Progress Toward Goals: April in Review

It's hard to believe but April is over and so are classes! I taught my last class of the year on Monday, and now I just have a final to administer tomorrow and exams and papers to grade. It's been a busy few weeks for me professionally, as I've had a lot of papers to read and mark, submitted a journal article, and served on a search committee. While I'm not feeling quite as well-rested as I would like for my upcoming half marathon, I am really looking forward to a bit of a break and perhaps some more spring-like weather.

So far the only flowers I've seen here this spring have come from the grocery store

I did pretty well with my fitness and health related goals this month. I definitely could have done more yoga, but I got in 65.32 miles running. I also walked a lot this month, but I didn't keep track of my mileage. I've been doing well with journaling in the form of tracking my points on Weight Watchers Online.

I consider this past month to have been a writing success, as I not only met my minimum page production goals each week, but in the early part of the month I exceeded them pretty significantly. Getting an article kicked out the door felt really good. Now it's just a matter of waiting and seeing what the journal editor thinks. My language study did drop off a bit this month, as I spent a lot of time marking papers and reading through applicants' files for a faculty position, but I did manage to continue to make a bit of progress.

My personal goals were again something of a hit or miss category. I epically failed again at re-jumpstarting my 365 project. But fun travels are upcoming and I'm determined to get back into the habit of taking pictures on a daily basis. I made progress with my novel-reading goal. I'm about a fifth of the way through Bolaño's mammoth tome 2666. I also read Aphra Behn's Ooronoko, which was deeply upsetting but incredibly interesting to me as a historian of the early modern period, and Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, which had been recommended to me by a friend. It was interesting as an exploration of memory, but I have to say that ultimately I didn't love it. After going overboard with shopping and spending in March, April was a lean month for me. I honestly didn't feel much like shopping as the weather has not really been spring-like, but I'm tired of winter clothing. I spent about $20 on socks and nail polish.

How was April for you? If you set any goals for the year or new year's resolutions, how are you doing with them a third of the way through the year? Academics, has your term wrapped up yet?

Progress Toward Goals: March in Review

March has been a pretty eventful month for me, as I went to San Diego for a few days to run my eleventh half-marathon at the beginning of the month, hosted a mini writing retreat over part of spring break, celebrated my birthday, and had a pretty busy second half of the month on campus between classes and some service tasks. I am very happy to say that I felt much better emotionally than I did in February. Thanks in part to Spring Break and to some fun activities -- I caught up with an old friend in San Diego, Mark and I went to a fun Seder for the second night of Passover, and we went tubing for the first time -- I was able to feel a bit of that often-elusive life-work-training balance thing.

At the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Diego's Balboa Park

Tubing Adventure!

Also in most areas I made some progress toward my goals. As far as my fitness and health goals are concerned, I did pretty well. Although I was still pretty lax with eating while in San Diego and not journaling during the first half of the month, I knew that a day of reckoning was coming as I struggled to get into one of my pairs of pants toward the end of spring break. The day after my birthday I joined Weight Watchers Online and have successfully journaled each day since then. My yoga has dropped off horribly this month, as I used up my class pass last month and since my yoga studio was closing at the end of the month (tear) I did not renew it. However, I'm planning to check out another studio soon for a class with some lady friends. In terms of running, I logged 64.2 miles in March, and, as I mentioned in my race report, while San Diego was not my fastest half it was 8 minutes faster than any of the half-marathons that I ran in 2012. I feel good about that.

Happily, this month even with travel and some of the general malaise that often makes itself known at this time during the academic year, I met my writing goal of at least 3 pages each week. Last week I sent a rough draft of an article manuscript to a couple of friends for some feedback, and I'm hoping to incorporate their suggestions and kick it out the door by the end of this next month. My Italian lessons did drop off a bit this month, but I still made some progress there.

In terms of my personal goals, my progress was something of a mixed bag. I really fell of the wagon with 365, though, and will be looking to recommit to this in April. I think part of it was that I opted not to take my DSLR with me to San Diego and when I returned I didn't really feel inspired to take pictures of snirt and then more snow on a systematic basis. I'm pressing reset, though, and I'll be better this next month. I did do some good reading in March and finished two novels, started two others, and read a memoir. I finished Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I would rank as one of the best books I've read in the past few years, and Shirley Jackson's classic and creepy The Haunting of Hill House. I bought A Thousand Days in Venice on the cheap for my kindle back in December, and wasn't paying close enough attention so I didn't notice it was a memoir and not a novel. I wasn't impressed with it, which is too bad as Lord knows I love Venice and eating. The prose was just not to my taste -- though I was pretty happy that I got almost all of the Italian passages without her translations. March was an expensive month due to my trip to San Diego and then we bought our tickets for Vancouver, and I have to admit that I went over budget this month. I blame DSW for sending me a birthday coupon. The damage: $170. I bought two pairs of shoes, and I also bought a pair of navy polka dot jeggings.

