"Race" Report: Running of the Reindeer

The past week Anchorage has been bustling with lots of events connected to Fur Rondy, which has been rightly called the best winter carnival in the world. Fur Rondy's origins are in the even-more-frontier days of Alaska and the swap meets of trappers, but now it is an almost-two week long festival that includes such activities as yukigassen tournaments, outhouse races, hockey games, snow sculpture contests, a Miners and Trappers Ball that glorifies facial hair, and of course the start of the Iditarod and the Running of the Reindeer.

Mark's work gave him passes to the Exxon hospitality suite, so we were able to watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Saturday morning while keeping toasty warm and stuffing our faces with pastries, mini quiches, salmon canapes and, in my case, drinking copious amounts of coffee. We watched a number of teams begin their epic trek toward Nome.

Pastries and Cake

Jamaican Musher Newton Marshall

Musher DeeDee Jonrowe and her team

I have to say eating on an oil company's dime and watching the dogs and mushers made me feel slightly like a real Alaskan. Standing outside in the cold for an hour waiting for the start of the Running of the Reindeer, however, proved to me that I have a long way to go. The Running of the Reindeer has been billed as Anchorage's take on Pamplona's Running of the Bulls. It is a super festive and fun event. Most runners don costumes -- some of them very elaborate. Since I was unprepared my costume barely counts as one. I wore my peacock tights and put a few feather clips in my hair.

The runners get a head start to run a snowy couple of blocks in downtown Anchorage before reindeer are released to join the runners. Since the runners and then the reindeer are released in herds, it meant a lot of standing in the cold. However, an impromptu snowball fight broke out which provided some entertainment and distraction from the fact that my skin was turning the color of my tights. The race is a great fundraiser for Toys for Tots and I got to stop in the middle of my short run to pet a reindeer. How awesome is that?

Petting a reindeer! I'm in the blue top. 

I can definitely tell you next year I will be wearing a warmer costume, though. Maybe Mark and I will go as Han Solo and Chewbacca. I'm calling dibs on the Chewy Costume.

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!

Favorite Photos: July to December

About a week ago I posted my favorite photos from the first part of the year. As I mentioned then, I did a pretty good job of taking photos consistently during the summer, but struggled once the school year started. In October and November I really fell off the wagon -- in part due to an obsession with Instagram. I was posting photos there almost daily, but failed to pick up my DSLR much for a few weeks. Even so, I managed to take some photos that make me smile. Here are my favorites from July to December.

July: I took a lot of photos that I really liked in July. That month I went to Madison for a wedding; I spent two weeks in New York City working on a project; finally, Mark and I drove six days from the Midwest to Alaska. I'm cheating a little bit and sharing two photos. The first is one that I took on a Monday afternoon spent wandering around Central Park. I love the subjects of this photo: the bike with its basket, the pond, the greenery. I also love the quality of light.

The second photo is from our drive to Alaska. I snapped this photo quickly from the passenger side of the car, feeling lucky that we'd had plenty of time to brake. The bear was just sauntering across the highway. It was only one of the many amazing things that we saw on the trek.

August: In August I returned to New York for another two weeks. My favorite photo from the month is one that I took while exploring the High Line with a friend.

September: In September I didn't take that many photos that I liked. It was a hard month with a lot going on. I was starting a new job that didn't get off to the best of beginnings, we had roof damage and tree carnage from a windstorm, and I frequently felt lonely and isolated. Toward the end of the month things started to look up, and I ran a 10K the last weekend in September. This photo is one that I snapped on my phone coming back from the race. The first snow of the season (that fell earlier that morning) was melting off the roads but had transformed the mountains. I love the way the clouds were breaking up, and the mountains are beautiful.

October: This was the month that I got into Instagram and really fell of the 365 wagon. My pool of non-instagramed photos is pretty limited, but this one of the swanky hotel bar in Cincinnati, where I attended a conference, is my favorite. This one was taken with my phone.

November: After a dreary early autumn, this month was full of days that were (incredibly) cold but frequently clear and bright. And we had some amazing sunrises and sunsets over the mountains. This photo is one of the most lovely that I was able to capture.

December: Although the month is still underway and I have plans of taking even more awesome photos of my niece and at the bowl game I'll be attending, I thought I would share one of my favorites taken so far. This was taken earlier in the month on a short walk around my neighborhood. There's a small pond near my home that often offers some idyllic subjects. I took this photo of the ice covered branches of a some bushes on the macro setting.

