Looking back on accomplishments in 2010 and forward to goals for 2011

2010 is in the books, it was a big year for me in lots of aspects of my life.  Lots of growth in my spiritual / church life, trying to become a better husband and growing in our (I still think its) new marriage, improving in my career, and some amazing travel experiences.  And while all those things are important to me, what this blog post is about is some athletic goals.  This has really been the first year that I have set such specific goals and actually tracked them the entire year.  It turned out to be a great motivator to stay healthy and fit in 2010. 

I completed these races this year:

12k Snowshoe Race - Big Bear, CA

World Famous Mud Run - Camp Pendleton, CA

ASYMCA Mud Run - Camp Pendleton, CA

30K Trail Run - Big Bear, CA

I had a blast doing these as they helped to push me further and harder than before, and I look forward to participating in some more in 2011.  Thus far I'm planning on doing these:

SJT 50K - Santa Ana Mountains, Orange County, CA

World Famous Mud Run - Camp Pendleton, CA

ASYMCA Mud Run - Camp Pendleton, CA

I feel like I did not do enough hiking in 2010, I have lots of hikes that I want to do around California and Oregon, etc...  Here are a few of the (substantial) hikes/trail runs that I did do.

Hikes:
Bertha Peak - Big Bear, CA
Mt. Baldy - Angeles National Forest
Borrego Palm Canyon - Anza-Borrego, CA
Ernie Maxwell Trail - Idyllwild, CA
Mt. Lowe - Pasadena, CA

Trail Runs:
Main Divide - Maple Springs Loop - 16 miles
Santiago Truck Trail - 12 miles
Harding Truck Trail - 14 miles

But there are SO many more that I would love to do, here's some that I hope to hit in 2011:

San Jacinto Peak
San Gorgonio Peak
Mt. Whitney
Topanga State Park
Any/all of the trails in the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains
and so many more...


As I said, I was much more meticulous about tracking my progress in 2010 than ever before, and kept logs of my workouts throughout the entire year.  I must say it has been totally worth it for me.  I've been able to push myself more so that I can "stay on track", and it keeps me from slacking off.

Here are my total mileage breakdowns of 2010.

Running	Biking	Paddling	Other	TOTAL	Weekly Average
358	115	17	129	619	12

Looking at this I realized that a big reason why I didn't hit my original goal of 1500 miles in a year (other than naivety) was that I didn't ride nearly as much as I was expecting to, partly due to injury, partly due to bike issues, largely due to excuses.  But hopefully I will be able to bump that significantly in 2011.  I am hoping to get some friends to do the "Grand Traverse" (A 60 mile ride across the Santa Ana mountains) with me this year.  Another something I noticed is only 17 miles of paddling???  Really?  We're definitely going to need to rectify that this year.  In case you're wondering, "Other" is just a catch all category for hikes or any other significant mileage that I covered that does not fall in the other categories.  However I did not count any mileage gained on machines or treadmills at the gym, this was all actual mileage that I covered with my own power.

As for goals with 2011, I'm thinking keep that part simple again.  I'll probably still track the crap out of every little stat, because I love all of that.  But my main goal is to go over 1000 miles this year.  That's averaging around 20 miles per week instead of 12.  And I'm posting it here on the internetz now so I won't try and change my goal halfway (or next week) through the year (or next week).  So here's to long runs, epic rides, awesome hikes, and adventure... can't wait!

GO FROGS!

TCU 21 -

Wisconson 19

On Saturday I got to attend what was to me a pinnacle of watching lots and lots of TCU football my entire life. The Horned Frogs finishing an undefeated season by winning at the Rose Bowl. We sat through every home game of many loosing seasons, and that just makes this all the sweeter! Go Frogs!

Thought this was an awesome picture that I found online and had to share...

