacher, but he is moving away so now I have to make it worth it on my own.

8. Read at least one book a month: I think I met this goal, but I’m a little fuzzy on the memories, unfortunately. This year I plan to use Goodreads.com more faithfully — and I only just learned that the app will scan the ISBN of the book so I can find the right version.

9. Cook dinner more often: I did meet this goal, though quantifying “more often” is rather difficult. In November I tried cooking several kinds of squash, and that was a success. I need to find more spaghetti squash ideas, because I really liked it — I’m not a fan of pasta on its own so this was a welcome change.

10. Go to bed at 10 p.m.: This was a success. If you have an iPhone, I highly recommend using the “do not disturb” mode; mine goes into effect at 9:30 p.m. and was very helpful. Over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, I woke up on my own at 3:40 a.m. two days in a row. One of those days I had been so productive while waiting for the sun to come up that I got out the vacuum — and then realized it was 5:30 a.m. on a holiday weekend, and I don’t really want to anger my polite neighbors.

11. Get down to XXX amount of pounds: I unintentionally did that in July. But then I gained the pounds back, so this was a failure. I have a couple ways to try making this happen (and stick) in 2015.

12. Blog an average of twice a week: Nope. And I’m not apologizing for it, because this is my website and I’m not paid for it.

13. Find a cheaper place to live: Haha, nope. This was actually in the works in 2014, but that didn’t happen. For now, I’m trying to just cut costs where possible. (Cable is one of those costs I want to eliminate. I could do it and use Netflix/Hulu/Amazon instead, but I want a way to see sporting events live.) I do live in a pretty place, I must say…

So, that’s it for 2014. I met four of 13 goals, which is a 30.8 percent success rate. Good gracious, that’s terrible! Here’s to 2015 with more successes!

I’ll close with some other random photos, just to make this post a bit more cheerful.