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[/caption] It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to sit down and blog. I have a million things I need to cover, but something that has been on the forefront of my mind since coming back from Vancouver is goals. Almost immediately after finishing the competition, I was already contemplating my training for 2012. When I should start? What weaknesses needed to be addressed? How to change my diet? You name it, I was thinking about it. In fact, I was reluctant to rest. I felt inspired! On top of finishing a hard training cycle, competing at regionals and starting a burgeoning new career, Mike and his best friend had just opened the new box. Functional Fitness[204] had a new home! With all this excitement, I needed to be reined in a bit. As always, Mike came to my rescue. Rest. Drink. Be merry. I realized that despite popular belief some Functional Fitnessters could benefit from a little periodization. I certainly could. I had the freedom to choose my own WODs for the summer. Mike’s instructions: “Do what makes you happy, just don’t be stupid.” Almost instantly, we realized that would not work. I have the physical fitness to cripple myself very quickly, and if you add that to my strong desire to be better, I started over-training almost instantly. We decided that I would confer with Mike before picking my WODs, and he would keep me safe. Getting injured would not help me achieve anything. I completed my Level 1 certification over the July long weekend with many thanks to a few generous friends who helped make it happen. One of these friends gave me a place to stay while in Vancouver while she was away for the weekend. She literally gave me her keys and her trust (with her awesome pad) and wished me luck with the course. In this super-sweet pad, she had her personal goal board mounted on the wall. I had first come to learn of goal boards while working at Lululemon. For those of you who don’t know, Lulus are big on goal setting and big on keeping you accountable to those goals—and ultimately yourself. The goal board was the perfect mechanism to help me harness all of my thoughts, dreams and desires for the 2012 season and develop a reasonable plan to achieve it all. (Thanks, Erin!) When my goal board is complete, I will take a picture and post it to the blog for all to see. I encourage you to do the same! In the meantime here is a list of what is on my Functional Fitness goal board, and I’ve already reached some of the milestones! This list only captures the numbers I am chasing. Bear in mind there are some additional goals I have with mental fortitude and celebrating my personal success and the achievements of my peers. I’ll include those on the board as well.

Strict handstand push-up (by December 2011)

Strict muscle-up (by October 2011 – achieved July 10, 2011)

Walk 10 feet on my hands (by December 2011)

260-lb. back squat (by December 2011)

300-lb. deadlift (by December 2011 – achieved July 19, 2011)

110-lb. press (by December 2011)

160-lb. clean and jerk (by December 2011)

120-lb. snatch (by December 2011)

9-minute Helen (by October 2011)

Sub-4-minute Fran (by October 2011)

Sub-15-minute Elizabeth (by October 2011)

1-year Goal: Qualify for the 2012 Functional Fitness Games.