New Motivations

Monday, January 5, 2009

Today I went in search of a decent track to run on. Drove to Tacoma Community College but couldn't find a single visitor parking spot anywhere near the track, not even after circling their whole campus 4 times. And to be honest, one look at that track and I felt a little glum because it was boxed in by a big fence and appeared to be treaded with dirt and no lane markers and not a single person was running on it.

After all that cautious driving around parked cars and endless pedestrians on campus, I decided to fly up the freeway and finally find Univ. of Puget Sound and see what their track was like. SO glad I did! The track is beautiful, the parking is free, and it's only a couple miles from the hospital. I was able to get my pedometer all set up with my stride lengths and ran 1.5 miles. Yes, don't laugh... I haven't run at all during these past couple weeks and all those cookies and Ferrero Rochers and huge family meals have definitely taken their toll. This amazing wrinkly old man in shorts came running into the stadium and ran circles around me. He must have run at least 10 laps in the time it took me to do 5. What a stud.

So I did that and then came home and did my arm-toning weight exercises and 50 sit-ups.

This year is the year I learn to discipline my body. My biggest goal this year is to run the Park City Marathon in mid August (this is assuming that I'll more than likely be in Utah during that time). I've been doing a lot of research and Hal Higdon's website is enormously helpful. At first, I thought that I could be ready for a marathon by May.. but let's be honest, I've only been playing at running: going out for a couple miles every now and then when the weather is nice or when I've been in the mood. My endurance levels fluctuate as a result and they really suck at the moment.

I've decided that 3 months of novice pre-marathon spring training (now through March), followed by 4.5 months of marathon training will be the right amount of preparation and the safest and smartest way to go.

So for the next three months I'll be running 4 days a week directly after work and doing yoga on the rest days. This feels REALLY good.

My 2009 goals:

1) Run the Park City Marathon
2) Erase all prior debt from those college years (getting there!)
3) Get a seasonal job/internship in paleo this summer
4) Bike Iceland in September
5) Study for and take the GRE as many times as I need to to get a good score because my GPA from college is pathetic and I'll need all the help I can get with grad school apps.
6) Apply to grad school for paleontology. Right now I'm looking at the Univ of Texas at Austin and the South Dakota School of Mines and the Univ of Cincinnati.

Let's get it on,

Nikki