Two to go for 2020

There are now two months remaining in 2020. Just two little months. And I am nowhere near two months from completing all my 2020 goals. I am trying to stay calm about this, but I know that I will be quite frustrated when the year is over, and I have a long list of un-dones.

Some of those unmet goals are beyond my control, and that will make it easier to accept – even if I am disappointed about my lack of success. I mean, I can’t really beat myself up for not travelling to all the wonderful places I planned to travel to when travel has been prohibited or unsafe.

Some of those unmet goals were within my control, but I simply couldn’t find the power within me to get them done. Like reading! I was meant to read a lot of books this year, but once the lockdowns started in March, I couldn’t bring myself to readdespite spending the last 7+ months (mostly) isolating at home.

But even this is a little easy to accept, as I know I am not alone in this. Between conversations with family and friends and reading the experiences of others on social media, I can see that this is a COVID side effect that many people around the globe are experiencing. Indeed, several of my friends have noted that their lack of reading stems from the same change in behaviour as mine: a lack of commuting on trains and buses, which is when so much leisure reading gets done. Even my Mum, who is happily retired and doesn’t have a commute, has found reading during this crazy time a little more challenging. (On the other hand, Mum says that Dad is reading more than normal. So, clearly, I am not exactly like my father. But I digress…)

Getting back to the point, however, I have realised that there are three goals that I can still hit for the year. The first of those is easy: I need to find three more geocaches. And I have a plan to exceed that goal next weekend when I go out for a long geocache trail a few miles from the cottage. The other two goals, however, are going to take a lot of work over the entire two months that remain in the year!

The two goals I will be pushing myself to complete over the last two months of 2020 are running goals. And to meet those goals, I need to run 57 times covering a total mileage of at least 266 miles. All in between now and 31 December 2020. And that means I must find the motivation and, importantly, the self-discipline to get it done!

That’s a heck of a lot of running to squeeze into two months, but I am going to do my best to meet the goals. Of course, had I dedicated more of my COVID isolation time to running I would be in a better place at this point. But I have done a lot of walking and hiking this year instead. And I mean a lot! (Including several half-marathon+ distances.) That increase in walking and hiking means that I am set to exceed my step-count goal – even if I stop walking today!! But I digress, again…

To meet these two running goals in two months, I will aim to run every day between now and the end of the year – regardless of the weather. That will include gentle 5Ks and (weather and health permitting) at least one full marathon distance. And probably a couple of half marathons, too. I will also work on my 5-mile and 7-mile routes to see if I can kick out some new PBs in the coming weeks.

This will not be easy and, some days, this will not be fun. But I set these goals for myself specifically so that I could push myself. And now, because I didn’t push myself hard enough earlier in the year, I need to really push myself for the next 61 days.

It’s going to be a hard push to get this done, but as I said, it is one of the few goals that I can control at this point in the year. So, feel free to wish me luck or to provide any motivation and encouragement that you have to pass on. I could really use it. But for now, it’s time to run!

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