More about my latest goal

Well, I don't really have much more to say about the marathon goal I now have, but I'll just write some random things here and see how it ends up.

I only ran four times in December and I have now gone running twice in January. I felt like I needed to set some sort of goal (i.e. find some race to run) in order to get me out and working out again. So, Sunday evening I was sitting at the computer and looking up some random stuff. I could do the Whidbey Island Marathon, which I would like to do, but they run it on a Sunday and I don't do races on the Sabbath. Maybe I could do it just this once... well then I found a marathon just the following weekend near Yakima. That one was on a Saturday, so I decided I would go for the one in Yakima. It also gives me another week to be ready for a 26.2 mile run. It is also closer to where I live.

I got onto runnersworld.com and used their smart coach tool to help me get a training plan. I printed out what they had and I might add in or adjust the workouts here and there to make them work for me. The main thing is my Friday or Saturday long run that need to be building up each week. I'm starting out this week with ten miles. I know it sounds like a bit much since I haven't been running, but I think I'll be alright. I ran 5.5 yesterday, tomorrow I will to about 6, then I'll do about five again the next day. I think I will be ready for ten on Friday or Saturday.

I have been walking to and from school every day this month. I like the nice, fresh, crisp, cool air in the morning. It helps wake me up in the morning and I feel more ready for class. It is about a mile and it takes me about 15 minutes. It got me thinking about hiking up in the mountains. Last saturday I got up early and went for a 3.2 mile walk (acording to my GPS) down on the trails by the college. It took nearly an hour. If I figure that I can walk 3.2 miles per hour, then I could walk the 93 miles around the Wonderland Trail in 29 hours. If I jogged even just 10-15 minutes per hour I could easily do it (at least I think so) in less than 24 hours. The trick would be to pace myself. I have wanted to do the Wonderland trail ever since I first heard about it. This trail circumnavigates Mount Rainier. Lots of people do this as a multi day (5-7) day hike, but I really want to try to do it in one go. I would need someone to be my support while I do it.

But my mind has wandered off really far. Before I did that I would do the White River 50. The Yakima River Valley Marathon would be my warm up trainin run for the White River 50 and the WR50 would be my warm up training run for the Wonderland Trail. I really wanted to do the WR50 last year, but I couldn't get up here in time, and I ended up doing the Bartlett Park Ultra near Memphis last summer. I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I ever want to run in the heat like that again. Unless I get really crazy and try to go for the Badwater Ultramarathon. I would have to be really really crazy though to do that. I have thought about trying to go for it, but It would take years of preperation. Maybe sometime in the future.

Well, for now I'll stick to the 5-6 mile runs with weekend runs starting at 10 miles. I like running long. It gives my time to myself to think about something, nothing, or whatever the heck I feel like thinking.

I think you've heard about enough from me for now. I'll try to keep you updated on how my running is going.

oh, by the way, I did some looking back at the logs and in 2008 I ran about 1385 miles. That far surpassed my goal of 1000 miles. In 2007 I logged about 250 miles. I know for sure I ran at least 50-100 miles more than I logged, because I didn't start logging my running until about September or October. Maybe my new goal should be 1500 miles in 2009. no, I'll just run. If I get there I get there. I should be able to get there if I keep runing often.

Here is a photo of me on January first snowshoeing up American Fork Canyon with my cousin. It was pretty fun. That was the first time I had ever gone snowshoeing. Maybe I'll have to get myself some.


And I just had to throw in this video of Alex. Yesterday at dinner, out of the blue, he started doing this. Apparently he was trying to eat really fast, so that he could beat Ella. I think Ella ended up eating faster. I guess this is just not the way to eat really fast. I laughed so hard at this. Awesome!!!