I hope you all had a happy solstice, that your airing of grievances is full of humor and your feats of strength go unmatched, and that those of you who celebrate the holiday have a very merry Christmas! Happy holidays, dear readers!

Favorite Photos: January to June

One of the goals that I set for 2012 was to work on becoming a better photographer. In order to work toward that goal, I started a 365 project in January, but found that I struggled with having an additional form of social media to have to which to post things and to comment on the work and posts of others. So at the end of April, I decided to reset the project and start posting my daily photos to a 365 blog here. During the summer I did a good job of consistently taking photos daily and uploading them to the blog, but I struggled a little bit with doing this once the semester got underway. I plan to continue the project until I reach 366 photos, and I'm trying to get back into the habit of snapping photos daily and posting them regularly this month. Even though I didn't always take daily photos and restarted the project in April, I did take a number of photos that I thought were interesting or meaningful to me, and I did get a bit more comfortable with my DSLR.

Here are my favorite photos from the first half of the year.

January: I took this photo with my DSLR right after midnight. Having just recently decided to take on a 365 challenge, I was really into trying to find ways to make every day kinds of subject a little more interesting. I also was exhibiting something of a newbie obsession with bokeh.

February: Going back through my photos, I really had a pretty limited selection of ones that I liked from that month. However, this one, that I took with my point-and-shoot while I was in Alaska interviewing for my current job and getting a tour of Turnagain Arm is one that doesn't make me feel ashamed of my photography skills or bored out of my mind. I like how the natural light gives it a vignette effect, albeit one that is not exactly centered.  

March: In March I traveled to San Antonio to see my sister, brother-in-law, and new niece, Isla. I took a number of photos that I really liked during that tripand, looking back through them, it was hard to choose a favorite. I ultimately settled on this one of the waterfall and bridge at the Japanese Tea Gardens.

April: My favorite photo from April is one that I took of my niece Norah, while we were in Toronto for Passover. She had a lot of fun playing her dad's shoes that evening, but I love this one in particular because of the look of concentration on her face.

May: I took this photo using the macro setting on my DSLR. It was a beautiful late spring day, and I spent part of it in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid alternating between fiddling with my camera and taking photos of flowers and reading on a bench.

June: In June Mark and I did a bit of traveling -- we went to Alaska to look for a home and to Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. It was difficult to pick a favorite photo until I remembered this one that I took while we were exploring a beach near the place that would be our new home. I love everything about this photo: the guy, the stone skipping in the waves, the mountains and clouds in the background.

Have you ever done a photo challenge? If you've posted a favorite photo on your blog or on instagram, I'd love for you to link up in the comments!

Scenes from the Road

We have arrived at our new home in Alaska and we have internets! When I last posted, I was writing in the midst of chaotic packing and preparing to hit the road to drive almost 3500 miles. The night before the movers were to arrive, M. and I went to bed a little bit worried that we hadn’t packed enough or cleaned enough, but we were too exhausted to do any more. The next morning we woke up even more anxious as a thunderstorm crashed over our house. We were concerned that the movers might postpone or cancel due to liability issues. When we hadn’t heard anything to indicate they weren’t coming by 7:45, I went ahead and took Bailey to daycare so that she would be out from underfoot and picked up a coffee at Starbucks. By the time I got back, the movers were there and presumably expertly packing our fragile items into boxes.* They were efficient and capable. At around 11:00 am, I looked around our half-empty townhouse and told M. that if we could finish cleaning and be on the road by 3pm that we should make for Fargo. By 12:30 pm all of our things were loaded on the truck. M. made a massive recycling run, and I finished vacuuming and cleaning the fridge. At 2:30 we picked up Bailey from her daycare (although they did try to tell us they couldn’t find her since they were sad to see her go), and we began our epic 6.5 day journey. 

We drove through prairies and forests; we drove over twisty (and somewhat scary) mountain passes and by sparkling lakes; we narrowly missed colliding with a bear and running over a beaver. We saw and applauded a number of bad-ass cyclists hauling it up mountains. The scenery was spectacular, especially once we got into British Columbia and further west. Here are some views we had from the road (there are some more on my 365 blog as well):

Before we set out we had printed out maps and itineraries from Google, which suggested that most of our days on the road would be in the 11-14 hour range without stops. Fortunately, we made somewhat better time than that, and our longest day on the road was only about eleven hours. However, 8-10 hours in the car for five consecutive days was long enough, and I ended most of the days feeling cramped and stiff and sore. Even so, I definitely felt like we got lucky. I was able to find decent coffee on all but one of the mornings. Bailey got sick relatively few times – and only once in the car. We made it in one piece without getting lost or without breaking down in a barren stretch of the Yukon Territory where we had no cell phone service. I got in one short, easy run and two short little yoga practices. By the end of the trip, M. and I were still getting along quite well. It was no vacation, but we don’t regret the decision that we made to drive – though I freely admit that we never would have chosen to do it this way if we weren’t afraid that the airline would deny our dog passage due to her debilitating separation anxiety.

