Well, here we are 1st April 2014; the first quarter of the year has flown by! How can it be April already? I had intended to post more regularly but here we go.

Back in January, I set the goals below. The first quarter has been a somewhat challenging with my Father having some health issues associated with his Leukaemia that have led to several weeks in hospital and thus a change in priorities for the family and I. I have also suffered a few niggly injuries and a couple of weeks of illness that have impaired my ability to do physical training to the level I had wanted to and expected to.

As we now enter Q2, here is an assessment of where I am

2014: What I am making happen

  • Achieve my NLP Master Practitioner certification
    Master practitioner program commenced in late February with a great 4 days spent training with a great group and our fabulous trainer Tristan. The second segment of training is at the end of April; very much looking forward to it.
  • British Military Fitness Major Series 10km event (March)
    Complete. On a very sunny but chilly and windy Sunday morning (16th March), I ran, waded and swam my way round a very muddy 10km course in North Yorkshire. 
  • Run 3 half marathons – Warwick (March), Southend (June) and Birmingham (October)
    Due to lack of training associated with the items I wrote about above, I did not attempt Warwick; I was not anywhere near the fitness levels required to do myself justice. I now have 10 weeks to prepare for Southend; given my current level of fitness that is challenging but I am going to go for it.
  • Complete the 2 mile Great North Swim (June)
    Training has commenced and looking to start some open water swimming over Easter in preparation
  • Complete a half ironman (70.3) triathlon – uk ultimate half triathlon (August)
    This is looking like it is not attainable this year. My lack of overall fitness at this point when I should be commencing the training program is a concern and I am going to have to assess where I am at in the next few weeks and make a call on this
  • Do my AFF level 2 skydive
    Due to weather delays, christmas/winter break and my diary faux pas, I have timed out and now need to redo ground school and likely AFF level 1 again before I can progress to level 2. Getting to ground school is proving difficult at the moment as they are mainly weekday events; the only weekend one available clashes with the Great North Swim… work to do
  • Achieve 8th Gup (yellow belt) and 7th Gup (orange belt) grading in Tang Soo Do
    Some good news! I passed the belt assessment for 8th Gup on March 15th. As I am attending a training seminar (2 days) in May there is a good chance I can achieve 7th Gup in June and at a stretch 6th Gup (Green) belt by the end of 2014. 
  • Complete the #LETJOG14 challenge; running the equivalent of the Lands End to John O’Groats challenge,874 miles, during 2014
    As this was largely reliant on and a by-product of the various other running/endurance challenges for this year this one is also some way behind plan. Getting back on track and completing this will be very much dependant on a prolonged injury free period of training… 

There we are for now. I’m hoping my next update will be somewhat more positive and I can report progress on the physical challenges

Till next time