Goals for 2016: Fitness

Before I explain my fitness goals, I wanted to talk about what I've done in the past year.

I was never really interested in working out or sports until the end of 2014. I started by doing workout videos I found on YouTube, which were really good. I decided to step it up in 2015 by joining my university gym and getting into running, which I mentioned in a recent post. I started running and even signed up for a 5k run. I got up to about 4 km before I hurt my leg. I got some sort of strain in my calf muscle, which was extremely painful. I had to stop running by the end of February, so it was really only about 2 months of running.

For the rest of the semester, I spent all my time at the gym in the room with free weights and mats for body-weight exercises like planks and sit-ups. I got really into that, which was good, but I missed cardio. I could do the cycling machine, but I find that really boring.

Over the summer, when I went home, I went to see a doctor about it. He gave me some advice and by the time I went back to Edinburgh at the end of June, I was ready to hit the gym again. I ran for a while, but my leg starting hurting again. I found some joint supports for my ankles, which helped.

Now, I've only gotten up to about 2 km, because it seems every time I get any momentum up with the running my leg starts hurting. Every once and a while, my leg really hurts when I run.

I've gotten into using the machines at the gym like the chest press, leg extension, bicep curls, etc. I really want to continue with that, but I feel like my efforts aren't really that focused with that. I've stopped doing the body-weight exercises and core exercises, so I'd like to make a better plan so I can be more focused in my efforts to be in better shape.

In 2016 I want to be able to run 5 km without stopping and at a good pace. I want to also be stronger, which is a bad goal. I don't know how to make that goal any more specific, but I will be trying to make new fitness goals every 3 months so I have a more manageable amount of progress to deal with at a time.

In the next three months, I want to get to 5km. I want to work on strength exercises, but will have to experiment with different exercises in January before I really know what my goals are. Hopefully I will do an update on this goal and my other goals at somewhat regular intervals.