Year-42 Project, Day 180

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28 Jan 20120 comments

This is an update to my 1-year long Year-42 Project, a set of long-term challenges culminating on my 42nd birthday (July 28, 2012).

Hard, to believe, but I'm halfway to 42 as of today. The last 6 months have flown by, but I'm feeling good about my progress and for sticking to the plan for this long.

Part 1 - Fitness goals

I've gotten a little exercise crazy this past few months, and recently launched into my 50,000 push-up goal for 2012. The running is still coming along - I've got a race at the end of February, so I'm pushing the training pretty hard again.

  • 5K - Beat 2007 race PR (27:47)
  • 5K - Run the full distance
  • Push-ups - Do 200 in 6:00
  • Push-ups - Do 100 in 2:00 (1 set)
  • 5K - Beat 2006 treadmill PR (26:55)
  • Sit-ups - Do 50 in 2:00*

Part 2 - Diet goals

I'm still struggling with the soda, although I'm close to getting it down to 1/week. The other dietary changes are going great - I'm getting 5 fruits/veggies in my breakfast some days. At this point, I'm just working on building habits and making incremental changes.
  • Give up soda completely (2/week)
  • Go 30 days without dairy
  • Eat 5+ veggies/fruits per day

Part 3 - Learn Chinese

Chinese is on track - I just wrapped up 100 Elementary lessons. I'm realizing that I'm probably not ready to move on to Intermediate, so I may revise these goals. I think I'm pushing quantity at the expense of quality, and if I jump ahead I'm probably going to just get frustrate with material that's beyond my level.
  • Finish Pimsleur CDs (7/16)
  • 100 Intermediate lessons
  • 50 Upper intermediate lessons
  • 100 ChinesePod Newbie lessons
  • 100 Elementary lessons

Part 4 - All the rest

All that's left for the miscellaneous goals is getting through my reading list, but I'm down to the long books. One of my final 4 is the Qu'ran, so it's going to take a while, but I'll get there.

Just 6 months to go.

At this point, I'm feeling confident that I'll get 90%+ of the list done. I may have to revise a couple of goals, but I think any revisions will be for the right reasons at this point.