What's the longest stretch of consecutive days you have spent driving?

*Until our stuff gets put into a container and arrives here intact, I cannot certify the actual level of expertise involved. It seemed legit, but the jury is still out. 

2012 Goals: Mid-Year Check In

June is almost over, so I thought I'd check in and report my progress (or lack thereof in some cases) with the longterm goals that I set at the beginning of the year. I've been making good progress on some of the things that I wanted to achieve in 2012, some progress on some of them, and a couple have stalled. I would say that, realistically, almost all of my goals are still in the doable camp. I need to reassess the two exceptions and see how I can come out of the year with measurable progress even if I don't check them off my list.

Running and Health Goals
1. Run 800 miles in 2012.  I am no where close to being half-way to meeting this goal. I've run fewer than 300 miles so far this year, so I would need to run an average of 85 miles a month for the rest of the year to meet my goal. I just don't think that's realistic for me right now. I'm not training for a fall marathon, though I am registered for a fall half (more on that later). July and August will probably not be high mileage months as I have 2 research trips to New York, an epic move of more than 3,000 miles, and the start of a new job to contend with. I'm trying to reassess and come up with a magic number of miles that is more realistic considering the circumstances but still challenging. 650? 700?

2. Get faster. I wanted to set new 10K and half-marathon PRs. I have yet to find a 10K that fits my schedule this year and have come no where close to strong performances in the two half-marathons that I've run thus far this year. The good news is that there is still time to work on this. I am registered for a fall half-marathon and have started working on getting some speed again. I'm also registered for a 5K next month in New York and am going to focus on being in a position to try for a PR at that distance then. And maybe a 10K will pop on my radar before too long.

3. Continue my home yoga practice and take some classes at a studio (or studios). I have been doing less yoga than I would ideally like to be doing here lately. I never made it to my studio in Madrid. However, I've made up my mind to check out a studio near where I'll be staying during my first research trip to New York. I've also been doing some internet sleuthing to see if I can find a yoga studio that's not too far from our house in Anchorage. One studio has a pretty decent introductory rate for a month of unlimited classes, so I'm thinking about doing that in September.

4. Maintain my food journal for the entire year. I was doing pretty well with this goal until I had my oral surgery and went to Madrid shortly thereafter. Since I didn't have internet in my apartment there I pretty much completely fell off the journaling wagon. This past week I've been trying to get back into the habit of logging what I eat.

Writing and Professional Goals
5. Write or Revise a minimum of 3 pages/week of academic writing for the entire year.  This is probably the goal I've done the best with so far this year. I've been keeping a weekly log on one of the pages here and knowing that I would have to report a number less than 3 was what kept me motivated to take time to write even when things have been really busy. I just need to keep going and doing what I've been doing.

A) Submit at least two articles to journals for publication. While I haven't submitted anything yet, I think I should have one article that's ready to go out soon after the move, and I plan to finish revisions on another article so that I can resubmit it to a journal in the fall.
B) Send my book proposal to publishers, get a book contract, finish writing the manuscript itself.  I'm not where I'd like to be with this one. I'm making progress on the proposal and revisions, but I'll need another research trip before I'll be able to completely finish the manuscript in its entirety. As it stands, I'm reassessing this one. I am determined to get the proposal and a revised sample chapter out to presses before the end of the year, though.
C) Apply for grants that will enable me to do more research. I have done okay with this one. One of the grants I was going to apply for canceled their 2012 competition due to the economic crisis in Spain, and I wasn't eligible for research grants from the institution I left because I would not be returning. I did, however, have input on a co-authored grant that is paying for my research trips to New York this summer and will be keeping my eyes open for opportunities in the fall.

6. Look into doing service for a professional organization. I haven't really managed to get to this yet, but I am working on a cataloguing project while I'm in New York and I will be the faculty advisor to the local chapter of a history honor society once I arrive at my new institution, so those things will count.

Personal Goals
7. Keep a wine and beer journal. I was doing pretty well with this in the winter months but sort of petered off during the spring. I've started back up again, though, since my house hunting trip to Anchorage where I had some tasty local beers.

