2011 Goals!

I have a lot of goals for 2011 that I have been thinking about a lot lately.  I have a great girlfriend, my health is superb, and I love my job.  All those I want to continue to grow, but I won't go into those too much on here, this post is already going to be long.  I want to talk about my fitness goals for 2011.

I like to make goals simple, and I have learned that I need to make goals measurable but also applicable.  Crossfit is a funny sport, it is hard to make specific goals because there are so many different areas to work on.  Now if all I wanted to do was deadlift 500lb, I could achieve that in a year, but every other area of my fitness would most likely suffer if that was my only goal.  This is just like if my only goal was to work more, I could do that very well in one year, but I might not have a girlfriend at the end of that year.  Other aspects of my life would suffer, so goal setting takes balance and prioritization, just like in Crossfit.  

If we look at my goals for 2010 (you can view them here), they were not very specific in some areas and not applicable in others.  I said I want to train 100% every day and squat and deadlift a certain amount of weight.  The problem with these goals is I cannot measure if I went 100% in every workout and especially with nutrition and sleep.  These are not measurable.  Also I did not focus enough on squat and deadlift to achieve those goals.  I didn't focus on these goals because they were not a priority to me, I wanted to get stronger to be a more well rounded athlete, but it wasn't feasible to get that strong, at least not in 1 year with every other goal I had in mind.  This means I should have had goals that were a priority and then be able to measure those.  A better goal would be to get better at Crossfit while increase lower body strength.  This incorporates the balance needed in Crossfit plus works on my weaknesses.  To measure this I can try to increase strength by 5 - 10% over the next year.  That seems more gradual to me and I can fathom having a plan to achieve it.  Now I will have specific goals set for myself each month to track my progress such as extra glute work every month.

Now how do I measure getting better at Crossfit?  I can do that by keeping track of scores in workouts such as time in "Fran" or 1 mile run, or my score in "Fight Gone Bad."  The problem with this is a lot of what I do in Crossfit is based on how I am feeling.  These are things such as how I feel after I eat certain foods, or how "pukie" I feel during or after wods.  Im always assessing how I feel.  I need an assessment tool to measure how I feel, even if that is just recording it down on a scale of 1-10 on my workout journal.  So every day after my workout I will jot down how I feel.  At the end of the month I will look back and make sure at least once a week I am feeling great, and if not I will take a break or find a way to get back to feeling great.

This leads me to my last goal to have fun.  If you don't have fun and enjoy the journey, I don't think what you achieve is worth it.  For example if I make it to the games again this year, but do not have fun along the way, is it really worth it?  Plus I truly believe if you don't have fun, you most likely won't achieve your goals anyway.  Of course it takes hard work, but you have to enjoy the journey.  That is why my goal for fitness is have fun through hard work.  I think I can make that happen. 

 This also relates to nutrition.  I want to enjoy what I eat.  I have been able to eat very healthy and enjoy it, actually these are the times I most enjoy eating.  The times when I enjoy working out and eating the most, is when I am most consistent and disciplined.  So how can I measure my fitness and nutrition.  I need to give myself a plan to get me back to working hard and eating healthy.  I want to stay consistent following my workout program and be smart about it.  My goal is to not miss more than one workout every 3 months.  For my nutrition I want a home cooked meal at least 4 times per week.  My home cooked meals are always very nutritious and this is more than half the week, so that should do the trick. Of course when I go out I have to make good choices too.   If I can stay on track with these goals, this year of training will be fun, especially when I reap the benefits of my overall most important goal; to be top 5 at the 2011 Crossfit Games!