Tag Archives: goals

Goals, Running

2016 Running Goals

◆    Finish Cascade Crest 100 mi
◆    500,000 ft elevation gain
⁃    The way the year is starting out, I’m not sure about this one. But I’ll keep it on the list anyway.

◆    Traverse Baring Mtn, Barclay Lk, Eagle Lk, Townsend Mtn, Flapjack Pt, Eagle Rock & back to TH (~21.5 mi, 13,000ft gain.)
⁃    This is a carry over from last year. I don’t know how possible it is. I’ll count it if I do Baring and Townsend together at the very least.

◆    Mt. Stickney from Wallace Falls side

◆    De Roux/Teanaway 50 mi
⁃    There are several partially similar routes I’m looking at in the Teanaway area. I’d like to do one of them this year.

◆    PCT section J

◆    Enchantments

◆    Bulls Tooth Loop and Peak

◆    Lake Dorothy, Bear Lake, Deer Lake, Taylor River, Middle Fork Snoqualmie, Dingford Creek, Myrtle Lake Loop
⁃    I’ll start at the Lake Dorothy TH, but I may do the loop in the other direction.

 

I decided not to make a mileage goal for the year. I think last year I was way too focused on getting the mileage. I hope to do more than 2015. And as long as I don’t miss any large chunks of time with injuries, I think I’ll do it.

Goals, Running

2015 Running Goal Recap

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These were my running goals for 2015. The back injury got in the way of a few. I’m still happy with my performance and progress for the year.

    ◆    3000 miles for the year
⁃    It was going to be close if I hadn’t missed two whole months of running with my back injury. I ended with 2,247.9 mi. Still more than 2014. It was a challenging goal. I’m more disappointed that I missed those two months and couldn’t make the push to hit it than not hitting it. I prefer a challenge to something easy, anyway.

    ◆    400,000 ft gain for the year
⁃     I would have hit it had I not missed those two months. I ended up with 327,513 ft of gain.

    ◆    Complete my first 100 miler
⁃    I didn’t make it. GI issues and the weather were too much for me to handle. One or the other would have been ok. Both were to much. I took a DNF at 68 mi. My legs still felt good, which was a good confidence booster that my training was good.

    ◆    Run the Pacific Crest Trail Section J solo in one shot, Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass
⁃    Scheduling and some minor aches and pain got in the way this year. This will go back on my list for 2016.

    ◆    Negative split an ultra
⁃    I completed this goal early in the year at Bridle Trails 50k. I had a great race. I ran each of the 6 laps within 1 min of 40 min and ran the last half slightly faster than the first.

    ◆    First 100 mile training week (not including the 100 miler)
⁃    My biggest non-race week was 84 mi. I’m not sure if I care to continue pursuing this goal. I plan to add in more cross training, so I’m not sure.

    ◆    Run everyday
⁃    This was going very well until my back injury. I made it over 1 year total, August 13, 2014 through October 3, 2015. But I didn’t make it all of 2015. I might not keep running everyday and do more cross training instead. Try to keep my running days longer and bike or elliptical on off days.

    ◆    Run to Upper Wallace Falls 50 times in the year
⁃    I made this way earlier than I expected. I think I ended up with 58 trips to the upper falls, and the last one was in September.

    ◆    Wallace Falls everyday for a week
⁃    I was saving this one for the fall. Another goal lost to the back injury. I may or may not carry this one over.

    ◆    Lake Serene quad (~28 mi, 10,400 ft gain)
⁃    I decided I didn’t care about this goal and scratched it.

    ◆    Traverse Baring Mtn, Barclay Lk, Eagle Lk, Townsend Mtn, Flapjack Pt, Eagle Rock & back to TH (~21.5 mi, 13,000ft gain.)
⁃    I just didn’t fit this one in. I will keep it on the list.

    ◆    Run up to peak of Mount Stickney from Wallace Falls side
⁃    I attempted it a couple times, but didn’t quite make it. I’ll keep this on the list too.

    ◆    5:30 1 mile
⁃    After my attempt early in the year when I did 5:32, I didn’t try again. Speed became much less of a priority than mileage and vert. I still want to make it, I’m just not sure if it’s enough of a priority to make it to my 2016 list.

    ◆    Sub 18 min 5k
⁃    I did a solo time trial 5k in 18:12 early in the year, when I also did my fastest 1 mi. I didn’t try again for the same reasons as I didn’t try again at 1 mi either.

    ◆    Traverse Mt Persis, Persindex, Mt Index
⁃    They closed the access road, which adds about 5 mi one way just to get to the trail. I decided it wasn’t worth it with so many other more accessible places. This will go on to the maybe someday list.

Goals, Learning, Philosophy, Practice

You Are Capable of Amazing Things!

“This is too hard. I quit.” What would happen if we got rid of that little but often persistent negative voice? How much more money would we make with the skills that we gave up learning? How much more fit would we be if we stuck with fitness or nutrition habits? How much better would our relationships be if we found ways to improve them?

We learn to walk and talk without doing years of research, reading books, watching videos, years of school or coaches. A baby wants to get around, sees people around them walking and figures it out. She hears her parents, family and others speaking and wants to communicate, so she starts to mimic them.

