Resolved

I have never been much for New Year's Resolutions, but this year I have made a few.  I figure if I put them on here, there may be a bit more of an effort to follow through. 

1. Run a Marathon:  I think the furthest I have ever run is a 10k, perhaps a bit further, but nowhere close to a marathon.  Fortunately, with the internet, there are a number of training guides up there.  I plan to follow the guide here.  It looks deceptively easy at first, just start out with a 3 mile jaunt, but then seems to increase relatively quickly.  Luckily there are no shortages of places to run, from the treadmills at work to the many bike paths.  I still haven't picked what Marathon I want to do.  The default would be the Marine Corps Marathon here in DC, that doesn't take place until September, so that would give me plenty of time to get the mileage up and then try to get faster too.  The event I would really like to do is the Pike's Peak 1/2 marathon.  However, this looks tough as hell.  When the winners are putting in times of 4+ hours for a 1/2 marathon!  I think I need to first complete a marathon and an ascent of Pike's Peak before combining the two!  There is still time though, perhaps the Pike's Peak ascent can make the list for next year.

2. Lose Weight/Eat Better:  This kind of goes along with number 1, but I feel like I will be happier if I am healthier and turn to better avenues of stress relief.  I read about this idea of intermittent fasting.  Essentially, you try to eat all your meals within a 6 hour period and then fast for the remaining 18 hours.  Some people skip breakfast and then eat only lunch and dinner.  Personally, I have been trying, and by trying yesterday was the first day, of eating breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner.  Because my girls are always running around like maniacs and have the metabolism of humming-birds, there is always a good amount of yummy treats around the house.  I feel like I can get the most bang for my buck by skipping the dinner and subsequent grazing.  Tuyen still makes excellent dinners, I just have them for breakfast.  I started off the day with some spaghetti this morning! 

Those are the main ones, because they are concrete.  Overall, I would like to make myself a better person.  Perhaps be less self centered and understand the needs and feelings of others around me a bit better.

EDIT: 1st run down.  The guide says to take it easy so I banged out the 3 miles at a 9:05 pace.  Not exactly blistering, but at least not walking pace.  Felt like I had more in the tank.  Wed and Thurs are both 3 milers, rest on Fri and a sixer on Sat.  That will be test. 

Part 2:

We were supposed to get a light dusting of snow last night into this morning.  Well, it turned into more like 4-6 inches of snow.  Apparently no-one was really prepared for it, schools were not delayed, the roads were a complete mess, it has been quite a day.  It is largely over now, but it was quite an adventurous commute in this morning.  I only rode about 2 miles to the train station and about 4 miles in, but the city was a mess.  They had closed off a lot of the inclines because they were so icy that cars were having trouble getting up there.  My bike is absolutely covered in salt right now, I will have to give it a good cleaning and re-lube the chain.  Still, there were some fun parts blasting along the trail making fresh tracks in some powder.  I fear that it may be a bit of an icy mess though with very cold temps predicted for the rest of the week.