Goals | Tall Tara

January 3, 2010

Best of 2009: Challenge

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, most of my challenges seem to revolve around athletic themes. There are the obvious physical and mental obstacles involved, but I’m pretty sure that I’m still trying to make up for lost time. And convince myself I’m an athlete.

In September of 2009, I ran my first trail race in Oregon. 14 miles on uneven dirt with exposed roots and rocks, uphill and down, with the threat of stinging bees along the course. Pretty much the hardest half-marathon I’ve ever run…and it wasn’t the biggest challenge of this year.

Earlier in 2009, I ran a new race, the Fort Collins half-marathon. I wanted to run it so I could say, “Take a bus up the Poudre”, as often as possible at 5:30 in the morning. And it was as fun as I thought it would be. However, around mile eight, my knee started hurting and making it to the finishing line was mentally tough. Still not the biggest challenge of the year.

[I asked my husband about his biggest challenge this year and he answered marriage. Funny. That was the easiest thing I did all year.]

Nope, the hardest thing I did in 2009 was starting CrossFit.

I already blogged about how nervous I was before the first class and made the requisite cult jokes. Now, after almost five weeks in, I can say that it was, and still is, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I absolutely love it. And it might be a cult.

It wasn’t just the workouts. Although they were tough. Pull-ups, push-ups, dead-lifts, squats and kettle-ball tough. Yes, I cried out for baby Jesus. Yes, I sweat. And yes, I bitched about CrossFit on Twitter.

crossfittweet3

And it wasn’t just because these killer workouts took place at 6:45 in the morning. Before I had to go into the office for a full day of work.

It might have been because getting to those workouts required perilous walks or bike rides in the dark, across ice and through snow, at a time in the morning when I’m normally snuggling in bed with the warm hubby.

That was definitely the hardest part.

(Besides the burpees. I hate those things.)

crossfittweet

Despite all my grumbling about being sore, the results of my hard work were crystal clear this past weekend.

I rang in the new year with two days of skiing. The first day was spent remembering what I was doing and getting used to the snow. We got a full day in and I felt pretty confident.

Day two was amazing. Five inches of new powder, lots of tree skiing and three black diamond runs. My goal for the entire upcoming ski season was to feel comfortable on black diamonds and here I was, day two, in knee-deep powder and amongst trees. Shredding it, feeling good and breathing into my quads.

imga0025

The fact that I kicked ass my first two days on the slope this year is proof positive that CrossFit has already helped me to become a stronger athlete.

And if that wasn’t enough, waking up today, I wasn’t sore at all. While the husband talked about his sore legs, I simply smiled.

Bring it, CrossFit.

October 25, 2009

Shots on Goal

Oh hai list of goals that I wanted to accomplish for this year. Long time, no see.

Enter snowy day and the perfect time to sit down and revisit said list. After blowing dust off the blog post, I spent some time thinking about what I’ve accomplished. ¹

With the hopes of keeping myself accountable, here’s how I’ve been progressing:

#2. run another marathon.

This was one of those goals that got slightly amended. I did not have time to train for a marathon, but I did have time to run a different half-marathon in a new state. So that’s what I did instead. (Perhaps before I’m 40 I’ll get another notch in my marathon belt.)

#3. elope.

Done. And done well.

#4. work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden.

With the help of my ever-loving and most patient husband, our garden was bountiful and prosperous.

#5. pay down credit card debt.

Two cards down, a few more to go.

#6. write more letters.

Do thank-you notes count? ²

#10. play another season of Ultimate Frisbee.

It wasn’t a championship season like last year, but we had a lot of spirit. ³

#11. do more push-ups.

The ladies of the Lijit office do (almost) daily push-ups together. Nothing beats a little muscle pump in the afternoon.

#14. roller derby!

Saw my first bout last month and although I’m still undecided on whether or not I should try out, I’m a big fan.

#16. get scuba certified.

Thanks to Weaver’s Dive Center, I’m all set. Belize, here I come!

#24. throw a kickass wedding party.

How about not one, but two kickass wedding parties?

#29. put money in my savings account every month.