8. Learn to be a better photographer. I initially joined a 365 website, but I struggled to keep up with it after the first few weeks. I think in part that was because it was yet another social media that I felt like I needed to log in and keep track of. Since I started my 365 blog at the end of April, I've only missed one day, and I do think I'm getting more comfortable with my DSLR. Taking the camera with me to Madrid - something that I debated doing - turned out to be a good decision for me.

If you set goals for the year, how are they coming along? I'd love to hear about your achievements and progress!

April Goals

April is the last month of classes at my current institution, and I have an oral surgery scheduled for this month. (I guess I'll get to cross #12 of my 32 in 32 bucket list.) Knowing that I have a lot going on, including final papers to grade, and that I will need a few days of taking things easy to recover from having my wisdom teeth cut out, I'm trying to be realistic in my goal setting this month.

Writing/Professional Goals

1. Finish modernizing the other primary source text. For reals. This needs to be off my desk before I leave on my research trip to Madrid. 

2. Make an archival to-do list. I've already started this, but I need to finish this so that I go to Madrid with a solid research plan for making the best use of my four weeks in the archives there. 

3. Make progress on my book proposal. I hope to finish my chapter outlines this month (since I didn't last month) and begin working on revising a sample chapter to send out to presses with the proposal. 

Fitness/Health Goals

1. Maintain my food journal every day during the month of April. Grading often leads to mindless snacking for me. I want to make sure I'm encouraging myself to snack on more fruit and on less cheese and crackers. 

2. Run 70 miles. I will need to take a few days off from running after my surgery, but I'm hoping to make running a few miles a priority and a means of relieving stress during these final weeks of the term. A few speed workouts are also in order during the first part of the month. 

3. Do at least three 45-90 minute yoga practices. Because I'll be gone much of the summer and am moving, I'm canceling my gym membership during the second half of this month. That should give me some extra time for stretching out on my mat and meditating. 

Miscellaneous Goals

1. Take a photo every day for my 365 project and make a collage at the end of the month. I really want to get back on the wagon with this so that I can justify buying a zoom lens at some point this summer.
2. I'd like to try my hand at making my own bagels this month. Mainly, I want to do some baking before it gets so hot that I'd rather the oven not be turned on.

Have you ever made your own bagels? If so, I'd love you to share your recipe or a link to it in the comments! What are your goals for April? 

March Goals and Some Good News

I'm really excited to share some good news with you, dear readers. I found out on Wednesday afternoon that I had won a major grant for the summer and will be working on an awesome project for several weeks in New York City with two other more advanced faculty members in my field. I'll probably spend a week or so in June and much of July in New York. I'm over the moon about getting to work in this collection, have my name associated with this granting institution, and spend time in NYC! I'm also hoping that I can either run a 4th of July Half-Marathon in the Bronx or the Queens Half-Marathon at the end of July, but I can't commit to that until we get a better sense of dates.

M. and me in NYC in 2008

So with that out of my system, it's now on to March goals. This month starts with midterm grading; it will include Spring Break with a trip to San Antonio to visit my sister and meet my new little niblet, a Writing Retreat that I'm hosting, and my birthday, which will be celebrated with a half-marathon; and March will wind down for me with a trip to Boston for a conference and to give a talk at a Boston-area college. It's going to be busy and full of time with family and friends.

Fitness/Health Goals
1. Run 75 Miles. Aim to run in every place that I visit this month. I plan to complete four double digit long runs this month, as well.
2. Do more yoga. This includes doing a couple of longer practices. Maybe even try a class at a studio if my schedule allows at some point this month.
3. Maintain my food journal every day this month. If I am able to do this, even when traveling this month, and meet my mileage goal, I'm going to treat myself to a pedicure at the beginning of April.

Writing/Professional Goals
1. Finish modernizing the other primary source text. A few final modifications might be needed, but I want this project to be off my desk.
2. Write the public lecture I'll be giving later in the month. I already have a few pages drafted, but I want to impress so I need to get to work on this and will be devoting several hours this weekend to it even though Spring Break is calling my name.
3. Make progress on my book proposal. I hope to finish my chapter outlines this month and begin working on revising a sample chapter to send out to presses with the proposal.

Miscellaneous Goals
1. Take a photo every day for my 365 project and make a collage at the end of the month. I missed a few days of taking photos in February, and I need to just take more photos in general since the goal of this project is really for me to improve my photography skills.
2. Clean out my writing desk. Over the past couple of months, my writing desk has become a storage unit rather than a workable space. Now that the days are getting lighter, I'd like to do more work at my writing desk again, so it's time to clean and sit down (or alternatively stand up) and write.

