making progress

you know those new year's resolutions that everybody makes, but nobody seems to be able to keep for more than a few weeks into january?  yeahhhhh those... i didn't make any official ones this year, as i never fulfill them, but had a few goals i want to accomplish by december.

top priority is to continue training in preparation for the pennock island challenge swim in august - 8.2 miles of open water swimming in southeast alaskan waters.  still haven't decided whether i'm going solo or want to team with other(s), or whether i'll go "naked" (aka regular swim suit) or wear a wetsuit - i'm thinking if i do the full swim, i'll go with a wetsuit (a potential 5 hrs in 50-60* water? no thanks!) or if i relay with others i'll go "naked" since i won't be swimming as far.  so far, i've been making training progress by reaching almost 50 miles in the pool since jan 1, & am on target to hit 50+ by the end of march.  thank goodness for master's swimming online fitness log & keeping track of yardage, workouts & time spent in the pool!  i've also been keeping track of my time on idita-splash, a fundraising event for the nome swim team that coincides w/ the iditarod race.  i'm hoping to hit 2000 minutes by the end of march, when the event finishes.  my (tentative) mileage goal for the master's go the distance challenge - total miles swum/run/biked/walked/trained/etc. - is 200 miles; that's an average of 50 miles/3 months, which is what i've accomplishe so far.

those numbers will likely go up as summer approaches, when i'll have more time to get outdoors & train...the weather has been crappy as of late, and with homework assignments constantly consuming my weekends, i haven't been out hiking at all since the fall.  but, i've already signed up for the totem-to-totem run/walk in early may, which'll add about 13 miles in one day.  and the pennock swim.  and training for the pennock swim, which probably means 2-3 sessions of laps each day to get in the hours, plus open water practice.  i also want to make deer mtn hikes a more frequent practice over the summer, so it doesn't kick my ass every single time i attempt it - those are a good 9 miles apiece.  i also want to do the fool's run at midnight 5K in early june (walking, of course - i. don't. run. ever.), the brute squad postal swim in november, find lake emery tobin (supposedly only 3.5 miles from settler's cove, but i swear i walked that far last spring & never found it...), & complete atleast a good chunk of the master's swimming check-off challenge (swim each race over the year, which  means competing in KKW time trials...yikes).  i started a pinterest board here for motivation & visual representation of my goals. 

plus, there's always the fun-but-not-planned goals, especially for the summer: go camping, kayaking, fishing, etc...visit friends down south & drink MANY dutch bros kahlua kicker freezes...bake...beach bonfires...so many plans, so little time!