"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."

I'm kind of a planner.

I am always cooking up something.. a trip, a plan, something. Sometimes it's little, like dinner tonight. Sometimes, it's big, like a trip in 3 years. But it's always something. Another time, I'll wonder about what that says about me, that I don't just stop and enjoy the moment. Another time.

My newest obsession, to go along with my new-found enjoyment of running, is race planning. I'm stalking all types of websites, listing different races available in the next 12 months. I'm mentally calculating the number of weeks between today and mid-February, and wondering if I'll be ready for a half, and if so, what I should expect to set my goal time at.

Early? Perhaps. I mean, definitely. I can barely run 2.5 miles, I probably should not be eyeballing marathons. I think my problem is that everything past 4 miles, in my mind, kind of all blends together. I mean. If I can do a 10K (6.2 miles), how much worse could a half be (13.1 miles)? It all seems to be the same.

I've already committed to the Dana Point Turkey Trot 5K. I'm looking at a race before that, just... because? No real reason. It seems like a silly idea, but now I'm obsessed with the whole IDEA of race planning, and I want to do it. Now. Patience is not my strongest trait. And being in SoCal, there are TONS to choose from, all the time.

So, my plan is going to be:
Dana Point 5K, Nov. 25
Irvine Make Room for Santa 10K, Dec. 12
Disney Princess Half, Feb. 26

I think.

I've also been investigating Becoming a One Hour Runner, to move on to after C25K. The next (and last) three weeks of C25K are just running, straight through, no more intervals. Conveniently, the first four weeks for One Hour Runner are almost identical to what I'm looking forward to on C25K...

Or I could contiune Bridge to 10K, but it goes back to interval training... which seems like a step backwards? 10 min run, 1 min walk? Hm.

Anyone tried One Hour Runner? Good, bad?

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there."

I've started and re-started C25K so many times in the last year that it's... crazy. I'd hit week 4 and just lose interest. Or be too busy. Or whatever.

This time, though, I stuck through week 4. And week 5. Last night, I graduated week 6.

Which means, in the last 4 weeks since I started (I cheated and started at week 2. Shhh.), I've gone from feeling like I might DIE after jogging for 60 seconds, to last night, running 2.25 miles straight through, in 25 minutes.

And it was glorious.

I never, ever imagined I would be... excited to try it again. But I am. I'm resting today, per my schedule (and the ginormous cold gifted to me by Baby), but tomorrow, I'm gonna hop on the treadmill and do it all. over. again.

And it's going to be magical.

We are signing up for the Dana Point Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning... The CDM5K time in June was 37:57. I'm aiming for under 32 minutes for Dana Point.

Meanwhile, H is training for sub-20 minutes. Beacuse he's insane.

Anyawy. I added this rad updatey thing from Daily Mile, which is my new fabvorite site. I love seeing everything laid out for me the way it is there.

So. Stoked.

A blogger I follow, Endurance isn't only Physical, is hosting a CEP compression leg sleeve giveaway. Check it out, enter, and good luck!

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.

Things to do before December 31st:

1. Visit the mountains DONE
2. Complete 10K DONE
3. Limit eating out to 1 meal per week
4. Henna the Hair
5. New park, one per month
6. BUDGET my holiday gift spending, and DO IT (ha?) DONE
7. Increase weekly mileage to 15 miles per week DONE
8. Register for 2 races DONE
9. Pick up a new ingredient and use it! DONE
10. Call the cousins more
11. Stick to the Garbage Bag cleaning plan DONE
12. Revisit vegetarianism
13. Get back to the farmers market
14. Switch the schedule to running in the mornings
15. Drop 1 size DONE

Phew.

Can I call myself a runner now?

So, I've NEVER been super athletic, ever. I mean. I took personal fitness twice in high school, 'cause I refused to run. I have done races, I've run/walked all of them, some pretty successfully... but never, ever have I really run. Ever.

But I've been coveting these running skirts, and then I tried to tell H I wanted to run the Disney Princess half next spring... and he scoffed at me.

So I bribed myself, and told myself I could buy a skirt when I run a mile, straight through, and don't stop to walk. If I can do a 5K straight through by the November race I've registered for, I'll do the Disney trip. I figured, these are good goals. I have - literally - never, ever run more than half a mile at a time, ever, and that was only right before the CDM5K Snork and I did in June. Then I stopped running, until, like a month ago.

Then. Last week? I ran 3/4 of a mile. And I was shocked - SHOCKED! - texting poor Squirrel, as if my 3/4 compares at all to her millions of miles a week. (Who, BTW, just reviewed what seems to be the most magical sports bra ever, and I think I need a Zensah Sports Bra, like, yesterday.)

Then!! Last night?



I'm not even sure how that happened. But it did. IT DID!

"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late"

I hear summer is over.

I mean, Orange County seems confused, because we hit some stupid record highs yesterday, at 113 degrees. But, supposedly, summer is done and autumn is here.

My 30 Goals of Summer didn't quite get completely accomplished, but... c'est la vie.

To recap...

I didn't gym as consistently as I thought I might, but I did more often than I normally would have.

Still not vegetarian. Not at all.

Kids hate hiking. Well, not HATE, but... they certainly don't love it yet. And forcing them out did not make it any better, so I ditched this goal entirely.

Camped once, and it was magical. I couldn't squeeze in a second trip, with H's new job, but we have one planned for October.

I do not bring my lunch to work 4 days a week. Well, mostly I do, but sometimes I don't. I may have been using up a billion teeny leftover gift card ends to buy frozen things from Target because I'm too lazy/tired/frantic in the morning to make lunch. It's possible.

We managed to check books OUT of the library, and... this is key... BRING THEM BACK! I know, it's a foreign concept to me, but it seems to work!

Kids don't cook. They were not interested, in the slightest, and I didn't push it. But I like to cook, so it works out.

I rambled in this post about why I do not care for OAMC or bulk cooking.

The farmer's market was a cornucopia of rad new ingredients this summer - dragon fruit, lemon verbena... I bought and used it all! And then didn't blog it, because... lazy.

Sadly, I think The Cousins only made it over once or twice all summer. Which is a bummer, but we're all so busy. Maybe things will slow down over the fall.

Baby is in big girl pre-school, and so far is liking it!

No 'Poo did not make it to kidlets, which I discussed here... I'm still on the bandwagon, but really taking it to that level is more committment than I can take on right now.

Alas, there was also no gardening. My budget just wasn't there with The H not working for part of the summer. I have plans, though, I swear it.

We did visit new parks all summer! June - O'Neill Regional Park (yuck). July - Yosemite (rad). August - Eaton Falls (also rad). There were a few others, that I've not blogged, and really, compared to Yosemite, I think I'd be doing them an injustice. Yosemite wrecked the rest of my summer, really. And, also, I've been meaning to add a tab up there under my bloggy title for hiking blogs, but haven't figured out how, nor have I really had the inclination to research it any further than looking for a pre-built widget. See also: lazy.

Resume is updated and awesome. And ready for when I decide I am going to snap. I can see this, on the horizon.

I'm drinking coffee right now. It's from the office, though, and free, so there's one point for Heather, zero Starbucks.

Vacation hours available: 98. Oops?

Facebook friends have been dropping like flies. I deleted everyone I had hidden. I got nasty messages from some, which did not make me like you any more than I did previously, so... thanks for confirming that.

We're discussing registering for the Dana Point Turkey Trot, 10K. It's looking rough, but... I guess it could happen?

I USE SUNSCREEN! I did the last few times I went hiking, at least.

Closet is still a wreck. I was looking for the second half of Baby's bathing suit last night, and opened the closet, and quickly closed it back up. Scary stuff.

All of our outdoor gear is neatly stored in tubs, in our storage area. It's so rad!

Shoes... Well. I have a bag, full of shoes AND clothes that I haven't touched in months. Okay, so to be honest, it's stuff that the H dug out of the closet that I never unpacked from when we moved. A year ago. So, it's cleared out, but hasn't actually LEFT my house yet, which is kind of the point... Half win?

Kids- bedtime was 9:30 or early all summer. I don't play around with quiet time.

Judginess has served me well, and I'm not quite ready to be rid of it. I am trying to be less vocal about my judginess, but... I can't help it. I judge. And I'm almost never wrong. People ought just suck less.

The biggest accomplishment of my summer... by far... was bread baking. It was magical. I made a crusty artisnal loaf, sandwich bread, pizza dough, pita bread. It was all magical and I think I've eaten more bread in the last 3 months than I've eaten ever in my life. And I really like bread.


So. There it is. Successes and failures. I'm posting a new list for Fall/Winter. Separately. Because this is already really long.

It's a party... and YOU'RE invited!

One of my favorite bloggers, Moderate Means, inspired this.

It's a Come As You Are party!

The Rules:
If you've read this far, you're now committed! Your reply is requested!

1. What are you wearing? (No cheating...don't pretend you aren't sitting there in yoga pants and an old t-shirt with your hair uncombed!)

2. Who is coming with you? You can choose any or all of the people in the building with you right now!

3. We're hungry. What are you bringing to share with us? No cooking, so grab something and bring it as-is!

4. We're bored. What are you bringing for us to do? Look around and find something in the room with you!


That's it! Easy peasy, right?!

Ready? Go! :)

Hiking - Eaton Falls

Inspired by Yosemite's prettiness, I made it a mission to stalk some local prettiness, and stumbled upon Eaton Falls on Yelp. It looked promising, really - wooded canyon trail, stream crossings, waterfalls at the end.

The drive was... l o n g. No matter what time, on what day, the 5 freeway thinks it's Monday at 7am. But we got there, found parking easily enough, and the trail head, even though it was shady looking and weird. But I do appreciate free, so I can't really complain.

The trail down is shady, and rocky. There are several stream crossings, but in mid-August the water level is pretty low - you can make it across easily playing Frogger across the rocks. Unlike my kids (who wore their Crocs), I wore my regular hiking boots, and hopped across just fine. Then, I got to a part that looked like it might get my feet wet if I missed. So, being the smart hiker that I am, I took the boots off to walk through the stream, and promptly dropped one of them right in the water. Because I'm awesome that way. Purpose = defeated. Sigh.

Kidlets decided that traversing straight up stream, rather than criss crossing and rock hopping, was the smart way to go.

After about a mile of this nonsense, you really do reach a small waterfall, with a cute little pool that you can wade in. Rather, that crazy people can wade in, because it's hella cold.

#2 likes to continue proving she's non-human.

Apparently, everyone in San Gabriel Valley had the same idea we had.

A picnic lunch woulda been pretty rad, and had I thought it would take me 2 hours to get there, and another hour to hike a mile (thanks, Baby), putting us at the falls at noon, I would have brought one.

The walk out of the canyon is lovely, until the very end and the little uphill action, but maybe I'm just a whiny hiker ;).