Adjusted Reality

Uh, yeah. Q4 was a doozy. Hi, Halloween decorations are starting to appear *blink* MERRY CHRISTMAS! 0_o

I can’t complain about much. I love my crazy, busy life, even if at times I just wish it would slow down for a moment. Part of this was FOUR out of town trips within about 45 days. I like to travel but that’s even much for me. Was it super fun and productive (for the work parts)? Yeah. Did it mess with my routine enough I made zero progress on my fat loss goals? Absolutely. And then, once home, things got work-stressful and the holidays and and and? I haven’t gained weight, not really, and I call that a big win considering the circumstances.

So, since we’re nearing the last few hours of the year, let’s talk goals, and how the year shaped up.

#1 The Unwanted Kettle Bell

My highest trendweight was 188.1 – in July. My lowest trend weight after that was 184.7. My current trend weight with all the Q4 shenanigans is 185.4. So, did I lose all the weight I wanted? Newp. Am I at least a little better off than I was and not at my highest during the holiday season? Yerp. I plan to continue to let myself enjoy things in moderation for the rest of this week as I have been, but being reasonable – a cookie here, a handful of popcorn there, more walks to lunch/dinner, etc, not treating my body like a dumpster – and get back to strict tracking Jan 5 once I resume the normal routine.

Things that worked for me this year:

• Breakfast salads are really amazing. Occasionally I would deviate for yogurt and berries or kolaches or tacos if we walked for breakfast, but it’s become a staple and really sets me up for a good day where I’m not hungry until lunch. It’s also easy to eat half of it if I’m not hungry and save it for a snack later or breakfast the next day – try doing that with a smoothie or a kolache. Doesn’t happen.
• 1200 + activity calories BUT ONLY WHEN THEY’RE NOT MOSTLY WALKING. Then it’s less. Does this not feel like all that much? Yeah, some days. But I absolutely know that I don’t lose weight if I eat more, so, yep. That’s the price to pay to be me.
• Consistent daily activity means I can eat more food and not be miserable.

Things that tripped me up this year:

• Eating too much while training for the 50k. I seriously overestimated my calorie burn when we were hiking – fueling was great DURING long hikes, but I ate too much AFTER and on other days – and gained a fair amount of weight training and racing this.
• Not being able to get my ish together for the first half of the year. Up until later in July/August I was just in a moderately controlled free-fall. I lost six months of potential progress. I don’t own a time machine so nothing I can do about it, but somehow, I was able to hold it together better in the second half of the year even while travelling MORE. I need to harness that next year.
• Routine = self-control. Lack of routine = lack of self-control. I have yet to figure out how to fix this. At home when left up to my own choices I am pretty good at eating what I should. When chaos is introduced, I am easily thrown off my path.
  • My husband wakes up on the weekend and says, “let’s order something yummy.” I too want something yummy, then somehow I’ve eaten 1200 calories before noon and either am kind of done eating for the day, need to go workout more on an off day, or just fail.
  • SNACKS! Social situations with food get me every time… there are yummy nibbles I don’t normally get and I have some. And some more. And more. All of a sudden, I’ve overeaten completely unintentionally. And no, eating a healthy meal first doesn’t help, that just means I eat even MORE.
  • This one I mind the least, but whilst traveling, I definitely let my guard down a bit. This is the one I mind the least because you SHOULD enjoy some different stuff while away from home but when I’m averaging a trip a month, I need to limit that.

All in all, I’m lower than when I started the year, and with weights, my body is definitely different shaped at the same weight I’ve been before (in a good way). It’s progress, but not a stopping point, so I just need to continue on and tweak the things that aren’t working.

#2 Sporty Spice Things

I’m pretty happy with this one!

Goal #1 – 50k completed. Check! I really enjoyed training for this one, but it was also a lot. It did not do me any favors trying to lose weight, and training for walking that much meant it was a lot of time. However, I enjoyed a lot of that time being able to spend lots of outdoor QT with Joel (except for some of the ends of the long ones, where I needed to run/walk to keep pace, and he was done running but could walk faster than I could). And it was really great to pick a big scary new goal and crush it. I mean, as much as coming in dead freaking last a few hours before the 50-miler cutoff is crushing it, but hey, I set the goals, I get to say I rocked it.

Weights – I did 136 sessions. A perfect score would have been 156. I’d call that consistency with a little room for flexibility. I didn’t lift the week I was diving (oh, I lifted hauling heavy gear, but not in a trackable way), I didn’t lift the week after Seattle when I came home just flattened exhausted, and there were a few other weeks where I cut sessions. But, in general, 3x week is non-negotiable and it will be for life, until I can’t no more.

Walks – At least 1 mile of walking is almost as ingrained in our routine as brushing our teeth. It’s not if, it’s when and where and how far. After the 50k we obviously pulled back on the miles, and this was the only place I did less than last year (by ~50 miles or so) but in 2025, we completed 832 miles walked/321 hours/499 walks. That doesn’t suck!