What if you gave up when learning to walk because it was too hard? What if you got so frustrated as a baby that your parents couldn’t understand your early speech and you decided to quit?

You’re capable of amazing things. Really think about it. You started with nothing, zero, and learned to walk and talk only by watching and listening to your very limited world around you. And we’re not even perfect at walking or talking as adults after decades of practice. I trip, stub a toe, mispronounce words, my voice cracks or I choose the wrong word fairly regularly. I don’t let it stop me, though.

Now if there’s something that’s giving you a problem, there are probably books, blogs or Youtube videos by people who have gone through the same thing. Maybe it’s too much information, though. Analysis paralysis may let you feel like you’re doing something, but it’s just another form of procrastination or avoidance.

Many people also get too wrapped up in strictly following the information they find, rather than trusting that they can figure it out for themselves when they run into problems. You figured it out as a baby, you can figure it out now. Go back to what worked from the very beginning. Watch, practice, experiment, adjust, and practice some more. And if there’s no one to watch, start experimenting yourself. Your first successful step as a baby was not your first attempt.

Always remember, YOU ARE CAPABLE OF AMAZING THINGS!

Goals, Practice

Practice Making Habits

Changing habits and creating new habits are both incredibly difficult. It takes a lot of practice, and, at least for me, a lot of failures.
Missteps and setbacks are frustrating, but you just have to keep plugging along until the habit takes hold.

New habits seem to be a little easier for me to form than changing old habits. As an example, making my daily gratitude journal a habit took about a month or so. On the other hand, some of my food habits took years to change. Thankfully, once they started to change, further changes became a little easier.

I’ve found that starting small is much more effective for me. Currently, I’m trying to make writing a daily habit. I’ve been trying off and on for about a year, mostly off. Most of that time, I was setting expectations too high for myself, so looking back it’s not a surprise that I failed.

I made it 6 days in a row last week, then missed Sunday. I was a little disappointed when I went over my daily to do list and didn’t get to check off “write”. But I can either give up or start again, and giving up certainly won’t add to my happiness. I got right back to it on Monday.

As sort of a minimal base, I try to write about my daily runs on the same day. Keeping up with that certainly helps. As much as I would like to dive in and get 1000-2000+ words all toward a couple projects I’m working on, I know that diving into the deep end like that will likely result in another failure and another setback. That said, if I get in the flow and the words start just pouring out, I’m not going to force myself to stop.

Another thing I’m working on, which I have a feeling is going to be a long-term project, is reducing procrastination. This one has been incredibly difficult. I’ve found that I have to start really small. It might be something as simple as telling myself that I will feed my dogs after this Youtube video is over without getting sucked into the next one. I still often struggle with tiny things like that, or telling myself that I’m going to work on packing and shipping things I sold on eBay at a certain time. Then trying not to get wrapped up in something else and rationalizing that it can wait because the post office doesn’t close for a few hours. I’ve become pretty good at rationalizing my procrastination.

Sometimes I find myself thinking that it’s not really that important if I do these little things right away as long as I get to them sometime. (Although, Sigurd certainly won’t let me forget when it’s time to eat.) To overcome the negative self-talk, I have to remind myself that if I hold myself accountable for the little things, it’s going to make it easier to not procrastinate on the bigger, more important things.

It takes practice, sometimes a lot of practice. If you’re having trouble at one level, maybe step back and think about dropping it down a level. It takes some of the pressure off.

As Jim Rohn said, “Make measurable progress in reasonable time.” With my experience in other areas, I know that, as long as I continue stringing together small successes, I’ll get to where I want to be. It may take a week, or it might take a year.

Goals, Practice, Running

My 2015 Running Goals

I’m not big on resolutions. I prefer goals. Resolutions often seem more like rules to me. Goals give us something to strive for, to expand our limits.

Maybe it’s just semantics. Whatever you call them, though, you have to put in the work. No one’s going to run the miles for me.

Here’s my current list of running related goals:

Goals for 2015

◆    3000 miles for the year
◆    400,000 ft gain for the year
◆    Complete my first 100 miler
◆    Run the Pacific Crest Trail Section J solo in one shot, Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass
◆    Negative split an ultra — Jan 10. Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 50k. 2nd half faster, barely.
◆    First 100 mile training week (not including the 100 miler)
◆    Run everyday
◆    Run to Upper Wallace Falls 50 times in the year
◆    Wallace Falls everyday for a week
◆    Lake Serene quad (~28 mi, 10,400 ft gain)
◆    Traverse Baring Mtn, Barclay Lk, Eagle Lk, Townsend Mtn, Flapjack Pt, Eagle Rock & back to TH (~21.5 mi, 13,000ft gain.)
◆    Run up to peak of Mount Stickney from Wallace Falls side
◆    5:30 1 mile
◆    Sub 18 min 5k
◆    Traverse Mt Persis, Persindex, Mt Index

Longer term goals

◆    2:45 marathon
◆    Sub 4 hour 50k
◆    Sub 8 hour 50 miler
◆    Sub 20 hour 100 miler
◆    Solo run the Wonderland Trail
◆    Organize and direct a trail race
◆    Win an ultra, any distance

Now that I’ve put this out there, I guess I have to go after it.