For the last few years I have been setting myself New Years Resolutions to start on the 1st of April to tie in with the start of the new financial year (basically it gives me an extra few months to work out what they are going to be).
This year is going to be slightly different as we are spending our lives in isolation. Before I get on to this year’s I’ll review last year’s resolutions:
2019 #1: Run 200 miles
This was reduced from 365 the year before which was pretty difficult. In 2018 I managed about 120 miles. In 2019 I only managed between 70 and 80 (there’s still a couple of days to go). Part of this is due to the mini human that we created taking up a fair amount of my time, and part of it is laziness.
2019 #2: Get to a weight the NHS thinks is healthy
I haven’t managed this. I’ve dropped somewhere between 1kg and 2kg but this still leaves me about 2-3kg higher than the “normal” weight for my height. Part of this is linked with 2019 #1. Most of this drop has been in the last month when I’ve had the time to exercise pretty much every day.
2019 #3: Go vegan
Veganism? Completed it, mate. This was easy, enjoyable and has made me feel physically better (my insides don’t like dairy it seems – which I’d been in denial about for many many years) and mentally better (not hurting the cute wee animals).
So, a mixed bag for 2019. I came up with some of these new resolutions for 2020 prior to the coronavirus. I have amended them slightly in light of this, although some may be easier now.
2020 #1: Run 240 miles
This is a larger number than my target last year, and much higher than I actually completed. The reason is that I reckon I can run most days (at least while we’re isolating) and so 20 miles a month should be an achieveable target. I generally run just over a mile a day, so it gives me around 10 rest days each month. I’d also hope that I can start to increase the distance slightly, although the issues I have with my feet might prevent that.
2020 #2: Paint all my Blood Bowl models
There is a joke within the Blood Bowl community (and I assume the wider wargaming community too) that every player has masses of unpainted models. I would like to paint all of mine. I’m not very good at painting models but I’d hope to get a bit better and YouTube as well as all this time at home should help. I did have a schedule of what I wanted to paint by certian tournaments but those tournaments are now most likely not happening. Since isolating, I have managed to build 2 teams (3 more to go) and then I will start painting them in due course.
2020 #3: Be able to juggle for 5 minutes
For my birthday last year, some friends clubbed together to get me a lot of things on my bucket list. One of those was to learn to juggle. I have been practicing for 5 minutes most days and I’m getting better. I want to be able to juggle 3 balls for those 5 minutes without dropping any. Ideally this would be by my birthday so I’ve managed to achieve it within a year but any time would be good.
2020 #4: Practice singing for at least 1 hour a week
After my 5 minutes of juggling, I have also been practicing singing. My employer contributes £250 towards any lessons of your choosing after 5 years service. I opted to go for singing lessons as it’s always annoyed me that I can’t sing. And I want to spend the time required getting better at it with two goals in mind: singing backing vocals on The Cool Kids version of Firestarter (when we’re actually allowed to meet again) and singing a duet with a muppet version of myself which is an item on my bucket list.