Goals for 2016

Goals for 2016

You probably know how much I hate having new year’s resolutions, but I was listening to an episode of “Mtn Meister” (BTW, it is a fairly good podcast and worth to be listened to) today and I decided to share not general resolutions for the year that just began, but goals. I will be using the template proposed in the show, and it consists in laying out three goals: one achievable, one difficult, and one really difficult (but worthy). I decided to share not personal or professional goals in this list, but my outdoor ones.
So, let’s start.

First Goal

My first goal for 2016 is to climb on top of Monte Amaro (2763 m asl). I tried last Summer with Checca, but a series of showers and thunders forced us to give up no more than one hour from the summit. It is not a technical climb, but it is pretty long and involves quite some altitude gain. Next year I plan to join forces again with Checca (in the meanwhile she summited it plenty of times), and maybe John, andĀ  do the route that starts in Fara San Martino (that is longer and has even more altitude gain than the one we tried), and sleep in a hut on the way back (to enjoy a starry night in the wilderness).

Second Goal

If the first goal is achievable (just a matter of finding good weather and being in Italy for a weekend), this second one is much tougher, and will require some training. So, my second goal for 2016 is to run a (real) half-marathon, hopefully the one in Amsterdam, but any one would do it for me. I started running only last year, and only as training for hiking and climbing, but I am getting used to it and I even started to like it a little. I think I can run a half-marathon in two hours or less, but I must admit that I did never run such a long distance (13 km being my record for 2015). I did walk a full 42 km marathon, though. It was tough, but eventually doable.

Third Goal

My third goal for 2016 is not that tough on its own, but it requires many events to go as planned. So, it is mostly difficult for planning and logistics. The goal is to have a one to two months adventure in some far and foreign place (my ideas so far are Nepal and Patagonia). I want to hikeĀ  for weeks and see beautiful mountains, without thinking about anything else that is not walking, breathing, eating, sleeping, and enjoying. In order to do this, I need to finish my PhD, find a new job, and arrange things with the new jobs so that I have a couple of free months between the end of the PhD and the beginning of my new (still unknown) professional adventure. As I said, it is not impossible, but probably the harder to realize of the three.

P.S. I just checked on strava and in 2015 I walked (during recorded activities) 560.8 km. Of these part I hiked and part I ran. It is not much, but it makes me proud.
P.P.S. I despise bucket lists, they’re stupid. This is not a bucket list.

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