Running – maintain fitness so a 10k isn’t ever completely out of reach. Sorta – right now I’m rehabbing a leg that doesn’t remember how to leg right (muscles on the outside of the leg are firing extra hard for muscles on the inside of my leg that got lazy), so I’m back up to 2 miles, and that’s enough for the moment. Pretty much any other time, yeah, I was there. I ran 376 miles ran/70 hours/122 runs with absolutely no running goals besides do a sprint triathlon and try to get faster and enjoy running. This is also a bit more than last year (by about 50 miles). I was really close this year to figuring out how to run without injuring myself, but my confidence was shook after the great Thanksgiving calf crackles and I’m just getting back to it with a pain-free 5k today. Something to improve upon next year.

Biking was an on-again-off-again affair. I had a month with 0 (January) and others with just a few dozen miles. I also had months where I rode a lot (over the summer when it was hot, and December when I was off running for a while). It ended up being more a part of my workout life than the runs, though, which is weird because it didn’t feel that way. 1713 miles biked/109 hours/140 rides for the year (over 4x last year), and 399 miles/25 hours of that just this month.

Swimming, heh. Better than some years but… 14,250 yards/23 swims this year, at a total of 5 hours. On one hand, that’s almost a swim every other week. On the other, a lot of those were just 500 yards. It’s the first thing to go when I’m busy because it takes more time to prep than do the short workouts, and that’s okay.

In terms of racing – I didn’t do much. I raced the 50k, I DNSed a triathlon in Sept because of a dead truck battery, and then I won my age group in October at a sprint tri. I had high aspirations to race more this year, but life got in the way (see that average of one out of town trip a month) and I didn’t prioritize it. I think 2026 might be similar, so I need to pick a few goal races and be happy with like 2-3 vs more even if I have a lot of potentials on my list. 🙂

#3 Adulting

I’m sad we had to get rid of the Xterra, but Truck Truck has served us well this year on many camps and trips. No regrets on buying it… as long as I don’t have to drive it except in dire straits (which I don’t). It’s big and very very hard to park.

Garage clean out – big nope, but it is on the list for January after we put holiday decorations away (yeah, they never made it back to the attic, and there’s still a bunch of stuff that needs to be dealt with

Joel’s office set up – done! It surely has more to be fully organized and pretty looking, but it is functional as both an office and a craft room, and we can see the floor! Most importantly, the closets are cleaned out enough to store what’s needed. Calling it done for the year, and from here, it’s up to Joel to make it his own with shelves and stuff. I’ll help when needed.

My office – I do still need to clean out a few things in my office but we’re calling that a Q1 goal. I’m pretty full up on projects from the break. We cleaned out some drawers, finally bought a new fridge and beer fridge (both were dying), I framed and hung art, we cleaned out the workout room shelves and closet… it was a productive week but I want to make sure I don’t go back to work on Monday feeling like all I did was chores. During the year, I did some cleanouts, but as usual, they fell off once summer hit and then didn’t pick up until Holiday Break.

We did get a financial planner set up to start next year, and I did get to the dermatologist (no concerning spots, yay!), and I am caught up on scheduling all medical appointments.

After the holiday break, I will put together my 2026 list, which will include the things we didn’t get to deal with in 2025, but we made some nice progress.

#4 Hobbies

Vacations – not everything exactly as planned but… definitely got out of town and explored all the things!

• Houston in Jan for a wedding
• Houston in Feb for the 50k
• San Francisco in March for GDC (and a little sightseeing)
• Bonaire in May for diving
• Krause Springs in July for 4th camping
• New Braunfels in Aug for tubing and a birthday party
• Seattle in Sept for aggressive sight seeing
• New Braunfels in Oct for a race
• San Francisco (again) in Oct for a work convention (and a little sightseeing)
• Cruise to Cozumel in Nov with the fam
• Oklahoma in Nov for camping/hiking

Whew. Lots of short trips, which made for work/life balance a little tricky (see below), but I enjoyed getting to go to so many places.

This also means I have no shortage of photos to edit, which makes me happy. I am less than 6 months behind, but that’s quite a few projects. I’m working on Seattle now, but I still have Krause, New Braunfels, San Francisco, Cozumel, and Oklahoma to do. On one hand, it would be really cool to be caught up, but on the other hand, that would mean I haven’t travelled enough!

Next year we plan to do some longer trips – we have two bucket list items planned if we can make it happen. This probably means the rest of the trips are camping near the house and extensions to work trips, and that’s totally ok with me.