What do you have planned for March? Any races? Any major projects you hope to finish or to start? I'd love to hear from you!

January in Review and Photos

January has been a total blur. I'm kind of freaked out by the fact that it is already over and that somehow I am already in the midst of week four of the academic term. Even though I anticipated January being a hectic and fast-paced month and tried to set my goals accordingly, I still somehow managed to underestimate the level of frenzy this month would bring at a variety of levels. I managed to accomplish some of my goals and make progress with the others, so I can't be too disappointed.

My fitness/health goals were:
1. Run 75 miles in January. Nope. I only ran 51 miles. Missing several runs, including two long runs, this month is basically the reason that I didn't hit my mileage goal. I had planned to run 4-5 today, but I'm under the weather again (ugh!) and need to conserve my energy to make it through the classes that I teach this afternoon.
2. Maintain my food journal daily. Yes! I'm really pleased that I maintained my journal every single day this month. I still have to get through today, but I have already logged my breakfast and have reason to believe that I will have a perfect record this month.
3. Do more yoga. I had hoped to get in some longer practices and maybe attend a class at a studio, but I didn't do a good job of carving out longer periods of time to spend on my mat this month. I did a number of short practices and post-run meditations, though, and I'll try to get in some of those longer practices this next month.

My professional/writing goals were:
1. Finish revising an article and submit it to an academic journal. I did manage to get this off my desk early in the month.
2. Complete 2/3 of a primary source text modernization project that I'm working on. I'm not quite 2/3 of the way through. I'm closer to being somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 done with this project, but I'll be spending some significant chunks of time on this project over the next week.
3. Begin work on the table of contents and chapter outlines for my book manuscript proposal. I haven't made a lot of progress, but I have started work on this. I met with one of my writing groups for an hour or so one afternoon earlier this month and hammered out a couple of pages.

My miscellaneous goals were:
1. Create a collage of my January photos for the 365 project. Done! I haven't yet taken a photo today and I missed two days over the course of the month, but I think I've managed to get this project off to a good start.

Did you set any January goals? If so, how did you do with them? If you set goals for the year, how are you finding ways to make progress on them?

January Goals: New Year, New Hair, New Projects

So far my 2012 is off to a pretty good start. I got a hair cut. I've made substantial progress on article revisions. I finished a novel and caught up with a good friend over lunch. This month I have a lot going on: a conference in Chicago, where I'll be seeing a number of colleagues and friends, the start of another semester bringing with it meetings and class prep, my wedding anniversary, half-marathon training, and writing projects with deadlines. In order to set myself up for success, I'm keeping my goals focused on making progress toward the bigger goals that I have for 2012.

My stylist always gives me the news anchor 'do

Professional/Writing Goals
1. Finish revising an article and submit it to an academic journal. Disconnect from the internet, set the timer, immerse myself in work, and get it done. The sooner the better.
2. Complete 2/3 of a primary source text modernization project that I'm working on. Once I'm back from this conference, my plan is to do several pages each week. I'm going to block out an hour or so on Mon/Wed/Fri for doing this.
3. Begin work on the table of contents and chapter outlines for my book manuscript proposal. Ideally, I'd like to have a draft of each chapter outline done by the end of the month. I'm more flexible with this one because I'm prioritizing the other two goals this month, but I want to make some progress here. Forward momentum is good.

Fitness/Health Goals
1. Run 75 miles in January. My half-marathon training program actually calls for a few more miles than this, but with my upcoming conference and the start of the semester, I'm allowing myself a little bit of flexibility. The goal is to get in all the long runs even if I have to shift things around and most of the other runs on my schedule. I'm planning a 7 miler in Chicago on Saturday.
2. Maintain my food journal daily. I'd like to get the year off to an excellent start here, and I'm thinking of rewarding myself with a little something for the kitchen I've had my eye on if I succeed in recording every meal and snack in January.
3. Do more yoga. I will continue to work in those shorter practices, but I want to get in at least two longer sessions on my mat. My goal is to either check out a class or two at the local yoga studio or do a couple of longer practices from yogadownloads. Maybe I'll get really crazy and do both. It depends on how the month unfolds.

Miscellaneous Goals
1. Create a collage of my January photos for the 365 project. I want to make sure that I'm starting out this project by regularly uploading my photos and keeping track of them. I think this will be a fun way to make sure that I do that. I'll post it at the end of the month.

