Jan is running strong and resolutions are firm

While I was logging my miles for the week realized it was already 2/3rd into the month and it was time to visit some of my resolutions. So far R is doing great with her commitment to workout more regularly and getting her dose of WE hike/bike. my year so far has been lot of quality miles as part of my training towards Jed Smith, so far so good..

I still need to schedule some of the classes planned for year. The book of the month is 'The Willpower Instinct". There are plenty of research articles listed, thought process in various situations are well illustrated by the author.

Activities with A are coming along good, we are spending more time on her fine motor skills and speech improvement... still some ways to go.

One of the interesting article I came across this month was a comparison of cost of Climbing Everest by Alan Arnette. Cost seems to be soaring to climb the big one and doesn't look like their is any dearth of climbers/tourists out there. It is interesting to see the number of articles which come up when we search "everest traffic jam", not sure how one can feel sense of adventure amidst that apart from just bragging rights? As Reinhold Messner had mentioned in one of interviews, every generation needs to define their own challenge and adventure and climbing everest in this form doesn't seem to be one of them.

Resolutions 2014

New Year brings with it new hopes to start life afresh, along with it comes new resolutions to lead a purposeful life. It's quite possible quite a few of them are forgotten by end of Jan, but that never discourages most to commit to some form of Resolutions in the first week of the year.

In 2013 myself and R had following common resolution: learn something new every quarter. It sounded reasonable with all commitments at the same time exciting opportunity to address a few of the TODO's on the list. few of the things I wanted to accomplish was

1. Race Direct a Race:     Accomplished as part of co-RD for Ruth Anderson 
                                      Ultra-marathon races.
2. Chinese cooking class:  Missed.
3. Read more:                  Accomplished About 6 books for the year.
4. More time with Ahana: Accomplished, turning down ultra-running miles did help with getting                                        more time with A. I want to continue with that going into 2014.

Apart from this I was able to accomplish 20 runs in my cherished Trail PG &E @ San Antonio Rancho park.

Time for new resolutions and continue with some good old habits for 2014.
1. Learn something new every quarter (Cooking, Blogging tips, Mountaineering Class, ??)
2. More blogging and pictures (Goal of 26 posts for the year).
3. More activities with A.
4. 24 runs @ Rancho or Ohlone Wilderness Trail.

R has set aside following two
1. Focus on getting healthier (More time biking and hiking).
2. More activities with A

Happy blogging.

Make it happen: Pine to Palm 100

After days of anticipation and planning for 100M in 2014. 2014 is here and I have signed up for Pine to Palm 100, now I need to make it happen on the training front, balancing family, work and play.

This is relatively a new 100 organized by Rogue Valley Runners, Race directed by WS 100 Champion Hal Kroner. Course info from race website

A remote and rugged classic point to point course traversing the Siskiyou; Mountains Range in Southern Oregon. Starting in Williams, OR the course winds it way east to Ashland, OR on a mixture of single track trail, dirt road, with less than 4 miles of pavement. The course boasts over 20,000ft of climb and 20,000 ft of loss with 3 epic climbs to 7,000ft and fantastic views of Mt Shasta and Mt McLaughlin. 

It has  a challenging course profile consisting of mainly 3 epic climbs. Few of bay area runners have joined so far, Darshan has committed himself to this race as well, which should make it much more training for this epic race.  To say I am excited is a understatement. Looking forward to long trail runs, probably in Ohlone wilderness area and Diablo Mt, which very well mimics the course profile