Goals 2012: March Check In

OK I'm a little bit late with my March Check In. Blame the generous chocolate bank holiday. Alas March has been a crazy month. It's a busy time for my workplace and I had a lot of early starts/late finishes. It was good just to stand still at the weekends. Anyway, on with the check in.

1. To start running again and enrol in a 10k run event

For some reason my health was not good in March. In hindsight I wonder if it was stress related. My back ached, my neck ached, my stomach was permanently on a spin cycle. I only started to feel better towards the end of March. Due to my lack of attendance at the gym, I was offered a free personal trainer session. It was surprisingly good and I picked up some work out tips to help with my running.

I'm continuing with the Couch to 5k program but felt like I had hit a dead end. I was running for three minutes with ease and feeling rather confident. Then I took a little break and felt like I was sliding backwards. Today (Easter Sunday) was the first time I had ventured out onto the streets for two weeks. I took the advice of a friend and altered my route slightly. And you know what? It felt good.

Initially I had decided to run a 10k this year. The women's 10k is at the start of May and there's no way I'll be ready for that. So I'll look into running another 10k later in the year. By signing up to an official run, I hope to keep going and improve my times. At the moment I'm managing to do just over 4k jogging/walking intervals in 36 minutes. I think that's not too bad.

2. To continue doing morning pages every day 

I think it might be time to change this goal, along with no. 3. My schedules have been all over the place in March, as I mentioned above. As always, the temptation to stay in bed has been too great. Though there have been some developments in my writing world.

Last Wednesday I joined a new writing class. It's really small and, coincidentally, only contains female students. The class is open to anyone who can afford the fees, this is no gender bias going on. It's in the lovely Bibliocafe which is probably the best cafe in Glasgow. Great coffee paired up with some time to write? Yes, please! I managed to scribble away in my notebook during the writing sessions and got some ideas down. Now comes the gritty task of occupying my attention and finishing a damn story.

Also, I've started writing in my 'Dreams' notebook again. This could be classed as subsisting my morning pages. Sometimes I wake up from a dream and think 'That would make a fab story. Where's my pen?' In my sleep haze I make some quick notes before the dream slips away. The book is half full which means I have lots of writing opportunities.

3. To stick to my weekly schedules 

It is ridiculous how badly I'm sticking to this goal. There have been some improvements. Since the rebirth of my iTouch, I have been using my Remember the Milk app again. I need to get a gentle prod to do things and RTM is a nice way of doing that. Hitting 'complete' on a task gives me a little buzz, even if it's something like changing the duvet covers. Perhaps RTM is the way forward.

4. To avoid getting into music ruts 

Again, this goal is getting better since the rebirth of my iTouch (yes, I have travelled to the dark side and become an Apple fan). One of the first apps I downloaded was mobile Spotify. It's not perfect but it is ensuring that I'm not listening to music on a constant loop. Favourite artists this month have included Santigold and First Aid Kit. Next step: writing about the music I'm listening to. Is it just me or does anyone else find this difficult to do?

5. To keep track of the books I read and participate in the Sunday Salon once a month 

The award for the best kept goal in March goes to.... no. 5! Take a bow whilst my dear readers have a look at March's Sunday Salon post.