2013 Goals, Q3 check-in

Oh, boy.  Quite a bit has changed in my life since I set my 2013 Goals.  Essentially, I'm off-course on almost all of them.

Running:  I'm 2 for 6.  Yikes.  The only two running goals I managed to hit this year were:

1) run the Rock 'n Roll AZ to the best of my abilities. Didn't quite go sub 2, but it was my best race in the last year and a half, so I'll take it.

2) complete the SLO marathon.

The other 4 where I whiffed?

-I did not complete the full McMillan training plan for the LA Marathon.  Life got in the way quite a bit and I had to do several substitutions.

-I did not finish the LA Marathon.  Instead,  I had my first marathon DNF.

-I was unable to go to China in May as a result of E's work obligations.  Thus, by default, I did not complete the Great Wall Half marathon.  I did, however, get to enjoy paying for the full registration fee, including multiple days of hotels -- all of which were non-refundable.  Ouch.

Health:  I did a great job early in the year, but I've been slowly sliding.  I didn't complete all the classes in that referenced Bikram 10-class card.  I've got a new card and I'm hopeful I may make it through on this one.  My diet definitely suffered during the Summer and the scale informs me that I'm the heaviest I've been in my 30s.  I've always been on the fence about vitamins, and after the recent brouhaha, I've decided to retreat to my historical position -- I should try to eat a diet that gives me all the vitamins and minerals I need.  I do, however, have an awesome garden this year.  So that's good. And, my sleep is better this year than it has been, historically, but it's definitely been worse in Q2 and Q3 than it was in Q1 when I originally set my goals.  (In a corollary, work has been getting increasingly crazy as the year has worn on.)

Books:  Well, I blew through the easy goal of 12 audiobooks.  I've been devouring them like mad -- I'm already at 30.  I think I'll probably have to take audiobooks off the goals list entirely for next year.  It's just part of my habits now.  (Albeit one of the most enjoyable habits I have).  As for the written word, I'm currently at 12 books.  It should be interesting to see if I can pick up the pace and get through the supposedly easy goal of 24 total.  Given all the upcoming travel, I give it 1:1 odds.

Language:  My Mandarin studies basically fell apart once I had to cancel the trip to China in May.  I'll likely do some refresher studies before we leave for the China trip this Fall, but truly, I lost my drive.  In addition to the canceled trip, my Mandarin group stopped meeting regularly, and my weekly Mandarin dinner night died when my teacher left for several months of travel.  Now that I'm going to Spain before China, part of me wants to spend some time brushing up on my Spanish instead of Mandarin.  So, maybe I'll do that instead and if I do, I'll consider it a success of sorts.       

Travel:  So, I planned the China trip, but we were unable to execute it.  However, this year has been and looks like it will be one of the biggest and most complex travel years we've ever had.  We already did a visit to Bermuda.  In addition to weekly visits to SF, we've still got Amsterdam, Barcelona, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Sydney, and South Island New Zealand on the calendar before 2014 hits.

Stay at Home Weekends:  E and I agreed to modify the definition of "home" weekends to include any weekend where we spent the entire time within a couple hours of driving distance in the greater bay area.  Early in the year, it became apparent that we don't spend even close to 1/2 of our weekends at "Home" if that means we have to sleep there for all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  Even with the modification, it looks like I probably failed on this one.  If we keep all of our current travel plans, I will have only spent 25 weekends this year completely within the bay area, with a large percentage of the away nights coming in Q4.  I'm comfortable that this is "close enough" to the annual goal of 26, but I also know that with the frequency of away nights in Q4, after the start of 2014, I'm going to desperately want to be a homebody for a while.