In awe

New Year is already here! I am behind on making my resolutions. I am not a big fan of making resolutions because I usually fail after a few days. I also the type of person who needs to have them because I love structure.

I did not start the year with a bang, but I did start it off running. Seriously, I ran a 50K on January 1st. I still need to write a report on that.

In other areas besides running though, I have some “debts” to repay. I felt behind on a bunch of things. There are two race reports to write! I need to prepare for several trips this spring (Texas, Canada, Outer Banks, Roanoke, and Massanutten). One is next month and I haven’t reserved my flight. And most importantly, I need to refocus myself for this new year.

Originally, I was going let it slides, like I have been for the last few years. This year was going to be like the year before. It is not far from the truth. Same old same old. I figured the previous year resolutions should do for this year.

However, after reading some other people posts, I want to give this year a serious thought. I lile from RunningOnFumes of choosing a word or phrase for the year. For me, I would like 2023 to be *resolved*. Hopefully, I’ll reach some goals.

SeizeLife at LiveTheMoment/EatTheMoment mentioned about 168 plan. We have 168 hours total in a week. How do we use it? I Googled and downloaded the spreadsheet. Basically, it helps listing out what things are important and ideally helps you to focus your time to have a fulfilling week. I will look into it and hopefully will use it.

Resolve 2023.1 – practice and use the 168 plan

I know People/cities die for lack of vision. I live by purpose. I want it to be meaningful.

The last few years I have been quite unfocused. I tried aiming toward a target to transition from road running to trail running, and it took over three whole years to do it. Looking back, it wasn’t bad, just me stumbling through life.

What does this mean? Running 100 mile races helped me understand pace degradation. You know I could run a marathon between 4-5 hours, 26 miles. In my head, I know the pace. Miles just fly by. Every couple hours, you get 12 miles.

But in a hundred mile, you experience the pace slowing down. In your mind you still want and hope to run a 12-13 min mile pace. Reality is your body is moving much slower.

When I run, I set goals, like by what time, I should be at a certain place. Pace elongation stretches out the time. a five minute wait becomes 10, and 10 mins becomes 20 and so on. It seems a step taken should be closer in distance to the finish yet would take much longer time to get there. The famous Zeno’s Paradox! Every step only brings me half the distance closer but never reach it.

This is how I feel with planning the last three years. Originally, things I wanted to do in 2018/2019, finally only got them done last year. Yes, what or why did it take me so long!

I still love setting resolutions! Eventually, I will get there right? I recheck my to-do bucket list and glad some of them are finally coming off it. Yet there are still so much more to do.

This morning I was exploring from 100 mile races in the Philippines! They have The Hard 100 – they give 40 hours to do. So it got to be hard. I want to do it! Now I am aware of it, it probably will take couple years for me to get there.

Three years ago, I would not dare to dream about running this 100 mile race, but now, ya, it is more about when I can go and how it will fit into my schedule.

Last night, I met up with David, my running friend who has been doing runs and races together this past year, and we were talking about tons of races through out the night. One of our mutual friend wanted to her first (half/full) marathon. We were excited of sharing our knowledge. At the same time, I was checking my schedule to see how they would fit in, because I want to run races with them. Our friend Siri has interesting idea of going to the spa and hot pot after “our” race — DC rock n Roll, which I haven’t signed up yet.

Marathons on my new lists to check out is Las Cruces in NM, Burlington in VT, Space Coast Coco Beach in FL. I can’t do the first two yet because of scheduling conflict this year, but Space Coast is a possibility!

Oh yeah what about my resolutions?

I resolve – 2023.2 – to not be lazy with my training, specifically waking up in the morning to train

2023.3. plan better

2023.4. sit down and get my Annapurna trip together. It is supposed to be this year but I am so scared with the planning

2023.5. put sydney marathon on my planner. I could definitely go this year, because my schedule is open, but need to take that step to make it happen. Also so scared about travelingbout the country. Going oversea isn’t scary but how to meet up with my cousins and auntie there, is. idk, it should be excited, but i’m shy.

2023.6. mexico trip: likely won’t happen this year, but good to dream to run with Ramamuri (Tarahumara). Caballo Blanco Ultra 50 mile in March. From The book Born to Run. One of my favorite ultra running books to read.

2023.7. walk the talk (resolve to get things done). Pretty much this year theme. Resolve to resolve.

conclusion: the whole post is about to get myself to make some goals and they don’t usually get done on my time table. This leads me to not make more goals. However, I should look hard and get my things done. So I made some new year resolutions. Let’s be bold!