2014 Goals

In my last blog article, I outlined my goals for the next 10 years. In support of those long range goals, here are my goals for 2014. I have some other, smaller goals, but these are the main ones.

Weigh 195 pounds. I feel like my weight is finally (finally!) under control. I've been maintaining about the same weight since September. This year, I plan to make a final push and get it down to a healthy 195 pounds. My strength is improving, my resting heart rate is nice and low (in the 50s), and I feel good in general. While I am feeling quite healthy, I would like to actually look like I work out. I've been going to the gym regularly to add strength training to my cardio work. I'll continue to do that, and I'll tighten up my diet a bit.

Establish the NWUUC band and children's choir as regularly anticipated parts of Sunday services. This is in support of my goal of eventually building the job from a 15 hour per week position to a 20 hour per week position. The adult choir is a well established, cherished part of the music program. My hours increased this past year from 10 to 15 hours. I'm spending most of the additional hours on building the children's program and the church band. Those two new programs are keeping me busy, but once they are well established, I'll be ready to add more to NWUUC's music by either adding another program or by expanding the band and the children's choir.

Maintain a roster of at least 20 guitar or ukulele students. My long range goal is to have 30 students, but if I added so many students all at once, I wouldn't be able to handle the schedule and still juggle my other responsibilities. I have 13 students now, so I need to add 7 more to meet my goal. I generally add only one student each month, but I have a pretty good retention rate. I'll just keep building my roster slowly.

Add another event planner to my list of regular clients. I finally managed to get my foot in the door with a good event planner. I'm hoping that having one major event planner as a client will make me more attractive to others.

Become more comfortable with unaccompanied guitar improvisation. One of my long range goals is to improvise comfortably in the style of Joe Pass. I've been improving in this area, but I have a long way to go. I've been approaching this skill haphazardly, improvising unaccompanied on random songs. This year, I'm going to focus on a handful of songs and get really comfortable with them. Through my lessons with Dave Frackenpohl, I've learned that I can make good progress on improvisation in general if I focus intensely on one or two songs at a time.

Test Run

For nearly three months, I've been out of action with an overuse injury. While I've remained active by working on a stationary bike, I've really missed running. I took a test run this morning. I didn't set any speed records, and I probably won't make the 2012 Olympic team. I ran 1.3 miles in 19 minutes. I didn't run the entire way. I alternated running and walking at 1 minute intervals. Overall, my leg didn't feel too bad. I began to feel a little twinge in my knee toward the end, which worries me a little. Still, to travel over a mile is a big improvement over not being able to last even a quarter mile.

Plan A assumes I am able to continue running. The plan is to go out three times a week and run one mile. I'll continue to workout long and hard on the stationary bike to keep up my fitness. If my leg feels okay, I'll VERY gradually add distance – probably a half mile at a time. I'll also use the run/walk approach. The macho side of me wants to gut it out and run the entire time. The practical side of me knows that a run/walk approach will allow me to travel longer distances, and it'll also allow me to continuing running longer as I get older. Also, I have it in my head that I would like to run an ultramarathon one day. Even the top ultra runners use a run/walk approach, so I may as well get used to it now.

If I'm unable to continue running, I'll reluctantly move to Plan B, where I'll stop running for a year, continue my long stationary bike workouts, and step up my strength training. Back in the day, I was very much into weight training and even had some manly muscles to show for it. I enjoy weight training, but I've been training lightly these days. If I'm unable to run, I'll very likely start hitting the weights a little harder. I have no plans to throw around a lot of weight like I did before. Instead, I would use light to medium weights and do a lot of circuit training.

So I have a plan, and I have a backup plan. If I have to, I'll switch to Plan B, but I love running, so I'm hoping I can stick with Plan A.