How are you breaking your goals for the year down into more manageable tasks? Anyone else avoiding the gym during the first week or so of the year and selfishly hoping that the hubbub dies down soon?

Eight Goals for 2012

Happy New Year to all of my readers! I hope that you had a wonderful time ringing it in! We spent the evening making and eating a delicious meal, drinking wine and cava, watching a favorite film, and dancing.

I'm sure lots of people are setting twelve goals for 2012 or setting goals to run 12 races in '12, but I decided that I needed to set fewer long term goals this year and use my monthly goal-setting in a more focused way in order to achieve some big things this year. As usual, I have divided my goals up into categories.

Running and Health Goals
1. Run 800 miles in 2012. I came very close to meeting this same mileage goal in 2011, and I have increased my annual mileage each year since 2008. I'm planning on focusing on half-marathons and 10Ks this year, so rather than increasing my goal mileage I'm holding it steady because I want to . . .

2. Get faster. More specifically I want a 10K and a half-marathon PR in 2012. I'm planning on running 3 half-marathons and a couple of 10Ks over the course of the year, and I want to work on getting my legs stronger and more capable of speed at those medium distances.

3. Continue my home yoga practice and take some classes at a studio (or studios). I looked at taking some classes at the Y, but at least during the semester their offerings are not going to work with my teaching schedule. There are a couple of possibilities that might work with my schedule at another local studio, though, so I'm going to drop in for a class or two and see if I like it. If I do, I'll buy a 10-class pass and use it through the winter and spring. I'm also hoping that there will be some visits to my beloved Kundalini studio in Madrid this summer. Those days that I don't do yoga, I still want to spend at least a few minutes being still and meditating.

4. Maintain my food journal for the entire year. I did okay with this in 2011, but I definitely could have done better. I'll be employing the sticker calendar system again. I also read a fascinating and sobering article on maintaining weight loss in the NYT recently, so I think continuing awareness of making healthful choices is something that I need to be diligent about doing.

Writing and Professional Goals
5. Write or Revise a minimum of 3 pages/week of academic writing for the entire year.  There is some research that shows that writers who log their writing and hold themselves accountable to others by checking in write almost 10 times as much annually as those who don't. I hope to do quite a bit more than 3 pages most weeks, but my goal is to maintain a consistent habit of writing even when I have way too much other shit going on. The projects I will be mainly working on under this objective are:
A) Submit at least two articles to journals for publication. While I can't completely control what reviewers and editors will decide regarding my submissions, I can do more research and writing and get things out the door.
B) Send my book proposal to publishers, get a book contract, finish writing the manuscript itself. The book proposal is a carry-over from last year, and I'm determined to achieve it this year. I will also continue to write/revise book chapters.
C) Apply for grants that will enable me to do more research. I'm hoping that I can find some funding sources that will allow me to make trips to archives in Spain and Mexico and to use the resources of other libraries and collections over the next year or so.

6. Look into doing service for a professional organization. I'm a member of several professional associations, and I'm interested in doing something in terms of service - sitting on an awards committee, helping with newsletter publication, something along those lines.

Personal Goals
7. Keep a wine and beer journal. I would like to visit some wineries, as well. But for now I'll focus on documenting what I buy, drink, and enjoy (or alternatively think is swill). I'd like to try at least one new wine each month instead of buying the same 5 bottles because I know that I enjoy them.

8. Learn to be a better photographer. In order to do this, I will participate in the 365 project this year. (Should it be the 366 project since it's a leap year?) I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've owned my DSLR for almost as long as I've had this blog, and I still don't know all of its settings. The other day I went to take some shots and realized that I still take some pretty crappy photographs with a good camera. So I want to improve this. Also my mom bought me a tripod and remote for my last birthday, and I want to make better use of the.

A lot of my 2012 goals are focused on establishing daily habits. Some of them seem a little daunting, but most will only take a few minutes a day (like meditating, jotting down my food intake, and taking at least one daily photograph), and some of the others only need half an hour or so here and there in order for me to make progress. A 20 minute yoga practice while coffee is brewing or between teaching and an hour or so of writing is better than no yoga practice at all. Similarly, I need to start approaching writing with a bit more flexibility. While I like having several hours in a day to devote to writing so that I can really  get into a zone, I also need to be better about using those 30-60 minute blocks of time that emerge here and there during teaching days.

Did you set any goals for 2012? If you posted about them, I'd love for you to link up here so that I can read all about them!