Writing – I said finishing book 3 was a softball goal. Ha! Unfortunately, I only finished book 3 first edit pass, and I can’t bring myself to put in the effort to do the read/edit pass, which is weird, because I was so excited about it in the other two books. Ah well. I am distracting myself by writing book FIVE (yeah, I know) while participating in the accompanying D&D campaign with my character, which I am VERY MUCH enjoying (which is the point of hobbies! so yay!). Before I get down on myself on progress, this is a hobby, and I now just kinda have the goal to have them written and release them right before/maybe as I retire. So, I got a few more years to go. 🙂

Guitar has come and gone throughout the year. Some weeks I’ve been great at playing consistently. Then, I haven’t touched the guitar in December. One of the holiday chores is to get the electric into the shop to get it fixed, and then hopefully I’ll be more motivated to play!

Play lots of Warhammer with Joel – not really. We never got motivated to really make this a habit, and we got into other games and hobbies. Maybe someday!

Paint – I did two paintings this year, both started (one started and finished) on camping trips. So, if nothing else, I just need to make sure I start paintings while in the camper!

Doing ridiculous stuff like Walko Taco happened (Walko Taco #2 was our Valentine’s day plan) and I spent a lot of time tromping around Austin and other cities. Doing silly stuff makes life worth living!

#5 Work Life Balance

While I have worked more hours in my life (lots more), I have also been better at unpacking work and not carrying it with me during off hours. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but when there’s something weighing on me at work, I have a hard time completely relaxing. That sucks. Honestly, relaxing and being refreshed is the best way I can deal with it but sometimes the rational brain gets overtaken by the emotional one.

I don’t really have a good solution for making this better besides help. And I am going to get a little help with this in 2 different ways next year.

• I am going to get more help at work and make better use of the help I have. This means I need to be more organized and delegate better. Big 2026 work goal for me – not being too busy to get help.
• I am going to try therapy. I’d like better strategies for disconnecting and being able to separate work from home. I’d like better coping mechanisms for when I’m stressed and overwhelmed. Could I DIY this? Maybe. But it’s just like hiring a trainer at the gym – I’d like to delegate.

Also, one thing I noticed was that I got overwhelmed at work because I ended up taking a lot of long weekend PTO trips vs full weeks. Mondays and Fridays are my work from home and focus days. When those get eaten up, I end up with short weeks full of meetings adding to my To Do list, and no time to clear it. So, my aim is if I’m taking a short vacation, I will take Monday or Friday, but not both (Thurs/Fri or Mon/Tues). If I have to cancel/reschedule/miss meetings, so be it.

All in all, not a bad year, maybe one of the better ones since the pandemic. I took down a big scary goal to complete an ultramarathon in February. I finally made triathlon training part of my routine, not an afterthought, and got to add a silly piece of (1st place) plastic to my shelf. I travelled to old favorite places and somewhere new and got to have my first solo sightseeing adventure in Seattle (during the days at least). We adulted enough to be at least junior adults. I hobbied. In a chaotic year, I tried to find my own little slice of normalcy and it sort of worked. Do I have three words for the year? Hmmm. I at least have one – Adventure. Even if I didn’t go to super exotic places all the time, I tromped around everywhere and made it my own adventure even if it was near or home. I tried to be a lady of action this year, not just on vacation, and I think it went well.

Next year? Well, I have some ideas, but let’s finish up 2025 first, shall we?

I truly love adventures and travel and new experiences and generally just “doin’ stuff”.

However, all of those things throw me off routine. And sometimes that’s great! But… routine is absolutely key for me to lose weight. So, yeah. I’ve traded life (and food) experiences for progress in the last month and a half. I don’t regret it, but it’s time to get back to it.

#1 The Unwanted Kettlebell

The good news is I haven’t really done much damage; I just haven’t really continued my momentum downward. I also have been absolute shite at weighing daily and inconsistent with tracking every morsel during travel (I even took a break from it whilst on the 4-day cruise). So, it absolutely makes sense.

My overage for the month of October was 1624 calories. I’m also sure with an out-of-town race and Halloween shenanigans and a week at a convention didn’t help me do the most accurate tracking in the world. But, at least by tracking the best I could and seeing the overage more days than not, especially later in the month, I wasn’t super surprised by no progress.

November is already better, trending downward (slightly – instead of the .16 lbs gained per week it’s .56 lbs lost, which is something). Even with a cruise. I have one more trip, but this one is camping, and I’m in full control of what I put in my cakehole and excited to cook (for the most part) yummy healthy food. So, getting back to legit balancing my calorie intake vs expenditure starts again now. My rest of the year goal is to not use the holidays as an excuse. Thanksgiving is one day. Christmas has a few “days” with parties and such, but totally manageable with increased activity. And now that it’s gorgeous outside, running is a pleasure, not a chore, so that helps too.

#2 Sporty Spice Things

No problems here. Even after the race, I didn’t feel like I needed a break from activity, but what it was got more optional.

Weights – perfect 3x week. It helps that my work convention hotel had a REALLY nice gym and I made it a priority in my head to get up early to work out before the panels started. Weirdly enough, it also helped that all the cardio machines had solitaire. Have you ever played solitaire while running? I highly recommend and found the 3 miles went by in the blink of an eye (or 3 wins in a row the last day!)

