One of the weirder — and more fun — fitness accomplishments of 2012.

At the beginning of the year, both Jill and I set fitness goals. Ambitious ones. Don’t remember? You can check out mine here.

Of the five goals I set, I’ve accomplished four. Weekly yoga is no longer a goal, it’s part of my work-out routine. Jill and I crushed a sub-55 10k on April 13, when we ran the Toronto Yonge Street 10k together in 54:57. In general, I’m a pretty healthy eater, sticking to a near-vegan diet. Sure, I slip on the carbs and the alcohol occasionally, but I don’t want to punish myself constantly. I work my body hard and it deserves a beer (or three) or a glass of wine (or bottle) every once in a while. And the morning person thing is so much easier in the summer, but, in general, when I plan a morning work-out, I make it more often than miss it. There’s still room for improvement here, but I consider this goal complete.

Which leaves me with the first goal. And the biggest one. I had my eye on the May 6 marathon, but training beat me up. It made me tired, sore and hate running. I do not regret down-grading to the half-marathon. Not one bit. But the disappointment I felt with my 2:14 time had me re-assessing my running goals for the year. And now that Jill is quickly on my heels as the premiere runner in the family, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I want out of running.

I want to get faster.

I want to run a sub-2:00 half-marathon more than I want to complete full one right now. I know I have it in me to do a full and I know that my time to run a full will come. But I want to do with 4 hours on my mind, not 5. I want to run a sub-1:30 15k. I want to pass more people than people pass me.

It’s that simple. After putting my body through 30 days of yoga, I realized that fitness, for me, is about pushing my body to get faster and stronger, to test new limits and try new things. It’s not about celebrating what I can do and accepting what I can’t. It’s about running as hard and fast as I can, and crossing the finish line knowing I gave it my all. It’s about finally doing a handstand. It’s about doing a 5-minute plank, then saying ‘screw that, let’s go for 10.’

I think running faster ties into this better than running farther at this point. I believe this will change eventually, and I’ll seek to run faster and farther in the same training cycle, but not right now. Eventually.

First up is the Midsummer’s Night Run 15k. Jill is running it too. I want to cross that finish line under 1:30 together.

I’m on the hunt for a great half-marathon this fall. Suggestions?