Prologue

Over the years, I’ve worked harder and harder to find meaning in life. But the more I've looked, the more I’ve wondered if I was going about my search the wrong way.

I've been looking for meaning through experience, but I think now that I've always had it backwards. Life will never be defined by extravagant experience, but about finding extravagance in common experience. So for 2009, I'm going to focus less on living large, and focus more on living well. Each month I'll start a new month-long project (like trying to run 3 miles faster than George Bush), to find uncommon results from common experience. Each project will involve daily activity, so every day of 2009 you can check my progress on the monthly projects and see what I discover.

None of these projects will cost much—in fact, I think most will be free. So if you're looking for a year uncommonly rich, you can join me. There's no membership required, just participate and comment if you want. Either way, get ready for a year I hope is unlike any other.

Epilogue

I stumbled across the finish line, but I manage to complete 8 of the month-long projects successfully. Blogging is now over at Wonderfam!

 
 

It's February, and February was a …

A Month of Accomplishment (about)

 

~ or ~

 

Forcing myself to finish something (about)

 

01
01

3 miles down

Written by Nathan on January 1, 2009 at 11:37 pm from A Month of Resolve.

 
Year of Months / 3 Miles: Day 1 Before
Year of Months / 3 Miles: Day 1 After
 

I finished my first three miles and have learned the following:

  1. 3 miles is further than I remembered it being.
  2. I really should stretch beforehand next time.
  3. Running near sprinklers shooting out reclaimed water is a terrible idea.
  4. I should plan as much time to recover from a run as for the run itself.

I started way too fast, on a 6:30 clip until I realized what I was doing, then spent a few minutes after my first mile contemplating throwing up. Fortunately the air smelled so bad (courtesy the aforementioned sprinkler water) that I couldn’t bear stopping, so I resumed running and finished with a 29:08 time. So I need to pull a 50% improvement in 30 days, which will be difficult.

On the bright side, that time includes 5 minutes of vomit indecision, in which I only covered some tiny fraction of distance. Also, my playlist was pretty great and provided ample motivation most of the way through. I will say feeling incredibly nauseous while listening to the Mars Volta was a disorienting experience, but I’m wiling to take that chance again for tomorrow’s run.

Today included 734 miles of driving, 3 miles of running, and a whole lot of tired. I haven’t beat Bush yet, but I’m still cautiously optimistic this could mark the start of a successful month.

Edit: I neglected to include my splits. I’m not so handy with the armband iPhone, so I didn’t hit the button to split right at the mile marks. But the times were something like 8, 14, 7.

(12) Comments

12 Responses to “3 miles down”

  1. Geof F. Morris says:
    January 1, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    Note to self: don’t die.

  2. Aaron says:
    January 1, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    You’re right… You did look ridiculous.

    And isn’t doing anything while listening to The Mars Volta disorientating?

  3. Nathan Clark says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:00 am

    The Mars Volta worked pretty well at distracting me from the sensation of running for a while, but perhaps that is just a form of disorientation. Excellent point, Aaron.

    And I have no plans on dying, Geof. :)

  4. peter says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:12 am

    3 miles is definitely alot…

  5. Nani says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:24 am

    I like the outfit. Fun outfits make for funner runs. (minus the vomit time)

  6. Tracy says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:28 am

    All this Mars Volta talk. Tip #1: No more Mars Volta. Try some OK Go. Or Crystal Method. Or Girl Talk.

    Tip #2: I know it’s boring, but stretch for more than two minutes. Shin splints are not worth the shortcut.

    Tip #3: Running is 50% mental. Kill all negative thoughts in the exhale. You can (and will) do this. Lather. rinse. repeat. :)

  7. Nathan Clark says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:40 am

    I considered OK Go, especially for days when I hit the treadmill. But then I thought, what if this happens? Seems like quite a risk to take.

  8. westerndave says:
    January 2, 2009 at 12:43 am

    dude, you’re inspiring. i need to join the bandwagon. keep on trucking.

  9. Scrivenings says:
    January 2, 2009 at 1:17 am

    Sounds like a great idea for a project. I’ve been doing year-long photo projects for a little over two years now for similar purposes. I’ve been considering taking up running too, but I dunno…

  10. Year of Months // January: A Month of Resolve -or- 3 Miles a Day » 10% off sale! says:
    January 2, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    [...] in a little under 8. A little nausea and exhaustion did me in halfway through the second mile (I apparently didn’t heed my own advice from yesterday), but I’m happy that I may have actually run two miles faster than Bush ran [...]

  11. Big Guns says:
    January 2, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Follow the Mars Volta with some Refused and you’ll be good.

  12. GFMorris.com » links for 2009-01-02 says:
    January 2, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    [...] Year of Months – Coming up… January! » 3 miles down (tags: gfmorris_comment) Posted January 2nd, 2009 in del.icio.us Links. [...]

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