Speaking of running – I did a lot! I went on 16 runs at 54 miles total. I am loving running lately!

Biking – 11 bikes (not counting the double bike count on race day) at about 100 miles total. Not bad for someone who no longer “has to bike” because I’m not racing. None of these (besides race day) were outside, but the trainer is a really nice easy way to get some activity when I can’t be arsed to do anything else.

One swim. During the race. I’ll do that again… sometime.

Continued with a least 1 mile per day of walking, more (lots more) some days. 48 walks for 85 miles total. While those total activity hours on the calendar look impressive, I’d say about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time is walking, which is absolutely great. I just have to remind myself that while I have been logging 11-16 hours a week, which are some peak Ironman totals, I’m not overworking myself because a lot of it is really low impact fun stuff that gives me energy and boosts my mood.

And, uh, I raced a triathlon, finally, and won my age group. 🙂 That was fun.

November and December goals are really just to keep up the activity, continue to prioritize recovery, and lengthen my long run. I’m comfy at 10k right now, I’m trying to ramp up to 15k by the end of the month and would like to do a double digit run or two in December. I’ve got my eye on a half marathon in early 2026 for no other reason than it sounds like fun and will motivate some training. If it ends up not being a good idea, then I’ll just keep happily wearing a path around my neighborhood in whatever distances make me happy. Weights 3x week non-negotiable, but that’s like now until I’m 100 years old or I can’t no more. Cycling will happen, cycling outside MAY happen, and if I get in a pool and swim laps we will all be shocked and celebrate together.

#3 Adulting

Not a whole lot of time for adulting, but we did meet with and are going to work with some financial planner people who will take care of many of the things we SHOULD do but just don’t have the spoons to deal with right now. I did manage to get my hairs done and I need to do this once every six months minimum, not every year. I’m so much happier without the stupid grey streaks and it being 5 different colors. I returned the things I needed to return (minus one sports bra which I will either see if Under armor will help me out or I will just donate it somewhere). I still need to do the Dr appt, but I still have 2 months of pills left, so I will probably just schedule for late Dec/Jan when things (hopefully) will be calmer.

With what’s left of November, I don’t think I have time for adulting goals, so we’ll reset in December with my holiday break list. My plan is to try to spend 1, maybe 2 hours max most days doing projects (with some complete slack days so I don’t drive myself crazy) so we can get things done but also not feel overwhelmed. I’ll make my list, we’ll tackle whatever we can each day and then quit when the time is up. We don’t have anything major, just little things like cleaning out some drawers, closets, garaage, shelves, etc, so this should work well.

#4 Hobbies

I have continued to take a break from Book 3… by writing Book 5. Wait, wait, let me explain. Fork has come back for an appearance in a new D&D campaign, which will probably be a “dream” sequence after Book 4. I’ve always wished I could write these things while the material is fresher, so I’m going to take this opportunity, at least for the first draft. I still aim to continue to edit Book 3, but that will take back burner for now.

Been cruising on the photo editing – I got all the Spookywalk pics done by Halloween weekend and then resumed Bonaire pics. I’m exactly halfway through now, and I’m guessing I’ll finish these early December. Then I have to decide which of the other sets I want to start – Krause, New Braunfels, Seattle, San Francisco, the Cruise, or the upcoming Oklahoma camping trip (just a few short trips in the last 4 months!). I may start small and knock a few of those out before taking on something bigger.

The guitar picking continues, at least lazily. I have played it at least 1-2 times a week for a song or two. Better than nothing. For Christmas, we’re fixing the electric guitar which I assume will motivate me to play more!

Everything else… I’m looking forward to late December hobbymas. 🙂

#5 Work/Life Balance

I think it’s going ok. I kind of realized that some of this means drawing boundaries at home, since my husband is also my coworker. And, that he can complain about things at work without them being digs on me, even if I can take it that way if I was feeling vulnerable, because I’m responsible for everything. We now have the agreement that he knows I assume he is blowing off steam unless we specifically talk about the topic being something to solve. If I tried to solve every “problem” that came across my plate at work, I would need 5 clones running 24/7 to accomplish that. Instead, I need to be better at categorizing things as “talking about the nail in my head” (just being a rubber duck, listening), “strategizing how to pull the nail out of my head” (advice, but no action myself), or “helping pull the nail out of my head” (actually taking action myself to help solve or just solve the problem).

So, yeah. Keepin’ on keepin’ on and doing the best I can, either making what progress possible or just keeping myself from backsliding, until I can arrive at the promised land – holiday vacation – and get a nice long winter’s nap. Well, between the running and projects and hobbies. 🙂

I tend to post about these things on social media first, but I like having them here for posterity. Especially when I have a good day!

