The key, I think, to reaching a long-term goal is having a specific event at the end, the success of which depends on your reaching the goal. Forgive me for sounding like a diet book, but it's hard to lose weight when there's no particular specific reason to do so. We come up with general reasons, like looking better, getting laid more, pleasing the spouse, fitting into smaller clothes, and so forth, but those ends can easily be ignored or (more importantly) postponed. So set a real end at a specific time that will either be done or be cancelled. My end is another big hike at the beginning of august, through Jirisan National Park. It'll be like my Seoraksan trip (you can look back to older posts in February for the photos), but longer by about 15k and one more day. And the peak is 100m taller to boot! So that's my goal. When I go at the beginning of August, the less I weigh and the hardier I am, the more fun a trip it will be. My longer-term goals are to hike the West Coast Trail back home, and run the TC 10k in April next year.

And hiking in the summer here will be very different due to the highly seasonal weather in Korea. At Seoraksan I was pummeled by -1oc weather and wind that'd knock over most people smaller than myself, which makes for a windchill of... COLD. In August it'll be hot and humid and rainy. I'll trade in my gloves and face mask for a big bottle of bug spray :-)
And at Seoraksan I forgot to pack the single most important (and also the smallest possible) thing: earplugs. The mountain night shelters are packed like sardine cans with snoring Koreans. Holy hell do Koreans snore.


And on another note. I get the suspician that most women just don't care all that much about male physique. That is, if a guy is reasonably healthy and not bulging out over the belt, it's pretty much ok from there. Guys who spend a lot of time on their bodies seem only to attract a niche market of women, because it's a double edged sword; a women may find the abs and muscles hot, but she might find the amount of time he spends lifting weights up and down in front of the mirror less hot. That's time not spent doing things that are, arguably, a lot more productive.

Comments

Emily C said…
I ran the TC10K this year! it was fun :D
9:17 PM
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