Am I training for a race? What race? You must be training for something because you increased your training from four to six days. Are you training for the Tour de France? Aren’t you a little old for the Tour de France? I will admit I am training for something! What?
Physical
Why do I need to increase my training anyway? I am in good shape, my weight is fine and I am in good health. One of the reasons might be my age or is it my new assignment? Middle school students are different from high school students, but it doesn’t require increased stamina. I increased my training because I was testing myself physically. I wanted to see if the increase in training would make a difference physically. What was my training plan?
Usually I set goals to achieve a particular outcome or goal. This time, I wanted to see how much I could improve through aerobic exercise (riding my bike for 90 minutes) and anaerobic exercise (weight lifting). As I get older, I find that it takes more effort to achieve the same results. Recently, I added some stretching exercises to make me more flexible. It is a reminder that I am not as flexible because I am old(er). Feeling good physically adds to my confidence and mental well being. I think my training program was working!
Mental
I did not stop at just my physical well being this summer. In July, I took a class in Geometry to brush up on my math skills. I am preparing to take a math credential test sometime next year. Why? This Spring I went through a very difficult time. Teaching is normally a fairly stable career, however state budget cuts has changed education. That is a whole story in its own. Adding an additional credential will keep me safe from any cuts.
Normally, I spend so much time on the internet reading blogs, articles and so much more. Do I really need to read some books too? During July and August I read about twenty-five (25) books. About twenty (20) were part of a series of one character by one author. It was the first time I ever did something like this and it was really enjoyable to see the characters grow over time. The reading and class gave me a pretty good mental workout. Keeping your mind active is important too!
Progress
At the end of June, I reflected on my progress toward my goals (New Year’s Resolutions) and realized I needed to step it up. One of my goals for this year was pretty aggressive and I needed to step it up! Summer was an excellent time to put more effort into my blog because I was out of school. When I was not riding, working out or reading, I spent a lot of time writing, commenting and reading other blogs. Was it worth the effort? Stay tuned for my progress report for the third quarter on October 1st. I am starting to realize this is not a race, but a marathon!
Final thoughts
I have written about a lot of things financial, career and lifestyle that relates to goals, goal setting, motivation and success. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about “Successful vs. Unsuccessful People” which discusses the various traits of both kinds of people. My writing is intended to get you to think about various subjects, a little thought provoking and engage you in different viewpoints. So why did I tell you how I spent my summer vacation? Was it a school assignment or just a reason to create an article? None of the above! Are you prepared to handle everything you need to do?
I decided to share what I did to illustrate how much someone can do, if motivated! In addition, I still spent time with my wife, children, and friends. I went to the movies, went out to dinner every week, beach and other fun stuff too. Two months later I am in the best physical shape of my life, mentally sharper and writing better. You will have to wait to see if my blog statistics are better. Will this make me more successful? I think I am better prepared to take on more. Success encourages more success! What are you doing to prepare yourself? Am I training for a race?
Photo by: River Beach
Great work pushing yourself. The human body is amazing, but most of us will never figure that out because we are too busy being careful. Sounds like you have had one hell of a summer. That is awesome. I haven’t been dooing to bad, but definitely need to pick it up.
I am actually training for my first marathon, so I know the body is amazing. I ran 14 miles yesterday and it was nothing to me. Crazy because I use to think a 4 mile run was really far.
Anyway, glad to hear you are pushing yourself. Good luck with the math certification test. That is an awesome way to stabalize your job!
It was much easier when I was off. Now I have balance work with this regimen. I did find out what I was capable of doing though. Good luck on the marathon.
Thank you! I have been working hard. Just a few more weeks and it will be on to the next challenge. ….ok, got to run, have 5 miles to run today. Should be a quck and fun run. Gearing up for 20 miles I have on Friday. That is going to be a challenge, but I am up to it!
It sounds as though you re getting ready for a marathon! I used to run myself, but no more than 3-4 miles. I stopped when I turned forty to avoid injury. Now, I just ride and workout with weights.
Thank you!! Training is going very well. Knocked out an easy 10 today.
Are you training for a marathon?
I respect your approach. I think we need to be tested throughout life. Adversity brings about the best in our character. I pursue the incremental approach to improvement; measuring where I am at and doing t a little better next time. I have no doubt you will see improvements across the board, blog stats included.
I am like Hunter. I like to see little improvements along the way. I like to build on what I had before. I find it really motivating. I try to set these mini goals with my fitness routine as well as the rest of my life.
I think you are headed in the right direction. You are very dedicated so no matter what you strive for you will accomplish it.
I look for incremental improvement as I measure my progress to a goal. I just keep moving the goal.
My stats has improved because of the increased effort. The jury is still out on everything else.