So far, so good. ⁴

The results are a little rough, dear readers. I’m almost two-thirds of the way through the year and I an only done with one-third of my list.

However, to make myself feel better, I will rationalize that a full third of the list are all goals that are in progress, which means that they will be crossed off at some point:

#1. more yoga.

#8. incorporate strength training into my workout routine.

#9. reach out to my old friends.

#13. give more bodywork

#17. blog more. ⁵

#20. get rid of unnecessary stuff.

#21. say yes more.

#22. reach outside of my comfort zone.

#23. swim.

#27. be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them.

#28. dance more.

#30. acknowledge gratitude daily.

So, what about that pesky last third of the list? For one reason or another, these goals are the ones that will probably need some adjusting ⁶ in order to accomplish.

These represent the worst kind of to-do’s–easy to type but much too broad and vague to actually do:

#31. practice compassion.

#32. forgive and forget.

And then some goals are difficult to achieve because of the money involved:

#19. buy more vintage clothing.

#26. get the tattoo on my ankle redone.

Not to mention, there are the things left that I keep meaning to do…

#7. perform stand-up at least once a month.

#12. explore new parts of Colorado.

#15. experiment with video

#18. learn basics of Photoshop.

#25. volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart.

#33. learn how to juggle.

but that take up more time or energy than I had realized when first creating this list. But I’m figuring it out as I go…and my progress reflects that fact.

It’s just a shame that rocking the footnote plugin wasn’t on the list. ⁷

Don’t worry. It’s not much. ↩
If you’re reading this and you haven’t received your thank-you note yet, it’s because we’re planning something extra special for you. ↩
That means we wrote good cheers, brought baked goods to games and only one won game. ↩
Of course, in addition to going in, it also comes out some months. ↩
Hey, I’m trying… ↩
Massaging, tweaking, shifting ↩
Because once I start, I just can’t stop… ↩

August 19, 2009

On becoming a champion triathlete

The Fort Collins Triathlon was the second of the summer. I had so much fun doing the Longmont Tri that it seemed a no-brainer to do another.

However, I did something a little different with this race registration. While filling out the online entry form, I looked to see if they offered an Athena and Clydesdale division.

For those that don’t know, Athena and Clydesdale are the nice terms for the larger men and women competing in the race. Men have to be over 200 lbs, while women need to be over 150 lbs. In big races, you have to weigh in prior to the triathlon to make sure that you actually qualify for these divisions.

[I think the men got the short end of the stick on the naming of these categories but for the record, Peter Shankman is proud to be a Clydesdale, so I'm going to rock the Athena designation. It could be worse.]

Race day came and there were never any official weigh-ins. I had too many other things to think about and was just excited for the event. The swim went well, I kicked ass on the bike and felt strong going into the run, as evidenced below…

Transition from bike to running @ FoCo tri

Crooked is the new black when it comes to tri skirts.

I finished in good time and was happy with my performance. After the race, I was sitting around with my crazy triathlete friends (who had talked me into racing in the first place), drinking well-deserved beer and eating hot dogs.In the background, I heard age group winners being awarded.

I’m halfway through with my hot dog when the announcer mentioned something about Athenas. Since I held no hopes of winning, I thought it would be fun to check out the chicks who did.

The next thing I know, my name is being called out as the first place winner of the Athena division. It’s hard to say who was more surprised…me or my serious triathlete friends. I was in shock and somehow made my way up front to accept my award. After I shook hands with the announcer, I stepped over to the prize table to collect my winner’s plaque. The nine-year-old handing these out looked up at me and told me the truth.

“Uhhh…you were the only one in the category…”

Whatever. Little shithead.

I still won first place.

Upon returning back to Boulder, I was able to honestly answer when my friends and family asked me, as they always do, if I had won the race.

Actually, yes…yes, I did.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Two days after the race, I happened to be in a friend’s bathroom with a scale. For laughs, I hopped on and was shocked to realize that I only weighed 140, which meant that I hadn’t actually qualified for the Athena category. Whoops.

To summarize, if you want to win a triathlon, here are the two things you have to do:

Make sure you lie about your weight so that you can get a special distinction when it comes to race participants.
Make sure that there is no one else competing against you in your category.

