8 + 4 = 12 in 2012: Resolutions and Goals

Happy New Year everyone!  I spent New Years in Long Island visiting a friend from college (Holy Cross) - whom I hadn't seen a few years.  We had a great time, but now that vacation is almost over, it is time to settle down and put some goals and resolutions out there.

And therefore, I present my goal of 8 + 4 = 12 in 2012.
8 = the number of hours of sleep I really need to aim for.  My trainer has been trying to get me to get 8 hours for a while, and I just haven't been able to cut it.  I thought I would be able to do it this fall, but, with comps, it just didn't happen.  But now that the stressful semester is over, I am going to aim for 8 hours of sleep per night.  At the minimum, 7.  I need to cut out the computer before bed, and just hit the sack!
4 = the bottles/glasses of water I am going to drink per day.  I am not great about drinking water throughout the day.  Coffee yes, water, no.  And I'm not saying I'm cutting the coffee, but I need to up the water!
I expect that both will help me on the road to my 2012 goals:
school wise:
Have a good semester at Mount Saint Mary's teaching my very first college class
Get my dissertation proposal submitted and approved by the fall
running wise:
*Improve on tempo runs
*Be consistent with cross training
race wise (A and B goals)
5k: B: 19:59, A: 19:45
10k: B: 40:59 A: 40:30
Half marathon: B: 1:31:59 A: 1:30:59

There is no marathon goal.  I am 99% positive I will not run a marathon this year.  I met with Sarah, my trainer/coach last month, and we had a long talk about my long term goals.  I think I can be a lot faster than my 3:27 marathon, but most likely I jumped into the marathon too fast.  I ran my first marathon at age 22 - many serious marathoners don't debut until much later.  And by age 24, I had already run 6 marathons.  I hadn't even run 6 halves or 10ks at that point. I really want to succeed in distance running, I need to take each distance seriously and wait a bit before stepping back into the marathon, and certainly before trying to do 2 marathons a year.  So I am going to wait, and eventually when I want to return, I am going to be aiming for something like a 3:15 or better.  But I am going to be patient and the marathon will be waiting for me down the road.

My next training cycle of shorter distance racing starts on Monday.  Just aiming to get some decent mileage in before then!