In September, I was supposed to race a triathlon. The truck died and we ended up DNSing. Thankfully we had another one already on the plan in October 12th. My mindset wasn’t great but, it was what it was.

From the day before:

Time to tri again at the triathlon thing tomorrow, Wurst Tri Ever edition.

My enthusiasm to race sort of fell off after the Cal Tri situation. Not that I’ve been training any less, but just going out there and smashing myself against a clock? Idk. Sounds like a next year thing for me after a whole lot of time to build more fitness and work on body composition.

Or, it may be the fact that I’m feeling a little intimidated about some of those crazy hills on the bike out there, one that I’m actually kind of worried I might need to walk? That’s entirely possible too.

However, no matter who shows up tomorrow – the me who is ready to eat this course for breakfast or fall over trying, or the me who just wants to go play triathlon – I’ve spent the last 6 months establishing great habits training regularly. And after the last 5 years, that’s a whole freaking victory in and of itself.

Food shoutouts today –

Granzin’s BBQ. That sandwich will be on my mind for a while.

Montana Mike’s- A chain, I know, but a super tasty version of my pre-race chicken, potates, and salad meal.

Weird to be in a hotel, not the camper, but much better for just one night. Time for tea, reading, massage boots, and early sleeps.

Heh. Famous last words. On the sleep, at least. And it was telling that I was almost more concerned with the food than the racing prep but damn, that BBQ was really good.

Wurst Tri Ever? Maybe not.

Really terrible sleep last night but that’s always hit or miss the night before a race. Hotel coffee. Half a bagel right as they opened breakfast at 6am which was later than we should have still been there. Was still in line when they were supposed to close transition so was a little rushed setting up (but so were a 100 other ppl so not reaaaally our fault).

In a true reckless maneuver, I wore a new kit that I haven’t even ran, biked, or swam in. This is an absolute normally but it just felt right, new race, new vibes, been a whole year since I raced one of these, etc so new kit. Why not? I liked it. At least as much as my old one.

Swim was a cluster $#^@ because it was a snake swim in a pool but for 300m no one is winning or losing there so I swam on some feet and didn’t raise my heart rate about it. (about 7 mins)

In T1, I had forgotten to put any nutrition on my bike, so I took a few extra seconds to do that then off I went (about 3:30)

In the first half mile, you reach an incredibly steep hill, the one I built up in my mind that I might have to walk, but I summoned all the effort and heavy breathing and even passed people and was done before I knew it. I mean, it burned a match or three on the legs and lungs, but I guess my bike fitness was better than I thought. That was not that last hill though. I’m not sure how they found so many on a 6 mile out and back course but hooo boy. Let’s just say I was thrilled with over 16mph and 46 mins and normally I’d be pissed about going that slow. On the way out, I was telling myself this was a “one and done” for this race. On the way back, I found myself wanting to see if I could do better next time.

Some things I want to work on for next year’s cycling:

More riding outside. I have been able to build good fitness indoors but my handling has gone to crap. This means I didn’t pass when I should, and I was too cautious on the downhill and corners. I means obviously some caution is wise but not this much. And… I need new sunglasses that don’t fog. They went down the shirt right away because I couldn’t see and never got used. Seeing is kind of important on the bike.

T2, I tried (with practice beforehand) quick laces with no socks on my running shoes. Worked great and saved me a ton of time. 10/10, will do again. (1:15ish)

On the run it took me a little bit to get my legs turning over but they did and I felt something I haven’t during a tri run in many years… Great! I was clipping along at under 10 minutes per mile and passing people. I walked 10 steps up a hill but otherwise kept a nice pace. I kind of forgot to kick it at the end, which I bet would have taken me in the 9-something mins/mile range, but I’m very happy to have been close. (10:07/mile for about 2.5 miles). Something to remember for extra time.. if you actually feel good at the end, go empty the tank. I’m usually in survival mode my the last half mile.

1:24:xx and what’d ya know-first in my age group! And there was even at least 3 people since 3 awards were given. I was joking earlier about wanting a piece of plastic to justify my triathlon worth and I earned myself this most glorious 3D printed (unusable) beer stein. First first in my 45-49 years and with more work, hopefully not my last.

So yeah, it was a good day. I’ll take it!

After some time reflecting on this day, I realized that what I can work on for next year:

• Body composition, obviously. Though I’m in pretty good shape in terms of strength and a good base, I really could shed some fluff to sharpen the stick. At 165, I was much more easily running 8-9 min miles as my race pace. I’m stuck at 10 now at 184. VO2 max work is… working slowly but I know dropping some weight will help.
• I need to ride outside more. All the fitness in the world doesn’t help when I get skittish on the bike and don’t pass people and start riding my brakes when I get above 20mph and have no confidence on hills. That takes doing. I just don’t like doing it. 🙂
• Speaking of confidence, it was such a mind*$&% to be running sub-10 pace and feeling great that I didn’t know what to do with myself. The correct answer is speed up until you feel like you’re pushing yourself, which takes some practice that I haven’t had that much of lately.

