feeownah.

2012: New Year, New Resolutions

So I’ve been thinking long and hard about my resolutions for 2012. I’ve never managed to keep resolutions before but trying for a few months is better than not trying at all. A lot of them are derby & fitness related because that’s what I want from 2012 - to be fitter, stronger and more comfortable in myself.

1. Comfortably run 10KM by my birthday (May).
Ultimately I want to run the Flora Mini Marathon (June bank holiday) which is 10km. To achieve this goal I plan on running once a week, slowly increasing my distance. I’d like to run more frequently - and maybe when the evenings get brighter I will, but currently with roller derby training and the dark evenings, once a week is all I realistically have time for. My current time/distance is 7km in 45 minutes so I think this is a realistic goal.

2. Maintain my position on the Dublin Roller Girls Travel Team 
I’m going to train as hard as I can to keep my position on the team - I made it onto the team last year and played two away bouts (Brighton Rockers & Manchester) but I wasn’t particularly happy with my performance in either bout so I have some things I plan on working on including:
- Walling up and staying with a partner. This is the most important thing I need to work on. I tend to run off on my own way too much.
- Hitting harder and more frequently. During both my bouts I felt like a bit of a spare tool at times, floating when I could have at least been distracting/getting in the way of the opposition.
- Hip checks, these just need to happen.
- Derby stance always, always, always needs to be improved.
- Transitions in both directions need to improve, especially with any speed. 
- Jamming: I’d like to improve on this because who doesn’t want to be a well rounded player? This is going to require working on my footwork a lot, getting low, being fast and remembering to take the friendly side. 
- Outside of training I’m going to work on endurance (10km run will help this), short bursts of sprinting and core strength. To achieve this goal I aim to do 10minutes of core exercises 5 days a week and swim once a fortnight. I’m also going to look into starting a pilates course.

3. Monthly Playlists
This was one of my resolutions last year and I only made about 6 playlists so it’s going back on my list for this year.

4. Read 25 books in 2012
Last year I did the Goodreads challenge and aimed to read 20 books and completed it, this year I’m going a little higher with 25. You can check out my progress here. 

5. Get my driver’s licence.
I’ve been learning to drive since September last year and my one problem is that I don’t practice enough. I need to make more time to practice, I need to have my confidence in my ability to drive and just do it. 

I’m sure I had more but that’s all I can think of right now… 
Bring it on 2012! (: