Chisel in hand...

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Michelangelo

Thanks to Michelangelo for summarizing my feelings about my Dirty Five! I'm sitting here looking at five big hunks of marble resolutions; chisel in hand, ready to make the first "ka-chink!" Where to start? How about everywhere! My plan of attack is to take micro-steps in every direction.

1. Swim: I ordered cool goggles and a swim cap - both in aqua. I also watched Part 1 & Part 2 of the Total Immersion swim tutorials. Feeling inspired! Now I'm just waiting for the Amazon goodies to arrive.

2. Phone-A-Friend: I had a noon call scheduled with Hillaire yesterday but her schedule imploded. Technically a fail but today I will do better! If only I could move the west coast of America a little closer to Barbados. The time difference with my family is a killah. Getting up at 4:15 a.m. has morphed me into a Boca retiree come dinner time (5:00 p.m. - get out the AARP Card!) My head must be resting on a pillow at 9:30 p.m. MAX. When daylight savings kicks in, west coast chatting is out. Must find a solution.

3. One Ab Muscle: For the record, I DID NOT say six pack. I realize that I'm going to have to pony up some pictures for this one. The muscle must be recognizable on film or it doesn't count. I have a picture from 18 months ago that definitely counts as the "before" pic... the one that sent me over the cliff and turned me into a vegetarian marathoner. Yup. It's harsh. Until I saw that picture I had no idea that had I let things go that far. I suppose that taking a picture now would qualify as the "during" photo. Once I get an "after" photo I can put together a little photoshop progression. Wow. This little experiment is both fun AND horrifying - winner!

How will I get there? (Assuming it's possible) I'm working on a Pasta Against the Wall approach. I'll let you know what sticks in a future post.

4. Restaurant Outreach: So far, I've just thought about which restaurants I want to approach. Namely, the places I like to hang out that have zero vegetarian options on the menu. An "option" must be something more substantial than a super sad iceberg "salad" smothered in mayonnaise dressing. I think I need to go back and listen to Colleen Patrick-Godreau's podcast on restaurant outreach. Why reinvent the wheel?

5. Western States: I need a headlamp, a flash light, and some trails to run. Finding training trails is the most worrisome part of all of this. I will have to run cart paths through people's farms and I'm not sure AT ALL how the farmers feel about that. And how about safety concerns? Children of the Sugar Cane anyone? There is an old train track that runs all the way across Barbados that is promising but again, it crosses all kinds of private property. Also, I need to learn to run trails in the daylight and that leaves Saturday as my only trail training day. Not ideal as Saturdays are dedicated to long runs with my girls. I need distance AND trails - hmmm. I WILL work these issues out but I have to name them before I can start solving them.

However, there are things I CAN do! I have been studying my part of the trail and I made a little cheat sheet of the names of the aid stations and distance between them. I've read 5 articles written by people who have paced at Western States and all of their experiences were completely different - so I guess that's the lesson.

Little Bit. Every Day. Ka-Chink!


Chuckle...