Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

It has been quite a while since my last post, over 7 months! But lots has been happening.

Let's start with the biggest

August 28th saw the birth of my daughter. Her first 4 months have been an interesting ride. Learning to be a father has not been easy. Especially while training for the Auckland Marathon (more on that shortly). The one thing I will mention is that there is nothing like seeing my little girls face first thing in the morning when she wakes up, though I'm not normally the one up at that time of the morning. Her biggest and brightest smile is the first one she gives to the person who goes to get her out of bed in the morning.

The weight is lifting

So I'm proud to announce that as of last time on the scale, over a week ago, I was just over 20kg's lighter than the first weigh in of the year. Actually two weeks before Auckland Marathon I had lost over 23kg's. There was a bit of let off on the long weekend we had at that point, and then…

Goals not finished

I started the year with the goal of getting fit and losing the weight forever. I then learned that the World Tri champs are being held in Auckland next year so started thinking that, while it was a difficult challenge, I thought I could pull it off. As training continued, the impending baby came closer and work got extremely challenging, I change the goals a bit and decided to just focus on the running and put the Auckland Marathon at the top of the goal list. The running started to come together and dispute the birth of my daughter I managed to get a 21km, 18km and 32km races under my belt. The 32km race was completed just 4 weeks before the marathon and I was really happy with the time. Unfortunately two days before the big race saw me on a plane to Sydney for my grandmother's funeral. So alas, no marathon completed.

The last couple of months

So the last couple of months have really been a training break, focus on work and being a dad. I have managed to get most of the little of weight I gained in November back off. So here I sit looking down the barrel of a new year feeling like I achieved quite a bit.

Onwards and upwards

I'm really excited by what 2012 holds. While my back is really sore right now, I feel that things are all aligned in the right way. Not sure what fitness goals to set yet. I'm thinking of sticking to running for another 12 months to see how fast I can get, possibly look at masters athletics. My cousin in law has got into sprinting and talking athletics with him, plus watching a bit this year on TV has really got the old track lust burning inside.

So to sign off this year, I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year and I hope you follow me as I stop being Fat and Unfit.