But, hey, I got to race a new race, I bombed up some hills and didn’t have to walk, and I came in 1/5 in my age group and top 1/3 in my gender. None of that sucks!

I figured I’d share some of the details about my Seattle solo adventures, the before, during and after, about how I went from kind of intimidated to prepared to take on a solo adventure (even though this was a solo-lite journey because I was only solo during the day).  I know for some people going it alone for 4 days of sightseeing is no big deal but it’s not something I’ve done before and while I really enjoy doing this with my adventure buddy, it was nice to have a good experience by myself as well in case the opportunity presents itself again.

Planning:

I didn’t just set out on foot in one direction and start walking.  I did a LOT of research to feel comfortable knowing where I was going.  When I was planning for our really quick trip to London in 2023, I noticed that “3 days in x city” was a big thing for travel bloggers, so now I search that for anywhere I’m going.  Obviously, I had more than 3 days, but it’s a great way to find the highlights.  Now, everyone else’s highlights aren’t always my own, so I read a bunch of these blogs, jotted down the things that sounded interesting, and then made a prioritized list.

Then, with my goal to use no private transportation (rental car, uber, etc), I spent quite a bit of time acquainting myself with the map of Seattle neighborhoods, public transportation options, and just generally “is this area safe” (which the answer was generally yes, thankfully).  Knowing my endurance limits, I actually put together a google doc with walking/bus maps of my planned travels each day.  I didn’t follow them exactly, but it was a huge help to know where I was going, what order I was hitting each location, and how I was getting there.  Google has great multi-step direction functionality, here’s an example below of part of the trip I didn’t use (reason being Volunteer Park was closed on Labor Day, I discovered Washington Arboretum was the same place we went last year so I skipped it and just saved the Columbia center for next time).

If this sounds like a lot of planning, I am VERY sure you can get by with much less, but as I am a consummate planner this was fun for me and really helped my confidence. If you like to just wander, great, but if that makes you nervous, I highly suggest selecting your sightseeing and mapping it out ahead of time.

Safety:

Did a lot of internet research and like I said, got the vibe that most of the city was pretty safe in the areas I was traveling, especially since I was only roaming around during daylight hours.  I also made sure that I was barely actually traveling alone.  I had a shared doc with all my maps, and I went over my general plans for the day the night before.  I also put one of our moto tags in my pack so Joel could see where I was all day.  We were also texting back and forth every few hours at least and I was sharing stories on Facebook (friends only, and my friends are people I know, not random internet strangers) and not Instagram (where random internet strangers can see it) until I was done for the day.

While we had a… interesting encounter on the train from the airport (nothing horrible, just someone sitting near us that was very loud and yelly and political), that was it.  I took the bus four times and the ferry twice and had zero uncomfortable issues with the process.  I made a rule whilst walking that if I saw couples or women walking by themselves, I was going in an ok direction.  Literally ONE time I started feeling a little questionable, and I turned down one block, went to the next, and it was fine.  I felt just as comfortable as I do (and maybe even more) walking around my own neighborhoods.

In terms of keeping myself healthy and happy while walking a LOT, I built a lot of knowledge along the way. I am glad that I had the idea in the planning phases to bring my camelback.  If I was just sightseeing in the city I might have talked myself out of using this as space was precious in my carryon, but I figured it would be useful at least for the 2 light trails I was hiking and I am so glad I did it.  No matter where I was, having readily available hydration was wonderful and saved me from buying drinks.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous (60s and 70s), but I still came home sweaty and crusty every day, so having 1.5 liters of water or electrolyte drink on my back was awesome.  Having extra storage was clutch as well. I started only with hydration and my mototag and some cash stowed in there but accumulated more things I wanted with me per day over the four days.  It was also nice for the random fun things I picked up along the way.

Also, in terms of knowing my own limits – I am very comfortable walking 10 miles.  I am ok walking 15.  If I had to, 20 isn’t outside of the realm of reason, but I probably would have opted for a bus before that if possible.  I’m able to do this stuff because I have a lot of time on feet experience (many 6–8-hour walks and that big 13 hour one earlier this year), so adjust your expectations accordingly, this is a marathon, not a sprint (you don’t want to be so tired after one day you just bail).  I think one of my subconscious fears going into this was feeling trapped somewhere, and reminding myself that I am able to walk long distances was a confidence booster.

I’m really good at sharing the awesome on socials, let me share a few of the low points too here after the fact.

