Personal Goals 2010 - March Update

2 months in, Nothing really done in February:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Cantebury Tales, time to get back

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done

Other items of interest:
Nothing much done really in February. Olympics were on and I got 4th overall out of 141 teams in the Fantasy Olympics. Been super busy at school as well. Hopefully March will be better.

Personal Goals 2010 - February

1 month in, lets see where we stand:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this

Other items of interest:
Some work done around the house but not much. Most of the time was spent on school work or regular work and trying to get my research started. Although I did apply for my first grant ever so we will see how that turns out.

My Triathlon At Last

Well my long in coming post about my triathlon has finally arrived. Basically my wife (Veronica) and I trained for this for several months and then she became pregnant so I was forced to do this on my own. Some people. Anyway, I trained as much as I could biking around the neighborhood, swimming in the gym pool and at our neighborhood lake, and running wherever. The triathlon was at Bear Lake which straddles the border between Utah and Idaho and is really nice up there. We went up there the previous year with Aikman and Twix and had a blast so we wanted to go again with Jackson and Twix this year.

So the big day comes, September 12th, 2009. The triathlon is called the Bear Lake Brawl and I was signed up for the Sprint. Which is a 750 meter swim, 20 km bike (~12 mile), and a 5K run. This is me all set wearing my speedo swim trunks and a t-shirt before getting ready.

My numbers on the back of my legs (Age and race "S" for sprint)

Veronica was not able to come down to the starting line because she had to watch over the dogs so she took this from a far.

I am still technically swimming now. This is me running up the beach to the transition zone. The water was a lot rougher than I had anticipated it to be. I was literally swallowing water with every stroke and at times I had to "doggy paddle" just to keep going. It doesn't help that the water was cold enough to actually take my breath away. Since it was so cold you have to wear a wetsuit so that is what I wore, but running up they get partially stripped down.
Being as I almost drowned swimming the run up the beach was exhausting as you can tell. Veronica made it away from the dogs to take this wonderful shot dying. I thought she was still over by them as you can tell in the last picture. This is also her favorite picture.
And off on the bike. The biking was the next thing that killed me. My rear wheel was a little bent so it rubbed against the brake a little which didn't help the fact I was riding a little uphill and into the wind. Not to mention I was not very good at biking to begin with so this went downhill real fast. I did not pass 1 person swimming and everyone that didn't pass me then passed me on the bike.

Finishing up biking at last with my worst time ever.

Veronica missed my take off for the run but once I started running I actually felt pretty good since that was the focus of most of my training. By the end I actually passed a whole lot of people and was feeling pretty good.

Until I stopped and then I just died for most of the rest of the day.

All in all, not horrible but I definitely could have been better prepared. But you live and learn. I need to practice swimming more in colder water with larger waves. That is my biggest problem.

My results are as follows:

I finished 21st in my age group out of 25.

Overall Time - 1:59:31 (under 2 hours)

Swimming - 27:01.4

Transition - 2:14.0 (the third fastest)

Biking - 58:33.0 (the slowest)

Transition - 0:36.3 (the second fastest)

Running - 31:07.0

So here's looking to next year. You can check out the results Here

Healthy = (not) Salt Lake City (in January)

And that's not fog folks, that's pollution, or "inversion" as they like to call it. Yesterday we had the worst air in the nation. Today?

That's right worst again, by far. It's ungodly unhealthy out there. --> http://www.airnow.gov/
I am sooo happy I had to run to the bus stop this morning. Probably took 20 years off of my life.

Personal Goals 2010 - First Post

So over the last few weeks I have been thinking about some goals that I wanted to do for 2010. The first few are going to be to finish off the goals from last year since they did not get finished, but I also have some more in mind. So here they are along with my current status:

1. Finish first draft of my novel - First 1/3rd first draft done
2. Drop weight to 167 - Current at 175
3. Balance our budget
a. Pay credit card - Only one card left
4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists - Current count 86
5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
a. Also update the last two I did - One done to the level I want

So all in all, not too hard I think. Problems might come up when Gummy Bear comes in April though.