Selfish Goals Post 2011

Last year was a good year. This year will be better. Did you make any goals or resolutions? Are they specific? Attainable?
 
I've talked to a lot of friends who have set resolutions to "be stronger", to "eat better", or "be less stressed". These are good ideas, but what do they mean? Does eating better mean eating an extra vegetable each day? How strong do they want to be? What does being less stressed mean? Seriously.

  

There are a lot of good tools out there for setting specific, attainable goals. A classic is the SMART system. Whatever you use ... it's helpful to be specific about what you want, when you want it, and how you plan to get there.

  

This is a "selfish" post, because I'm not going to write any "how to's" or "about", just simply want to share some of the things that I'm working on in the coming year.  I sat down with some paper new years day and thought about what I wanted to accomplish in 2011.  A few were things I've already been working towards, however it still felt good to write them down.  Here's what I came up with:

  

Fitness Goals

• Snatch Bodyweight (165) - Personal Best 155
• Back Squat 2x Bodyweight (330) - Personal Best 275
• Dead Lift 2.5x Bodyweight (412) - Personal Best 380
• Clean and Jerk 225 - Personal Best 192
• Freestanding Strict Handstand Pushup
• 10 Consecutive Muscle Ups - Personal Best 7
• Maintain a sub 9:30 1.5 mile run (for Air Force PT test) - Most recent 9:12

No bells and whistles, just wood, steel, and dust

Educational Goals

• Test for Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S.) February/April 2011
• Test for Certified Sport Specialty Dietitian (C.S.S.D.) July 2011

Business Goals

• Finalize location (most likely Oregon) and financial plan for Strength and Conditioning Facility with my close friends Brian, Kari, and Chris
• Open doors late 2011/early 2012

Recreational Goals

• Catch a fish from a kayak
• Sky dive
• Obtain scuba diving certification

Travel Goals

• Visit my friend Jason in Korea
• Make it home to Oregon for my Family's annual 4th of July camping trip

This list of resolutions/goals for 2011 may seem more like a bucket list than resolutions.  I think that's good.  Every item on this list is obtainable with proper planning, preparation, scheduling, and budgeting of finances.

I won't include the numbers here.  I assure you that I have sat down and planned out time lines for studying, communication with friends and business partners, frequency of workouts, skill work, and recovery, and points of contact for various activities.  The primary X factor is the nature of military life and the possibility of mission needs superseding leave requests, etc.  These goals are important to me though and I will do my best to obtain as many as possible by next year.

P.S. I'll write a little bit about the fitness section, because that is the primary nature of this blog.

I didn't set many speed or conditioning fitness goals because I've classically had good speed and endurance in the past and too much conditioning work tends to stymie my strength progress.  Nor did I set body composition goals because I am fairly happy with where I am at now and I believe that my body will find the appropriate size/condition as long as I am doing what I need to do to obtain my goals and eating according to the demands of my work output.  Strength is where I need to make the biggest improvements in order to be a better all around athlete and a generally more useful human.  I put the 1.5 mile run on there to remind me to keep in good enough shape to do well on the Air Force Fitness Assessment when needed.  I think attaining these numbers while maintaining conditioning is reasonable.  CrossFit Fort Walton Beach does an excellent job with their programming to blend conjugate style strength training with volume-controlled CrossFit metabolic conditioning in a manner which encourages gains without exceeding recovery capabilities.  I've been working out there Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday.  Wednesdays I usually rest or will work on mobility or light skill work (this is where I will fit in additional gymnastics practice or reasonable snatch skill transfer work), Saturdays I usually workout in my garage/yard and work on specific weaknesses/goals.  Leading up to my recent Fitness Assessment, I was working in smart track work on Saturdays which helped me to shave over 1 minute off my 1.5 mile run in just 4 weeks and max out the test.  With that behind me, I'll likely incorporate strongman-style training, various carrys, and sled work on Saturdays.   I may also choose to just rest or travel, or go in to CF Fort Walton for the weekend workout.  This day is flexible. Sundays are for rest or play.  I'll continue training in this manner as long as it's fun/works; saving room for adjustments in frequency, volume, rest and recovery, and assistance work.