I hope those readers who celebrate the holiday have had a wonderful Easter! Did the Easter Bunny visit your house? If you could learn any language, which would it be and why?

Progress Toward Goals: February in Review

I'm so glad February is almost over. I sucked at  making progress on my goals during this past month. For example, I totally fell off the journaling wagon. Actually it would probably be more accurate to say that I dived off of it and then went frolicking around in a magical land made of gingersnaps, chocolate cakes, cheese, and corn chips. What can I say? February was a fucking hard/busy month for me, and I'm not going to beat myself up. I am however going to try to stamp my passport and leave eating the weight of my feelings in cheese and chocolate land and regain entry into at least eating more fruits and vegetables land in March. On the plus side, I ran 76.12 miles during February, which makes it my highest mileage month since August of 2011. In terms of getting faster, I ran a faster timed mile than in December, a faster treadmill 5K than in January, and ended the month with my fastest 800 repeats workout in quite some time. I also went snowshoeing for the first time and got in a few walks here and there and spent some time on my yoga mat.

This month I was able to meet my professional goal of writing or revising at least 3 pages each week. Although I admit that I'm not anywhere close to where I wanted to be with it, I have made progress on an article manuscript. I've noticed that I tend to feel a lot better emotionally and mentally when I'm making steadier (if not quite daily progress) on research and writing, and that's been harder the past few weeks to maintain because of a new class prep and some other academic responsibilities. At least I also wrote a grant application this past month. Also most days I've managed to spend about 30 minutes doing lessons on Rosetta Stone.

February was another photography fail as far as consistently taking and posting photos for my 365 project goes, though I did take some photos that I liked over the past month. I didn't get as much recreational reading done this month as I did last month, as we were running a search for a faculty position in my department and I had a lot of grading to do. I only finished one book in February: Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte. I did, however, make progress on another novel -- I'm about a third of the way through Susanna Clark's Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norrel, which so far has just been a fantastically fun read. In terms of sticking to my budget, I can mark another x in the win column. I spent just over $100 in February. (I had $5.30 left from January.) My purchases were the J. Crew sweater worn in my Love List post, a pair of ribbed tights on clearance at Target, and a box of hair color.

How was February for you? Are you ready for it to be over like me or sad to see it go?

February Virtual 5 by the 5th 5K

This morning I started my day with coffee and "speed"work. Along with many other members of the running blog community, I'm participating in Mommy Run Fast's excellent 5 by the 5th challenge.

I'm trying to consistently do one work out that focuses on speed each week during this marathon training cycle and trying to use the series of something of a means of tracking my progress. I'm hoping that it will make for a stronger marathon in May and maybe a fast 5K and 10K in the summer. My goals for this virtual run, which I did on the treadmill, were to run the entire time, push myself to give a solid effort, and to beat my time from last month (31:19). I ran this month's 5K in 30:36. Overall, I felt pretty good on this run. I felt some tiredness in my legs during the second mile, so I backed off on the speed for a little bit and then tried to finish strong. My splits were 9:57, 9:48, 9:43, and 1:08. Woohoo for negative splits!

In other news, my wonderful spouse started a new job yesterday! Hooray for gainful employment! Right now he's working on a 3 month contract, but we're hopeful it will turn into something more longterm. While it's going to make some things a little more logistically challenging between car-sharing and not leaving our deranged but darling dog by herself for too long at a stretch, I have to admit I've been feeling some relief. I won't get paid in the summer and the cost of living is higher here than what we're accustomed to after a decade in the Midwest, so I'm happy that now it looks like we'll be able to ride out the summer months without having to dip into our savings.

Progress Toward Goals: January in Review

January, you have gone by too quickly, and we are not amused by how quickly our last semester of course release is passing. By "we" I mean my pink pants and me, naturally.

Not amused by any of the following: having to go teach a class looking wrinkled after sitting at one's desk for 3 hours to work on an article and lecture notes, not having lecture notes already done at the time of sitting, or barf-worthy prose written by past self

At least in January I made some progress toward the goals that I set at the beginning of the year.