600 Miles!

For several various and a sundry reasons, I've been inspired to give my blog another go. Mainly in hopes that it will help to inspire me and push me to do more in 2011. Early on in 2010 I decided to make myself a goal to travel over 1500 miles in the year under my own power, like running, biking, paddling, etc... Soon into the year I realized that this goal was a bit lofty, but what good are goals if not lofty right? Unmotivating, that's what. So I adjusted my goal to a more reasonable 600 miles (50 miles per month). And so I've been shooting for that ever since. Today I passed my goal. I went for a 9 mile run this morning before work and halfway through I stopped to take this picture at the 600 mile mark (just so happened to be my favorite view of San Clemente).

One of the various things I want to start posting on the blog is my runs. I want to do this to help keep me honest, help push myself harder, and perhaps inspire others. Plus I hope to do some cool runs/rides, and thought people might be interested in those trails, etc...

Here is the GPS Track of my run.

I realize those may be hard to see. I will work on improving that in future posts... The blue line on the map was my route this morning. And the Red line is the elevation profile, overlayed with the purple speed profile.

Weekend (before last) Update

I skipped a few updates, but wanted to put up some pics from our weekend camp trip up in Idyllwild, its a quaint little town near San Jacinto. Our camping experience was a bit sub par, but we're kinda camping experience snobs. Meaning we like camping in the Sequoias, Yosemite, Zion, or any other place far far away from tons of people. So we probably shouldn't have expected the same peaceful camping just outside of LA and the OC. But we made the best of it anyhow, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We went fishing on Lake Hemmet to teach Dani how to fish, and she caught her first fish ever! And the best part is she still wants to catch more! On Sunday we went on a fun hike that had 14 geocaches on it, and we found all of them. Good times...

Weekend Update (5 Day Weekend!)

Last week we went up to Dani's parent's ranch up in Oregon, for a 5 day weekend trip, and we took Holli and Huy Do with us. It was a blast, and were pleasantly surprised to find that we can spend that much time with another couple and we are still friends with them. We packed alot in. Rock climbing with Denver and Chelsea, shooting off the Linthicum's porch while Denver cooked a ton of ribs, Crater Lake, Bend, whitewater rafting the Rogue River in inflatable kayaks, scenic drive down the rugged Oregon coast, Rosburg, Geocaching, camping in the Redwood National Park, and an amazingly long drive home that was caused by Google Maps lying to us, causing us to get home at 5:30 in the morning instead of midnight as planned.

Here's a few of the best pics I ended up with:

Cowboys Stadium

Dani and I went to Texas last week for my 10 year high school reunion, and to spend some time with the fam. While we were there though we decided to take a tour of Jerry World. It was amazing!

Weekend Update

SATURDAY

Ran the Mud Run at Camp Pendleton with Rocky, Mike, and Chris. It's a blast of a 10k with lots of obstacles like walls and mud pits and stuff. Finished it in 1:09, and we placed 12th out of 78 all male teams, and 16th out of all 428 civilian teams (male, female, and mixed). Not bad! I'm doing it again with work in 2 weeks, which people at work think I'm "insane" to do it twice, "within 2 weeks!"

For the afternoon, we grilled some dogs and invited some peeps to hang at our place and since there was an intense marine layer over the beaches this weekend, we decided to play some of our favorite game, Monopoly Deal.

Dani had purchased Groupon for a gift cert to Peppino's Italian restaurant so we went and had a nice romantic dinner on the patio overlooking Lake Mission Viejo. Very nice.

SUNDAY

We attended Mariners Mission Viejo once again, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then went back to our house with big plans of beaching or kayaking, but arrived back in San Clemente to the afore mentioned marine layer, and decided that didn't sound like fun anymore, so we called up our new neighbors in Ladera Ranch, Rocky and Jennifer, and went out on a hike with them. Snagged a few GeoCaches and then hit the pool. Multiple pools actually as we tooled around Ladera Ranch's many pools searching for just the right one for us. We had swimming races in the pool and discovered that Dani and I are very evenly matched when it comes to swimming, and we think we should explore that activity more often. Then they offered us giant steaks to eat, and you all know I cannot turn that down. Thanks JOCKY!