Long Time Reader, First Time Poster. Meesa’s Main Quest To not be limited by my body. To find no excuses. To find new challenges. Quest. Solidify my fitness base; putting me in a good position to up the training for my half marathon, a strong finish to the soccer season, as well as good nutrition leading into the Australian summer. Goal 1. I’m doing a half marathon in October. I need to up my running before then; but I can’t run too much during the soccer season (I play as a keeper so I don’t run huge amounts for the games or in training) to avoid wearing myself out. Outside of soccer training I will aim to run at least 16km a week (broken down into 2 short runs and one long one). 2 of these will likely be morning runs before work and one will be a weekend run. By the end of the first challenge I would like to be able to complete the 8km circuit near my house in 1 hour or under. Goal 2. I need to start building up my body strength. Playing as a keeper has demands on upper body and core strength I wasn’t ready for. When I lost weight from soccer training I found a lot of more spectacular saves had me landing on areas of my body (such as my back and ribs) that no longer had any padding. I would like to start building my core and upper body strength so I can A) get up faster and B ) have something better to land on than bone. I want to start adding in a BodyWeight workout after the morning runs; so as I can build up the frequency of both and to make sure I have an adequate warm up. Goal 3. I need to be more organised when it comes to the two most hated tasks of a busy single living alone; washing and groceries. Working full time as well as dealing with soccer training (2 times a week with Sundays taken up by game day); means that these things sometimes fall by the wayside. And do my groceries on either a Saturday or a Sunday before the game; allowing me to have lunches prepared for work; meaning I will be able to eat healthier and control more of what goes into my body. Life Quest. I will make the decision whether or not get a tattoo on my weaker ankle. As a joint it has bugged me for years. Its always been weak and gets fatigued easily due to an old injury. Everything that can be done to it does get done - but it just needs to get stronger. I came up with the idea of putting something that to me reminds me that even the strongest people can be weak. My life quest for this challenge is to make the decision on whether or not to go through with the tattoo independent on anyone’s opinion but my own. Motivation. I’m sick of excuses ruling my life. Whether its mine or my friends or just the people around me. So I started taking on new challenges, like playing sport for the first time in my life or signing up for my first half marathon. I joined the team really just hoping to train with them and not expecting much or any game time. Luckily I joined a bottom league team and its really just a bit of fun. The coach volunteered (very, very liberal use of that word) to play as a keeper. I decided I was up for the challenge and threw myself (literally and figuratively) into it; I've played every game so far (even carrying some pretty impressive injuries). Unfortunately our district structure has meant we’ve been playing against top league sides - its been a baptism of fire. It does not feel good to be a first year keeper with almost every game with the scored against in double digits. I feel my excuses are running out by the end of the season (my coach doesn’t agree). So part of my motivation is to come back next season fitter; stronger and ready to stop a lot more balls than this season. But for now i just want to finish this one strongly.
