Resolutions... well, I'm not entirely sure that's the right word.
Everybody calls 'em resolutions, but in my case it's more a list of shit I got to get done this year. Since I'm loving the recaps lately, let's check out 2006.
1. Do a marathon and a half ironman triathlon. Yes to both. This was the only one on my list that I absolutely HAD to do. I got the marathon out of the way in January, and ended up doing TWO half ironmans- one in june and another in August. It was definitely a year of long training, which was good. Now that I have some endurance, I'm going for speed!
2. Write every day. No. I made it eighteen days.
3. Read the bible. No. I think I made it about a month, then got behind, and gave up. Much like with the daily writing.
4. Go back to school. No. Didn't even try!
So... not so good on my list there. There's gonna be a bit of carryover.
This year will obviously be pretty similar to last year, with two big ones and my priorities shuffled a bit.
1. Move back to the bay area. I've been talking about this one for far too long, and it's finally time to do it. I could devote a whole entry to why and how I'm gonna go about doing it... in fact, that's exactly what I'll do.
2. Break my P.R. (personal record) for both sprint and olympic distance races by at least ten percent (on a flat course). My best for a sprint race is 1:18:50, so I'll need to go sub 1:11 to meet that goal. For olympic, my best is a 3:06:57. but I'm already faster than that. I haven't really done a flat-course olympic distance race since 2003, and I *know* i can do better than a 2:48. I'm guessing based on my times from last year for longer races I should be able to break 2:40.
3. Write every day. I'm going to make it this time. This is going to be a big year, and I'm already figuring out how it's going to happen. I have a backlog of about a week's worth of things to write now, and if I can keep that up I'm good to go.
4. Read the bible. I'm already behind on this one, but only by 4 days. I still have my "bible in a year" with daily chunks. This isn't because I'm religious (far from it). It's purely learning about the book so that I can understand what people believe about it. Now that I think about it I should continue the yearly reading, with all of the world's holy books. I like it.
5. Go back to school. It's GOTTA happen this year. It's been SEVEN years now since I was in school. That's ri-god-damn-diculous. This will have to happen after I move, as there's not much point to getting started if I'm going to be gone in six months. More motivation to move.
6. Set aside some "creative" time for myself every week. I need to actually discuss my last entry a bit more, since I just posted the article without talking about it. This part of it really piqued my interest, though:
In The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, the necessary tool for discovering our creative selves is the 'Artist Date': a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness. If you think that you will never be able to afford the time, identify that reaction as resistance. The Artist Date is defined by solitude. It is a small but significant respite from the weight of cultural demands.
That's all I can remember for now. If I think of anything else I guess I'll just edit this entry.
1. Do a marathon and a half ironman triathlon. Yes to both. This was the only one on my list that I absolutely HAD to do. I got the marathon out of the way in January, and ended up doing TWO half ironmans- one in june and another in August. It was definitely a year of long training, which was good. Now that I have some endurance, I'm going for speed!
2. Write every day. No. I made it eighteen days.
3. Read the bible. No. I think I made it about a month, then got behind, and gave up. Much like with the daily writing.
4. Go back to school. No. Didn't even try!
So... not so good on my list there. There's gonna be a bit of carryover.
This year will obviously be pretty similar to last year, with two big ones and my priorities shuffled a bit.
1. Move back to the bay area. I've been talking about this one for far too long, and it's finally time to do it. I could devote a whole entry to why and how I'm gonna go about doing it... in fact, that's exactly what I'll do.
2. Break my P.R. (personal record) for both sprint and olympic distance races by at least ten percent (on a flat course). My best for a sprint race is 1:18:50, so I'll need to go sub 1:11 to meet that goal. For olympic, my best is a 3:06:57. but I'm already faster than that. I haven't really done a flat-course olympic distance race since 2003, and I *know* i can do better than a 2:48. I'm guessing based on my times from last year for longer races I should be able to break 2:40.
3. Write every day. I'm going to make it this time. This is going to be a big year, and I'm already figuring out how it's going to happen. I have a backlog of about a week's worth of things to write now, and if I can keep that up I'm good to go.
4. Read the bible. I'm already behind on this one, but only by 4 days. I still have my "bible in a year" with daily chunks. This isn't because I'm religious (far from it). It's purely learning about the book so that I can understand what people believe about it. Now that I think about it I should continue the yearly reading, with all of the world's holy books. I like it.
5. Go back to school. It's GOTTA happen this year. It's been SEVEN years now since I was in school. That's ri-god-damn-diculous. This will have to happen after I move, as there's not much point to getting started if I'm going to be gone in six months. More motivation to move.
6. Set aside some "creative" time for myself every week. I need to actually discuss my last entry a bit more, since I just posted the article without talking about it. This part of it really piqued my interest, though:
In The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, the necessary tool for discovering our creative selves is the 'Artist Date': a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness. If you think that you will never be able to afford the time, identify that reaction as resistance. The Artist Date is defined by solitude. It is a small but significant respite from the weight of cultural demands.
That's all I can remember for now. If I think of anything else I guess I'll just edit this entry.