See?

It’s easy to win a triathlon.

March 16, 2009

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Weekend before last, I eloped with him.

In Kato's words...awwwww...how cute

This past weekend, we started a garden together.

Radish, scallions and kale, oh my!

To be honest, I was way more nervous about the garden because I don’t have a green thumb. Quite the opposite in fact…. I’m like the Jack Kevorkian of plant life. But he asked if I would be interested in helping with the spring planting. And what’s a newlywed to do?

He's just so cute...

Plus he totally bribed me.

The pink watering can did the trick.

Before we could even think about planting anything, we had to prepare the soil. This process took almost four hours and included digging up roots, shoveling old soil out, adding in a compost/peat moss mixture (along with many other nutrient rich substances) and mixing it all up in order to make sure our garden had a fertile foundation.

a lovely manure and compost mixture

After our soil was ready, we had to enable the partitioning that was to set the stage for our garden. I was informed that square foot gardening is “one of the geekiest ways to garden” and that thanks to my own geeky spouse, we already had a spreadsheet of where the different crops were going. ‘Twas a good thing that he knew what he was doing.

Ides of March, my ass

All the time spent working that close to the earth left me feeling more grounded than I had in a long time. No pun intended.

I realized that tending a garden is a lot like tending a relationship. There is planning, heavy lifting, uprooting, maintaining, and big piles of stuff you have to move around. It’s hard work, your hands will get dirty and without enough attention, your efforts will be for naught.

getting down and dirty

As you put seeds into the ground, you can’t but help but be overcome with a feeling of optimistic hope. By planting a seed, you are siding with the belief that there is potential in the future…that anything is possible, that life will provide and that with the right care, you can grow something to be proud of…all the same feelings I had during my wedding.

If these are the salad days, pass the homemade vinaigrette please because we’re growing three different types of lettuce. (Who knew?)

March 5, 2009

33 for 33

the-scene

Ummm…mic check, one, two, one two…

So, right, sorry about my silence. Honestly though, things were a little crazy in February, with less days and my birthday and a comedic presentation and a blogging conference.

There are no good excuses to be made about the blog neglect. But hey, I’m back and attempting to be better than ever. And? I’m getting married tomorrow.

That being said, why in the hell am I writing a blog post on the eve of my elopement? Basically, I am a week overdue in posting my birthday list of what I want to do this year. By sharing it now, I can cross at least one thing off the list the day after tomorrow. (And if you know me at all, then you know how much I really love crossing things off lists.)

more yoga
run another marathon
elope
work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden
pay down credit card debt
write more letters
perform stand-up at least once a month
incorporate strength training into my workout routine
reach out to my old friends
play another season of Ultimate Frisbee
do more push-ups
explore new parts of Colorado
give more bodywork
roller derby!
experiment with video
get scuba certified
blog more
learn basics of Photoshop
buy more vintage clothing
get rid of unnecessary stuff
say yes more
reach outside of my comfort zone
swim
throw a kickass wedding party
volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart
get the tattoo on my ankle redone
be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them
dance more
put money in my savings account every month
acknowledge gratitude daily
practice compassion
forgive and forget
learn how to juggle

Let’s see how I do. I promise it will not be another month until my next post. Especially since I’ll have rad pictures of a mod wedding dress to share very soon. (If that’s not a teaser, I don’t know what is…)

*Thanks to Caroline for being a constant source of inspiration and for sharing her own list.

**Somewhat interesting tidbit…Caroline and I have six things in common on our lists (almost twenty percent), which helps to illustrate why we’re friends in the first place.

January 19, 2009

Training 2.0

Back in the day, I really got into documenting all the training I was doing. Whether it was weight workouts, excursions to the climbing gym, or runs around town, I wrote it down. Something about looking at all of my physical activity made me feel good.

I also blame it on not having a coach and being a later-in-life athlete.

In fact, not only did I write it down, I kept it all. Since I never received any awards for the races I ran, the binder represented a trophy of all my athletic achievements and fitness milestones. It contains approximately 4 years worth of training logs. Don’t worry, I’m not going to unload all of that on you but I would like to give you an idea of my OCD around this particular area.

