Well, it took me a while to get to the number 1 summer holiday destination for people from the Netherlands, but I’ve finally managed to get to France for the first time in (I think) about 10 years.
We spent a wonderful and relaxing three weeks in the country, first a week in the Bourgogne region, then another two weeks in the beautiful Ardeche region.
Lots of baguettes, croissants and some wine were consumed.
It’s Christmas morning, as good a time as any to look back on what 2022 has brought me in terms of achieving my goals. It’s not been a very good year in terms of that, I’m afraid, but let’s have a look anyway.
Let’s start with some good news. Now that most travel bans have been lifted, travelling has become much easier again. I’ve managed to visit no less than five new countries: Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal.
This one I also completed by visiting South Africa in September. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the year!
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to pay off anything besides our regular monthly payments. Why? Other financial priorities, mainly.
This we did do by purchasing another cask of whisky. Probably the last one for a while as we’ve got some major expenses coming up, and we want to focus on lowering our mortgage first, too.
This I also managed to do in January. It was pretty hard work, but I’m happy that I passed. Even if I quit drinking.
So, my year in terms of fitness was a disappointment.. I focused on running instead of cycling, but got injured again, so at the end of the year, I’m back where I was at the start. This will be my main focus point for 2023.
See above.
As you can see, it has been a very mixed bag, really. Next year, I’m going to pursue fewer goals, but with more focus. Here’s what I hope 2023 has in store for me:
As I’ve done every year for the last few years, I’d like to visit another couple of countries in Europe. It is slowly getting harder to do this now that almost all of the ‘easy’ countries have been covered, but France, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, for example, are still very manageable destinations.
Where in 2022 I focused on getting to Africa, in 2023 my goal is to visit North America, and more specifically Canada. This will also help me get started on my quest of visiting all provinces of Canada.
Like every year, we want to pay off an additional lump sum on our mortgage. We didn’t manage to do that this year, so next year we are even more determined to succeed here.
This one isn’t tied to any specific bucket list item, but before I can focus on specific fitness-related bucket list items again, I need to improve my overall fitness, first. This includes:
I might just be able to sneak in a specific goal (especially in the walking or cycling area), but I won’t focus on those too much this year.
Happy holidays!
So, a few weeks ago I started changing up my running schedule as I wanted to focus more on speed, not distance. And it was a decent few weeks, until earlier this week, I got injured. Again.
Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling at the moment. But, it also made me think that probably, before I start to focus again on longer term running goals, doesn’t matter if they’re related to speed or distance, I need to get in much better overall shape first.
So that’s what my goal for 2023 is going to be. I’m done with haphazardly throwing myself into sort of random efforts to work towards some goal, only to get injured down the line.
2023 is going to be the year of getting back into shape. That will mean:
Why walking, cycling and swimming? Low impact. Contrary to running, I’ve never gotten injured from any of these three types of exercise.
And because I’d like to get a head start on 2023, I’m starting today. With a couple of weeks of not enough sleep, and weighing in at 89 kilograms (and at a length of 1.78, that’s simply way too much), having overeaten on lots of stuff, now’s as good a time as any to make a lasting change.
I’ll keep you posted.
2022 has been a great year in terms of traveling and visiting new countries. It almost looks like I had some catching up to do after not having been able to travel a lot during Covid..
On what is my final trip of the year, I’ve just arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, for a three day stay for a conference. I’ve just had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant, but haven’t had the time to do a lot of exploration other than that.
Maybe there’s time for a walk later on, but I’m happy it is not my first time in Portugal, because on these work trips, there’s often not a lot of free time.
Next year will probably see me traveling less. As I’ve said, I’ve visited five new countries in Europe as well as a new continent, but that also means I’ve been away from home, my wife and my kids quite often. I’ll probably still do some trips next year, but they are going to be fewer and further in between.
I’m going to be a little more selective when it comes to destinations, so no more trips to Germany for example (as I’ve been there about 20 times now). I am focusing on visiting Canada and Italy instead, but will not say no to other destinations if the opportunity arises. Iceland, maybe? Or South America? Who knows…
I’ve got quite a few goals, running-wise, both long distance and shorter, time-based goals. As I’m not getting any younger, but still hope to be able to run long and slow for many more years, I think it’s wise to focus on my time-based goals for the shorter distances first. This is a simple list to keep track of the progress.
2022-11-08: 25:29
Still to determine an appropriate goal for this distance. PR from a previous running life: 42:53.
This Bucket List 