I’m sure you’ll achieve whatever you set your mind to KC. Thanks for all your support, by the way. I appreciate your prolicif commenting and always reciprocate when I can find the energy to keep up to your high standard!
Thanks for the encouragement. I do appreciate you and everyone who comment on my posts.
Congrats on accomplishing so much this summer. I can’t wait to see your blog stats in October. I notice my brain works better on the days when I exercise and I feel an overall sense of well-being.
When I exercise, particularly bicycling I do my best thinking. I think it is because of the physical activity that clears your brain.
Wow, you are in great shape! I haven’t been able to exercise as much since baby RB40 joined us. I’m exhausted all the time. Hope this gets better soon. Glad to hear you had a great summer!
Thanks. Now I have to adjust my program my new assignment.
For me I can’t be accountable to just Evan. I need a blog to keep my finances in order and I just entered into a weight loss competition with some buddies with some real cash at stake!
If that works for you, great! I pushed myself to see what I could accomplish and it kept me busy.
Congrats on making the most of your summer, that’s awesome! Pushing yourself with both physical and metal goals is inspirational. I am majorly slacking on my exercise goals, but at least I’ve made a lot of progress elsewhere. Keep it up KC, way to go! -Sydney
Thanks, I am switching over now that I am back at work.
I love it when people establish stretch goals!!! I am completely impressed that you set aside time to ready that many books. That’s awesome! With respect to exercise, I completely understand. I’m constantly having to increase the amount of exercise I do to get the same results too.
I love to ride or maybe it is just the feeling I have after I am done. Either way, I feel better exercising! As I get old(er), it seems to take twice the effort to get half the result.
I would love to know who the author was of the 20 books you read with the same character. I love to follow characters from year to year. You watch them grow as the author grows.
More to the point, I applaud you and your diligence in keeping up with the physical and mental goals that you set for yourself. It’s so easy to just continue watching the TV or sleeping that extra hour. In my youth I had goals of where I wanted to be every 5 years. As time went on I made fewer and fewer goals for myself. Recently there have been some changes in my life and I’ve gone back to adding daily goals for myself. This keeps me motivated and moving forward in my life.
I look forward to watching you continue to meet and surpass your goals this year!
The author was Stuart Woods and the particular series is about Stone Barrington. He is a former NYC cop who is an attorney. The series is a murder mystery with some legal overtones.
Thank you for sending the information on the books. I’ve already gone to Amazon and downloaded the first in the series to my Kindle.
Congratulations on your successes this Summer! I’ve been struggling with burnout for a while now and took the Summer to realign my goals. I’m feeling refreshed this Fall and have quite a few personal goals for the coming year!
I go through periods when I am too tired, but it is generally during the week.
Very inspirational summer! Can’t wait to see your blog update. I’m sure you’re beating expectations. Kudos for protection yourself from cuts with the additional credential. I’m surprised you have to worry. Aren’t you a long tenured teacher so you are safer than most? Regardless, great that you are always improving yourself. Keep it up!
Thanks, I like to keep busy! Now I have to adjust to the Fall classes.
KC I am impressed by your blog commenting frequency. Everywhere I go I see KC’s presence. You are doing very good on all aspects and damn! you reminded me that I am not anything worth mentioning.
Oh BTW, a geometry class to get math lessons, huh!
The math credential is for algebra and geometry. My 2011 goal is to be on the WiseBread 100 list and I am devoting probably too many hours each week to make it happen.
When I first glanced at the article title, I thought it said: Am I training for a rat race….. 🙂 I did, however, enjoy the article. And yes, I agree, it’s worthwhile to train for “a” race. It’s important to stay mentally and physically fit. 🙂 Congrats on your goals and progress.
This summer was a good balance of mental and physical goal setting. I think I was preparing for my new teaching assignment. It certainly helped!
You are doing fantastic, and more people should follow your example. (Including me) I have found that when life gets busy, I take shortcuts and my goals suffer. I have to figure something out, that is for sure.
I am sure your update is going to be a great one!
The last couple weeks have been super busy and materially affected my routine. My new teaching assignment has tkept me very busy! I am getting back on track this Friday.
Great job using the power of goal-setting to increase your production. Do you ever find that your students completely discount that setting goals actually helps you? They always look at me like I’m crazy and that goals are just things you say to impress people (except for sports teams I coach interestingly enough). Rarely do you see someone work as hard as you are and not see results. Keep pushing! I’m sorry to hear about the weird extra courses needed, I agree that as bad as our Canadian education system is getting, most of the USA makes it look like the grass is pretty green over here.
I use a goal setting activity as a warm up for my students to show them that they can achieve simple goals as a teenager. It shows then how to break down goals and monitor their progress weekly. In the beginning I get resistance, but they usually come around.