Mark




I'm doing 38 things
 

Mark's Life List

  1. 1. reflect daily in a 'one sentence' journal
    35 entries . 27 cheers
    292 people
  2. 2. Journal regularly
    4 entries . 36 cheers
    271 people
  3. 3. swim better
    5 entries . 14 cheers
    50 people
  4. 4. identify 100 things that make me happy (besides money)
    16 entries . 37 cheers
    7,969 people
  5. 5. Learn Spanish
    9 entries . 31 cheers
    17,681 people
  6. 6. change the world (for the better)
    37 cheers
    213 people
  7. 7. take 43 photos of 43 places within 43 minutes of where I live
    1 entry . 24 cheers
    92 people
  8. 8. live, not merely exist
    8 entries . 47 cheers
    118 people
  9. 9. be a photographer
    6 entries . 28 cheers
    867 people
  10. 10. live sexy
    1 entry . 32 cheers
    19 people
  11. 11. get my back hair lasered off
    4 entries . 11 cheers
    1 person
  12. 12. return to italy
    26 cheers
    36 people
  13. 13. Join Amnesty International
    1 entry . 27 cheers
    31 people
  14. 14. Learn Latin Dance
    1 entry . 14 cheers
    111 people
  15. 15. draw better
    4 entries . 12 cheers
    363 people
  16. 16. scan all my old photographs
    12 cheers
    255 people
  17. 17. explore my sexual limits
    1 entry . 18 cheers
    2 people
  18. 18. Finish what I start
    3 entries . 16 cheers
    4,070 people
  19. 19. Get a tattoo
    2 entries . 13 cheers
    22,048 people
  20. 20. play in the World Series of Poker
    11 cheers
    125 people
  21. 21. Go someplace very, very dark and look at the stars all night
    1 entry . 30 cheers
    284 people
  22. 22. discover what i want to do with my life
    1 entry . 15 cheers
    25 people
  23. 23. Make a movie
    2 entries . 11 cheers
    3,120 people
  24. 24. Submit an article for Modern Drunkard Magazine
    2 entries . 7 cheers
    1 person
  25. 25. start my own cult
    4 entries . 7 cheers
    26 people
  26. 26. fight for gay rights
    32 cheers
    25 people
  27. 27. learn to play the harmonica
    1 entry . 14 cheers
    964 people
  28. 28. Photograph answers to 20 questions about me
    3 entries . 11 cheers
    52 people
  29. 29. floss regularly
    3 entries . 14 cheers
    332 people
  30. 30. find the end of a rainbow
    16 cheers
    79 people
  31. 31. Finally solve Savage Island!
    1 entry . 2 cheers
    1 person
  32. 32. Evaluate my progress
    4 entries . 5 cheers
    1 person
  33. 33. see Bard on the Beach
    1 entry . 4 cheers
    3 people
  34. 34. complete the 100 push up challenge
    3 entries . 8 cheers
    12 people
  35. 35. understand my excuses and make them work for me
    2 entries . 4 cheers
    1 person
  36. 36. make a photobook
    1 entry . 15 cheers
    16 people
  37. 37. fearlessly live the life I want to live, be who I truly want to be, welcome change, unleash my inner, creative, adventurous, warrior self, and have no apologies for it, whatsoever, to anyone
    9 cheers
    64 people
  38. 38. promote my book
    1 entry . 1 cheer
    5 people

How I did it
How to lose weight
It took me
1 year
It made me
Self Confident


Recent entries
complete the 100 push up challenge (read all 3 entries…)
Just got the iphone App

Lets see if that helps. I also got the 20 pull up app and the 200 sit up app… Maybe they will work better together….



reflect daily in a 'one sentence' journal (read all 35 entries…)
January 3, 2012

Ankle healing as fast as I had hoped, but I wonder when I will be able to look back and remember when my ankle was sore…



Make 2011 My Fittest Year Yet
I have been trying to figure out how to write an entry for resultions...

and it looks like I have found it.

This is a resolution that I took seriously, which to tell you the truth, surprised even me. I thought that by putting this down into a resolution, the gods of resolutions would mock me, like they are wont to do, and I would have ended up on this day looking at my resolution and wondering why in the world I ever thought I could do that. Strangely, this isn’t the case at all. I stuck with this one and used it to guide my actions… Wow… I wonder what has changed.

So, the recap,

I began the year signing up for the Yeti snowshoe clinic. I convinced a friend to join me and we did weekly snowshoe runs. Each one was about 5k and it was extremely hilly. Still, it was great to get out and do what was essentially a brutal 5k trail run every week in January and February.
I also got out and X-country skiied several times (once totally by myself because I couldn’t find anyone to join me). This is so contrary to my nature I can’t even come close to describing it. It was a lot of fun and I am hoping to massively increase my x-country skiing this year, getting the kids out at least a dozen times, maybe even a few times before this year is over.
So, I did the Yeti Enduro race. It was 2 laps and the second lap nearly killed me. It was about 10k and it was one hell of a difficult snowy race. I loved it!! The next week I did the grouse snowshoe grind race and came in 2nd for my age group, something that has literally never happened before in my life.
I did the odd run, through spring, running about 10k a week, and cycled further than I ever have in my life this year, working up to some 70k rides. For about 2 months I rode every weekend and I even did the ride up Cypress. This was quite possibly the most brutal thing I have ever done.
I did the grouse grind about 10 times this year, at least a match from last year and maybe a little more.
I joined crossfit and progressed amazingly. I was RX’ing a bunch of workout and lifting pretty big weights when my shoulder became injured. It slowly got worse and I took 2 months of to rehab it. This has worked out perfectly as it it back to being totally unhurt. I swam further than I ever have (although I only did one season of masters swim class out of 3 in a year), 3km and did several 2k swims, including a race with Jason early in the year. He crushed me.
I am back to crossfit and just lifting lighter weights, but so excited to be back. I love it!
I did 2 half marathons, which is a tie for my previous fittest year. That year, I rocked one of the halfs 2 years ago at 1:49, a speed I haven’t gotten close to since, but I did the Fall Classic both years, getting 2:22 2 years ago, and 2:07 this year. So although I was at my fittest most likely 2 years ago, I am ending this year much fitter.
I also did my biggest event ever this year, a half iron man triathlon. That was huge. I struggled with an olympic triathlon 2 years ago, and this is double, and double in fitness isn’t just double… I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment for having done that and I will probably go up another level, either next year or the following year.
Finally, I took the kids out to play field hockey with them a number of times this year, including a summer drop in game. I played with the kids so that they felt comfortable playing (a lot of the players are adults so it was understandable that they felt intimidated). I sucked at the game but my fitness level was high so I could keep up. In any case, I was talking with another dad who was playing (after I brought my girls, a lot of the girls who dropped into field hockey brought their parents and there were a bunch of us dads playing), and he was suggesting that we join the recreational field hockey league… I didn’t even know there was one, but now I am officially playing a sport, I have a jersey, it even has a number. I am practicing once a week and playing games once a week. I SUCK, but I make up for some of it in the fact that I can run all out with any player for an hour… That counts for something I think. I am getting better and practicing on my own every chance I get.
So, that sums up my fitness into late November in my fittest year ever! I am thinking of challenging myself to top this next year, but maybe I will just try to match it. I feel great about this years activities, I am having so much fun. A big part of this though has been the philosophy of the movie Yes Man.
From the snow shoe clinics, to the field hockey team and crossfit, whenever an opportunity that I would normally have been scared of or intimidated by comes up, I have said Yes. It has paid off in ways I never imagined and I am loving my life!



See all entries ...


 

I want to:
43 Things Login