Social Media Post Friday:

Impossible to pick just 5 photos from Day 2 when I had so many adventures!!!
-Bagel and coffee and walked @jetsers to the convention
-Walked to the ferry to Bainbridge Island!
-Bus to Blodel Preserve
-Except not exactly, got dropped off on the side of a highway and 1 mile walk there on (gorgeous) neighborhood roads
-A few hours meandering at Blodel. 12/10, do recommend
-Hiked the mile back to the bus stop.
-Was at the wrong stop, walked to the right one
-Waited more for the bus. Regretted my life choices as I had no snacks and my camelback was dry.
-Bus finally came, when they dropped me off at the terminal, I grabbed the nearest bag of chips I could on the way to find lunch.
-Proper Fish indeed. That was obscenely big and I ate every bite.
-Walked around some more and bought @jetsers some chocolates
-Returned to the ferry finding I had 30 mins to kill, so I walked around the waterfront park a bit
-Ferry back to Seattle!
-Walked the waterfront there. Bought a new hat. Got souvenirs for the neighbors
-Cotton Candy ice cream from the same place I had it in 2012!
-Hmart stop for snacks. I will not hike snackless again!
-Hand pulled noodles from Biang Biang
-Now… after 32.5k steps…. ?

Other Things Friday:

• Holy crap, the ferry back and forth was COLD!  I mean, 60s and windy on the ocean shouldn’t have been a surprise, but when I pared down my carry on, one of the things I ditched was more pants/long sleeve shirts.  I was in a very thin (and my only) long sleeve shirt and shorts and I was shivering by the end of it.
• My timing was great that day – my walk down to the harbor got me to the ferry right on time and my walk off the ferry got me on a bus right away to the preserve, which meant I skipped getting the snacks I had planned on the way.  And the preserve had no snacks, nor was there anything within miles that did.  I was waiting for the bus at around 130pm out of water, no snacks, and was fading and feeling very despondent.   I had a decent breakfast (bagel with bacon and cream cheese and coffee), but that was 5+ hours previous and I was about 8 miles into the day. 
• The bus was late, which didn’t help.  By the time I got dropped off back at the terminal, I bought the first thing I could find (a bag of chips) and ate them on the walk to lunch.  I also ate a bigger lunch than expected (a giant plate of fish and chips, and the whole darn thing, plus a beer).  Felt better after that but see the note above on feeling trapped – while I could have feasibly walked the 6 miles back to the ferry if I had snacks, I didn’t want to do two more hours of walking on nothing in my stomach.  I thought about it with a clear head and found a gas station 1.6 miles away, a winery with a food menu 2.3 miles away, and I had the number of a service that would come pick you up and take you back to the ferry but figured that would take longer than the bus.  And it arrived, just 30 mins late.
• I stopped at HMart on the way back and grabbed some chips and candy so I wouldn’t get stuck again. And some Powerade. Because my dumb self was out of water at 130pm and never filled up my camelback again.
• ~12 miles total.  I didn’t feel like I couldn’t have gone further, but it took a lot of calories to get me out of the hole I put myself in earlier in the day and I was happy to be done.  So, Friday, we learned that Seattle requires slightly warmer clothing than one would expect in summer, and to always pack snacks.  And bring extra electrolytes.  Beer suffices but other stuff is better.

Social Media Post Saturday:

If I thought it was difficult to just pick a few pics yesterday… oof. What a great day!!! So much of this is just in stories but…
-Being my best basic b$%#@ enjoying a pumpkin spice latte
-Lifted chest and shoulders. 3x week, no excuses!
-Chicago dog for… brunch? Whatever. It was amazing.
-Walked through Pike Place jealous of the gorgeous flowers
-Olympic Sculpture Park. Challenging to find how to get to there but figured it out.
-Pier 70 on request from the neighbor. Was underwhelming.
-Chihuly Glass and Gardens. OMG. They should have sent a poet. I enjoyed this thoroughly.
-Hiked up up up up up to Kerry Park for more city views. This was awesome but didn’t even make the cut for pics.
-Döner Kebap for lunch!
-A lady had all the discarded flowers from the Pike Place shop. I got a gorgeous sunflower bouquet for 1$
-Apertifs
-The Cheese Room for dinner. It was… amazing. Definitely a date night recommend.
Only 27k steps today ? but I have another epic adventure planned tomorrow. Goodnight! ??

Other Stuff Saturday:

• I don’t have a lot of negatives from the day; it was an easier one for sure with many points where I could bail and all city adventures vs being anywhere remote.
• I had a giant Chicago dog for breakfast at 10am, so I don’t think I even dug into my snacks that day even though I ate lunch at almost 3pm.  But they were nice to have.
• I wore the same long sleeve shirt since it was the only one I had.  It was a little stinky.
• I got kinda grumpy at the directions to the Olympic Sculpture park, and had to backtrack a bit and go up a very steep hill to find the entrance, but I also found a cool waterfront trail so it all worked out.
• There was this big festival that was blocking like a mile of street near the Chihuly Glass and Gardens in the direction I wanted to go, and I had to backtrack a few times to figure out how to find a street.
• Kerry Park was a little underwhelming for the elevation I climbed to get there, if I didn’t like doing challenging things for the sake of doing them.  I’d probably skip doing this again unless I was bringing along someone Type B like myself (Joel) and maybe trying to do it closer to sunset to see if the view was worth it then.
• ~9.5 miles total tracked, but I didn’t track the wandering in the gardens so maybe closer to 10+?  Felt great and could have done more no problem.

