Welcome to February

From Dort Munder himself:

Monday                      treadmill 30

Tues                            walking 1 hour x 2 = 2 hour

Wed                            treadmill 30

Thursday                    treadmill 30   

Fri                                walking 45 minutes

Sat                               walking 30

Sun                              walking 30

And just like that, we're a month into a resolution! Congratulations, Dort!

It's been a big month, full of weather and committee meetings, and, apart from January 01 and one day following an injury, Dort has made space in his life for his resolution, working towards running a 5K race in the spring. Hazah!

As with all Rocky fans everywhere, I love a good montage . . . unfortunately, I don't know how to blog a montage, so I'll have to quickly change the subject.

To this: there cannot be any greater time of the year to talk about resolutions than the last week of December, and that is fun. But where has all that talk gone? How are your own resolutions proceeding? Have you stuck to them? Have they altered? 31 days in is no joke, and I can't shake the notion that we have more people rooting against us than for us. Am I right about this? or simply cynical?

Dieters: how many advertisements do you see each day for food that will break you, and how few times does someone notice the three grams you struggled to drop last week?

Ex-smokers: do I even need to ask how many times you've watched Robert De Niro light up while you chewed your fingernails from your armchair?

Exercisers: I'll bet you can recall more rain and snow and darkness over the passed month than sun. I'll bet more folks have asked you for a little extra help way more often than they've asked what they can do to get you out the door.

Folks seeking calm: any good experiences driving lately?

Even bumper stickers seem to be against us: "Working is the curse of the drinking class!" Here, here, wait, what? Try taking a month or two off drinking when you see signs like that everywhere you look, advertisements, friends in low places, pop culture . . .

I am tempted to make sweeping generalizations about how our culture resists general tenderness and unasked for moments of encouragement, but I don't want to point fingers. Rather, I want to celebrate everybody who has made it through a month of their resolution. It hasn't been easy, I'm sure. There have been challenges and unexpected obstacles, but welcome to February! Meanwhile, for anybody who has not made it through January, welcome to February! Don't wait for the last week of December -- if you have a resolution in mind, give it a go. There's no better day of the year to start a new way of life than Groundhog's Day, so make plans for tomorrow.

Dort's Running Tally:

As of 025 January 2012

Days Running: 28

Minutes Run: over 1000

Cross Training: 1 day

Days off: 2 day

Meanwhile, we'd love to hear from anybody who has made a resolution and stuck with it, made a resolution and changed it, made a resolution that didn't pan out, or has heard of resolutions and would like to say something about them.

Or if you'd like to give a shout out to Dort, have at it! One month! That's really pretty great!

Resolution Declaration . . .

Okay, that settles it. We're gonna hit the ground running in 2012. A friend voluneered to be the guinnea pig first volunteer on this blog, and we're going to work towards a 5K this spring.

I'll go into more details about his stats, vitals, name, likes, and dislikes soon, but for now we'll start with this: I asked him, "Well, how long has it been since you've gone for a run?"

He said, "You mean, like on purpose?"

"Yes, on purpose."

He scrunched up his face for about ten minutes, then said, "I don't know, thirty years."

So, well, okay, 5K (that's 3.1 miles, a standard community road race distance) by spring. Longer term, we're talking a possible 10K fall 2012. With just a touch of luck, the Mayans will be right and we won't have to worry about training the coming year for a marathon.

Anybody who would like to join us in our training, feel free. We're starting with a two mile walk / short run on 02 January. We need to get an idea of what kind of shape we're in, then we'll build a program.

For the record, I have been running regularly for quite some time with no specific goals in mind. For the record, my most recent 5K time (early October 2011) was under 21:00 minutes -- we'll probably be shooting for something considerably higher than that time.

Also, for the record, as I promised on the very second post in this blog, please feel free to praise both of us for our efforts and our commitment as we initialize this project. An occasional prayer to the deity or universe of your choice is always welcome.