Click to see the ugly details.

I think the records tell an interesting story of what my life was like then and what was important to me. Fast forward a few years and I’m now living more of my life online. Why not transfer my race record-keeping to a more digital (and eco-friendly) form? Welcome to my experiment.

I found a free tool that allows me to easily record my training online. There are lots of similar programs out there, but I wanted something that was going to have a dead simple interface without any unnecessary bells and whistles. No reason to make training for a marathon any harder than it already is.

<ulterior motive>In the hopes of keeping myself honest and accountable, I’m putting a link to my public training calendar in my sidebar. Gulp. Should you ever be curious how I’m doing in working towards my goal of running a marathon, simply click on that link. Double gulp. It’s out there and I’m interested to see if my training transparency does the trick of getting me across the finish line.</ulterior motive>

If making my training calendar public doesn’t prepare me for the marathon I want to run, then five months from now, when I’m woefully unprepared to complete 26.2 miles, you can point to my digital training log and say, “I told you so”.

Yes, Mom, even you.

In the words of Gatorade and Jeremy Tanner, no excuses.

January 4, 2009

Hey (wo)man, nice shot

I recently completed my attempt at Project 366. For those unfamiliar with the concept, you take a picture a day for an entire year. How did I do with my 2008 creative challenge? Let’s put it this way…if I was doing this for a grade, I’d have scored an 82%.

What can I say? I have 301 pictures out of the total 366 and a wide variety of excuses for those missed days–I was busy, I forgot, I was tired, I wasn’t inspired–you name it. Some days I just didn’t want to pick up my camera. However, my goals with this project were to take more pictures, to make the time to look around and to document a year in photos. I feel like I definitely accomplished all three.

Here’s my picture from the last day of my Project 366…

Not a bad way to end it

This project was made both easier and harder by Flickr. I loved having the ability to organize the pictures I was taking every day and to arrange them into sets. However, uploading a week’s worth of pictures was often time-consuming, what with all that tagging and describing. And quite honestly, I wouldn’t even upload photos every week which made for a lengthy catch-up session when I did.

I crunched some numbers and thought that it was interesting to see how my photographic trends over the course of a year could be calculated.

# of Adam pictures: 12 (3% total)

# of pictures taken while backpacking or hiking: 14 (4% total)

# of self-portraits: 18 (5% total)

# of pictures containing drinks, alcoholic or otherwise: 20 (5% total)

# of Lijit-related pictures: 31 (8% total)

# of tech event pictures: 32 (9% total)

# of pictures taken out-of-state: 41 (11% total)

# of pictures with food, either prepared or eating it: 44 (12% total)

# of pictures taken while walking around town: 46 (13% total)

And imagine, only two pictures of my shoes.

The most interesting, and most viewed, picture of Project 366, according to my Flickr stats:

Also a member of the Fashion my Legs Flickr group

And this picture, taken in mid-January after I had my bangs cut, had the most comments:

Most of the comments were offering support. Of course, I was one of the commenters.

Choosing the picture I considered the most interesting was a little harder, but I was able to narrow it down to two. It was difficult with 301 pictures to sort through but what does it say about me that both my favorites include some spooky elements of the underworld?

Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming

Halloween decoration around the neighborhood

Some of the take-aways from Project 366:

–Keep your eyes open. You never know when an amazing shot might be right around the corner.

–Inspiration surrounds you but it can be hard work finding it sometimes.

–Pictures of home-cooked meals make you appreciate the food even more.

–Taking a portrait of a stranger is easier if you ask.

–It’s easy to forget how much fun photography is if you feel obligated to do it.

–If you want to see what a person is passionate about, find out what they take pictures of.

In closing…

Just thought you should know

November 22, 2008

A much happier half-marathon

Last month, Adam and I ran our second Denver half-marathon. This is my favorite race distance because it’s the lazy man’s length. It’s long enough to challenge you but not long enough to kill you. (I got a crazy look from a friend when I said that at a recent party.) You can slack off in your training, maybe even drink too much the night before, and still pull off 13.1 miles.

