Back in January I posted some
Resolutions for the New Year. Now is as good a time as any to take a look back on how the year turned out:
- Finish a 50 mile AERC ride on Diego. This can be considered a success, we not only finished a 50 at Rides of March but also a second one at Cooley Ranch in July. Honestly, I was hoping for a bit more this season, but factor in the pull at NASTR in June and our successful second-day LD at Cooley, things didn't turn out too bad. Mainly it was time and money that prevented me from attending more rides this season.
- Eat "better", make smarter food choices. Buy and consume more fresh produce, especially veggies, and watch my portions better. I'd probably rate this a success as well. I was thinner this year than I have been in a while, mainly due to watching what and how much I was eating. We still eat a lot of pasta, and occassionally rice, as the basis for our dinners, but I have cut down on the amount of potatoes and other simple carbs I was consuming. Fast food pretty much makes me sick now so I consume very, very little of that.
- Track my training miles better. I started an Excel worksheet with the date, distance, and duration of nearly all of my rides. While I've been trying to update it after every ride, or at least weekly/monthly, I know that I've forgotten a few in there somewhere. Overall though, it's a big improvement over not having anything formally recorded. Diego is finishing 2011 with a little over 500 total miles for the year, not bad, but I hope to at least double that number, if not more, in 2012.
- Blog more. Um.... okay, maybe not such a success here. My issue is I only want to post interesting articles and/or stories, and not just document what I've been doing. But then I realize that some of my favorite posts to read from my Blog Buddies are just that, small quick updates on what they've been doing. I have some wonderfully humerous stories about my horse-shopping for a friend adventures from this summer that I need to write down and get posted.
Other big accomplishments this year include:
- Overcoming my fear of riding Diego, and finally learning to LOVE riding again
- First successful solo trail ride
- Getting Diego out on my one-and-only training trail from home, including finding a way to skirt the dicer first section by going down the quiet residential street
- Riding on the Tahoe Rim Trail with my mom
- Managing Diego's hooves and trimming on my own, and being mostly successful in that venture (NASTR was certainly a case of learning what not to do)
