2021 goals: May update - Slouching towards Thatcham

At last, spring is turning towards summer and we’re continuing to move further away from lockdown back towards normality. It’s undoubtedly harder to stay focussed on my goals. As we approach the mid-point of the year, the novelty has long since worn off and it’s tempting to just go out in the sun and see people again after so long stuck at home.

So how did I do in May? I’m still well on track on several of my goals, but increasingly I’m falling behind on others.

Health

On the whole, my health-related numbers in May were good but I’ve hit a bit of a mental block when it comes to running. I only failed to reach 20,000 steps three times during the month, averaging a whisker over 23,000 steps a day. As a result, I’ve now completed nearly 23% of my Route 66 challenge, putting me over 160km ahead of schedule.

Despite worrying less about my calorie intake, I dropped another pound this month. I’m now just a pound off my lowest-ever weight from April last year, which would be a nice little milestone to reach. But I’m conscious that I’m starting to allow myself more ‘bad’ days with every passing month, which I need to keep under control.

However, I’m struggling on the running front – and a lot of the problem is in my head rather than my legs. I’d been hoping to get back to Parkrun, which was scheduled to return on 5th June, and record my first official sub-30 minute time. (I’ve achieved it myself on the road, but not as part of a timed, properly measured circuit.) But a combination of minor injury niggles and not being in quite the right head-space have discouraged me from pushing quite as hard as I am capable of.

Parkrun’s return is now pushed back to (at least) 26th June and I’m going to treat myself to an (overdue) new pair of running shoes, so I’m fast running out of excuses and just need to start actual running instead. So I’ve shifted my target to the end of July rather than June. That still feels like a big stretch compared to what I’m currently doing. But it’s doable, as long as I knuckle down and push myself.

Wealth

Oh dear. I haven’t done anything on either of these this month, so I’ve moved their status from amber to red. I can feel I’m procrastinating on both. Time to stop making excuses, knuckle down and just get these jobs done.

Self

It took pretty much the entire month, but I finally finished Failures of State, by the Sunday Times‘ Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott. Now I’m on to Word Perfect by Countdown’s Susie Dent. You’d think that a book about the origin of words would be a dry, academic read. It’s not – and I doubt I will need anywhere near a full month to finish it off.

My current cooking streak continues unabated. I’m still trying to make one new dish every week and I’m slowly working my way across Asia. First it was Japan, then this month it was Korea. And now I’ve ordered a Vietnamese cook-book to add to my growing collection.

I’ve stalled a bit on tidying up our study but now that we’re through half-term I’ve got my eye on making further progress, albeit somewhat behind schedule. And Kara has just joined a local girls’ football team, which gives us something else to do together and talk about.

So, May was a bit of a mixed bag of a month. Some of the momentum from the early months of the year has tailed off and I need to rediscover this.

I was originally going to set myself some new goals to add to the list. However, I’ve decided to defer this for a month so that I can focus on progressing some of my red items. Otherwise I know I will just create more excuses to put them off for another month. I need to make sure I don’t drift any more than I already have. Time to get a move on.