I wanted to do something a little different this year by attempting to document the race in pictures. There were a few challenges because I don’t own a small digital camera and unfortunately buying one of these was not in my budget. So I went with a disposable camera, a running fanny pack (a little better than the tourist kind), and high hopes of catching interesting shots along the way.

[Before actually sharing any pictures, I feel that a few things need to be mentioned. Like how I sometimes forget just how shitty disposable cameras really are. And how horrible I am at holding the camera out at arm's length and trying to get myself in a picture. Finally, despite my wanting them to happen, not many crazy things actually happened during the race.]

So with all that mind, I present you with the Denver Half-Marathon 2008. And to make it even more fun, I’m giving you the pictures in the style of one of my favorites. And don’t ask where the pictures are from the start line. It was too dark.

13.1 miles in 2 hours and 22 minutes, minus the time spent in the Port-A-Potty line.

Beautiful weather, great company and local microbrew afterwards…what more could you want from a race?

(Insert snarky comment here.)

August 14, 2008

Clifford: the ultimate big red (under)dog story

We came into the tournament seeded sixth. Eight hours and many points later, we emerged as the B league champions. (And yes, we are named after a children’s book. See our mascot in the bottom right of our team picture below.)

This was my first season back after not playing ultimate frisbee for five years. I spent the majority of the season dusting off my skills, remembering how to play, getting my ass kicked by faster girls, and making mistakes. However, something clicked for me at the tournament and I played the best ultimate I’ve ever played. (I think everyone on the team was pleasantly surprised.)

Our team played four games in a row, beating the #1 and #3 ranked teams along the way. The beauty of a tourney situation is that it’s more of an endurance event than anything else. While there is a lot of strategy that goes into tournament playing, it really boils down to who is left standing at the end of the game. You have to push yourself harder and play when you’re beaten up. I had a mid-air collision with a big guy, a girl come down on my ankle with her cleat and I tumbled to the ground for the disc a few times. (And I was one of the LEAST physical players on our team!) People on my team were taking hits left and right, dusting themselves off and getting right back into the game. It was awe-inspiring, and slightly masochistic, seeing everyone fling themselves around the field. *

The beauty of playing a game, like Ultimate, with a group of others is that you become part of something larger than yourself. Besides the mental challenges, you have the physical challenges to deal with as well. Can I endure another point? Are there any girls to sub in for me? How am I going to survive ANOTHER game? Maybe it’s because I’ve been an individual sport gal for so long, but I had forgotten what it was like to be a part of a team, working hard together, sweating and bleeding to accomplish the unthinkable.

Our team consisted of a father-son combo (also the oldest and youngest members of the league), two brothers (one a national ultimate champion and the other our coach), a husband-wife, and two boyfriend-girlfriend duos. It was definitely a family affair and my belief that these connections added something deeper to our team, in terms of experience and trust while on the field. When Jake, the 18-year old, threw the disc to his dad in the end zone for a goal, I got chills. I have to thank everyone on Clifford for the continued guidance and help as I was figuring out my way around the field.** And many thanks for yelling at me from the sidelines as well. (Especially when I wasn’t asking for help. Matt, you’ve drilled it into me.)

At its most basic, we play for the fun of the game. The competition rekindles feelings of youth. You scream for your team, race until you can’t breathe, write cheers for the other team, and score points together. Ultimate players are geeky big kids and we certainly aren’t getting paid to play. (In fact, we pay the league a registration fee to play.) But when everyone is running around together on the field and a beautiful play comes together, everything makes sense. I lost myself in the moment, in the game, and in the season. Thanks Clifford for making my first season back a championship one!

*The day after the tournament, I was seriously sore in places I haven’t been in a long time. Every vertebrae in my spine, my rib cage, deep in my elbow joints…but surprisingly not my legs. That started two days after the tourney.

**Everyone on the team helped me, but I owe a lot to Julie Penner. Her unwavering confidence in me, screams of encouragement, and pre-game drills made all the difference. Our time on the field together gave me an opportunity to get to know her better and I feel like ultimate strengthened our friendship. Not to mention the fact that she’s an amazing athlete and I just loved watching her play. Thanks a lot Penner…you rock.

February 7, 2008

My favorite shot from January

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