In terms of my fitness and health goals, I've been establishing some good habits. While I missed journaling a couple of days and have had some ice cream and cookies in January, I have been working toward eating more mindfully. So far I've run 57.32 miles this month and have 4 more on the schedule for the day today. My monthly mileage should increase over the next few months thanks to marathon training. Also I've been working to more regularly integrate speed work into my weekly routine. The past couple of weeks I've been getting back into Ashtanga and trying to make at least one class a week at my yoga studio.

My professional goals included writing or revising at least 3 pages  of academic writing each week and learning another language. So far, I've met my minimum writing target each week, and I (at least for the time being) have finished work on the co-edited volume I've been working on for the past couple of years. This past month I also wrote a book review for a journal and made some progress on an article manuscript. I've been trying to spend at least 30 minutes a day most days a week using Rosetta Stone, and I've completed a few lessons.

I did an alright job with my personal goals this past month. I didn't take photos every day this month (I also accidentally deleted some that I did take before I could post them), but I did take some that I liked, like the one above of the first moose I've seen out and about in town. I read three novels in January (Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, and The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D'Agostino -- I didn't love any of them, but of the three I thought The Snow Child was the most original and had the most potential) and made my way about half-way through the last Harry Potter novel in Spanish. I also managed to stick to my budget. In January I spent $94.70 of the $100 I'm allowing myself for monthly clothing, accessory, and shoe purchases. My purchases included mascara, nail polish, a sweater, a shirt, and running socks.

How was your first month of 2013? What have you been reading lately? Do you keep to a budget?

2013 Goals

I have to admit that I was a little bit sad to see 2012 go, as, all told it, it was a pretty fantastic year for me. It brought me a niece, a tenure-track job, adventures with my spouse, time with far-flung friends in Madrid, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Columbus, among many other good things. I spent most of the last week of the year in Louisiana with my family - eating too much, playing with my niblet, enjoying sister time, drinking copious amounts of coffee with my mom, playing Santa, and going to a bowl game with Mark. It was the perfect way to wind down the year.

Playing with new toys on Christmas Day

As a perpetual goal setter, the transition from one year to the next is a time for me to reflect on what has been working well for me and what I can do better. I'll be working toward several major goals over the next twelve months. Here they are.

Running/Fitness Goals
1. Run 800 miles in 2013. I know that I'm starting to sound like a broken record with this goal, but considering my relatively low mileage in 2012 (only 557 miles) it seems reasonable to set this number as a target again. Since I have a marathon on the schedule for late spring and won't have the craziness of job market related travel going on this winter (thank you, God!), it seems likely that I can get the year off to a good start with running.

2. Get faster. I definitely want to set a marathon PR this year. I still haven't completely determined my race schedule for the year - in part because it is prohibitively expensive to travel from Alaska and in part because I plan to be in Europe doing research during a good chunk of the time of year that I can find more local races here - so I'm not sure quite yet what other distances I will be targeting. Hopefully, I can get a 10K PR and a half-marathon PR as well. In general, though, I also plan to integrate more speedwork into my training and set some short term training goals to work on this. For example, I have a goal to shave a minute off my timed mile time (currently a slow 8:53) by my birthday (3/17).

3. Eat more healthfully and mindfully in 2013. I've been pretty lax in my eating habits here lately, even when maintaining my food journal. I want to eat more whole foods and significantly fewer crackers and cookies in the year to come. To that end, I will be not only keeping a food journal this year, but actually working to specifically keep my intake focused on plant-based foods and within a certain caloric range.

4. Continue to deepen my yoga practice. Since the summer I've been doing yoga pretty consistently and have started attending classes at a local yoga studio. I want to continue with this as well as continue having a regular (if not daily) home practice. I see another month or two of yoga streaking in my 2013 future and working toward finding peace in a couple of poses, as I keep my joints healthy.

Writing/Professional Goals
5. Write or revise a minimum of 3 pages of academic writing each week in 2013. I did really well with this writing goal in 2012, and, while part of me is tempted to take it up to 4 or 5 pages a week, I know that 3 pages is reasonably challenging during the weeks of the year when there are research papers to grade or while on family vacations. Again I hope that I will be more productive most weeks, but this sets a bar, and again I will be keeping track of my progress on a tab here on the blog that I will update regularly. This year I want to focus my energies toward:
A) Submitting two journal articles for publication. One of these will be a revise and resubmit that I need to tackle. The other is a piece that I have about 80% drafted but will require some significant time and polishing once that's done.
B) Send my book proposal out to presses, get a contract, and finish writing the manuscript. Oy vey. I really do not want to be putting this down on my goals next year. It is time to really get cracking with this project.
C) Finish work on the co-edited volume. While I'm not entirely in control of the timeline on a collaborative project, I'd like to do everything in my power to get this off my desk and into print in the next year.

6. Learn another language for my next research project. I'll reveal more about this at a later stage, but I have an idea for another research project, but it's going to require more than the cursory reading knowledge of a language aside from English or Spanish. My plan is to use Rosetta Stone and grammars to teach myself the basics and then read some books and look for a Skype language exchange partner later in the year.

Personal Goals
7. Continue working on my photography skills. To that end, I will finish my 365 project and take a class (either online or in person) at some point in the next year. I'd also like to do a couple of photo challenges on Instagram.

8. Read at least 26 novels in 2013 and at least 6 of them in Spanish. I've been watching more television and Netflix than I should here lately, and I would like to limit my tv watching time to only a few hours a week. So instead of watching shows in the evening, I'd like to spend more of that time curled up with a good book in the next twelve months. I know that some times I'll need to work after dinner to meet my writing goals this year (especially when my course load goes back up in the fall), so I think a book every two weeks will be challenging but doable.

9. Stick to a budget for all clothing and accessory purchases. After going on a shopping diet in 2011, I was pretty bad about keeping track of and limiting my spending in 2012. As it's so expensive to travel from here and I want to see family and run a couple of destination races, I'm going to have to make some changes in my spending habits. For 2013 I will be limiting my clothing, shoes, and accessory purchases to $100.00/month. I'm including nail polish and manicures in this tally, but I won't include things like shampoo and haircuts (I am long overdue for one incidentally). I will allow my unspent budget to roll over each month. If I PR at my marathon in May and have either submitted two articles or have a book contract by then, I will allow myself one special reward outside the budget.

Did you set any goals for 2013? I'd love to hear about them in the comments or have you link up if you wrote a post about them! I hope that 2013 will be a wonderful year filled with productivity, excellent runs, and sweet moments with loved ones for all of us! Happy New Year!

Upcoming Travels and Budgetary Sacrifices

As many of you know, I really love traveling. I have lived in several different states in the US and in Spain. I've spent significant chunks of time in Mexico and Canada and have traveled in Europe and North Africa. Due to financial and time constraints I don't get to travel as much as I would like, but I'm excited to report that I am in the middle of planning some upcoming trips.

At Louisa May Alcott's home in Beacon Hill

While I will need to take some work with me, I'm planning on going to visit my sister in San Antonio for part of my spring break in March. Most of my time will no doubt be spent adoring my new niece and catching up with my sister and brother-in-law, but San Antonio is a great city. I've been twice - once early in grad school and once a little over a year ago to visit my sister and to run a half-marathon. I wouldn't mind going back to the River Walk for a long walk or a run, checking out the Art Museum and eating more than my fair share of delicious Tex-Mex.

Later in March I'll be heading to Boston (a city that I really, really like) to give an invited lecture at another institution and to attend a conference. I'm excited for that trip because I have close friends who live in Boston, so, in addition to my scholarly and professional activities, I'm sure I'll spend some quality time with them eating cannoli and visiting a museum or two. Also this trip will fall within a week of my birthday, so it will be like getting an extra celebration.

In May, I'm heading to Columbus, Ohio to run a half-marathon with a dear friend. It will be her first, and I can't wait! We will undoubtedly celebrate by eating Jeni's.

At some point this summer -- probably also in May -- I will be heading to Madrid for a few weeks of research. I am seriously jonesing to get back into the archives. I'm applying for some funding from various sources, and if I get a grant I'll be able to extend my stay and possibly spend a week in Seville doing research there, as well. I've been pricing tickets, and it's really tempting to just go ahead and buy. I'm hoping that some friends will be willing to put me up part of the time that I'm planning to be in Madrid, so that my dollars will stretch a bit farther than they otherwise might.

One of my favorite cafes in Madrid

Of course, all of these trips will cost money. I think that my trip to Boston will be completely covered, but tickets to San Antonio seem to be pretty spendy these days. I hope that I get some grant money to cover all of my time in Madrid, but I'm currently operating under the worst case scenario assumption. So this means that I'm going to have to buckle down and pinch pennies in some other areas of my life for the next few months. Apart from replacing my running shoes, I've decided not to buy any new clothing, books, or music from this point until May. I'm limiting myself to one coffee/latte purchase a week (rather than the 3-5 I was buying each week last semester). I also won't be registering for any other races over the next few months. Race registration fees add up quickly, and I'd rather have those discretionary funds for travel.

Do you have any upcoming trips planned? Is travel a priority for you? How do you organize your budget?