Social Media Post Sunday:

Too much coffee at a breakfast meeting is the only thing that got me through today. I am absolutely dead tonight but had a fun day! Hike pics only. ?
-Breakfast at Ruth’s Chris
-Bus from Downtown to Magnolia/Discovery Park
-Hike hike hike! The loop was 2.8 miles, but the hike down to South Beach was longer (and very much down-er
-Did not expect to actually end up on a beach, was very pretty. Then up up up up.
-Regretted my life choices the night before dealing with a headache and heartburn the whole time. My kingdom for a Tums the whole hike.
-Got turned around and hiked back out the way I came in.?
-Across the locks and through a park with gorgeous flowers and a band playing
-Club sandwich and a salad at Lockspot Cafe
-Tums!!! Hooray!
-Feeling better and meandered around the Ballard neighborhood
-Apple cider donut ice cream at Salt and Straw
-Walked around little bit towards the hotel but realized it was over 4 miles away so I caught a bus back
-Took a bath and a nap trying to rally
-Did not do so, and just ordered pizza and salad to go
Sleeping early tonight. 28k steps. One more day of adventure tomorrow!

Other Stuff Sunday:

• Today was the day I found out how awful heartburn is when you have no way to counteract it right away!  It’s totally my fault, I had been eating crappy food, and I stayed up late having beverages, and got very little sleep.  I did get myself up and out before gravity set in (this could easily have been a day I stayed in the hotel room if I didn’t summon the force of will to do so), but I was excited for my plans.  As I started hiking the trail in Discovery Park I felt a little heartburn and it just got worse as I hiked.  Snacks helped, but my electrolyte drink kinda aggravated it so I drank lightly, but the ‘burn kept yelling at me.  Note: I get almost never get heartburn, so I definitely wasn’t prepared for this.
• Standing at the bottom of a major hill 5 miles into the day already, I had to remind myself I was NOT indeed trapped, I could easily call an uber here, I was feeling a little blech but I’ve felt 10x worse during races or training days, so up up up I went and everything was totally fine.  Also, for safety’s sake, there were TONS of people on these trails, if something did indeed happen to me someone would have been along within minutes to help.
• A lunch that was a little less extravagant than all the crap I’d been eating (club sandwich and salad), tums from the convenience store, and then of course some ice cream from Salt and Straw made me feel much better. 
• I stored my long sleeve shirt in my pack in case I got really chilly but honestly, it was too stinky to wear, thankfully I didn’t need it, a t-shirt was a little cold to start but not for long.
• ~11 miles.  And lots of elevation.  Would have been 15 not taking the bus back, and I’m happy to have made the choice I did.

Social Media Post Monday:

Well, Seattle, that’s a wrap!
-Morning hot tub to wake up
-Clam chowder in a breadbowl for breakfast
-3 mile walk up to meet the Freemont Troll
-3 more miles to wander around the Woodland Rose Garden
-Stopped to get a snack and some presents at a store
-Wandered another 3ish miles to Gas Works Park
-Considered public transport but wanted lunch so I just meandered back around Union Lake
-Finally stopped at a Vietnamese place for chicken Vermicelli
-Wobbled the mile home then straight to the bathtub
-Grumbled a little because it was weights day and I’d already walked 14 miles
-Got it done anyway and soaked in the hot tub again
-Team dinner which I crashed (with permission)
-Now…. sleep. Up for the airport in a few hours!
34k steps. Something like 50 miles walked this trip. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow ?

Other Stuff Monday:

• Heartburn reared its ugly head again about 5-6 miles into the day, but I had tums this time and ate a little better (breakfast was clam chowder and some bread, apple as a snack, chicken + veggie vermicelli bowl as lunch) so it wasn’t as bad.  NOTE: I dealt with heartburn for like 3 days after I got home too.  I’ll have to figure this one out – I’ve never had it for more than a few hours and never back-to-back days.
• This was probably the most unpredictable travel day.  Fri/Sat, I followed my plan exactly, Sunday I just ran out of time to get to the Farmer’s Market so I skipped that and the park, but Monday was a holiday so some of my plans were cancelled, what restaurants were open were unpredictable, and I just played it by ear.  I found a cool looking rose garden that was open, so I spent my time there.  I wasn’t feeling any of the restaurants in Freemont or along Union Lake, so I just had some snacks and meandered back to downtown.  I had planned to bus back from Freemont, but since I stopped for late lunch a mile from the hotel, I just walked back.
• ~14 miles that day was about my limit after the last few days of crazy.  I was super jealous of everyone running and thought about trying to do some run/walk intervals to travel faster, but my legs were cooked so I decided slow and steady wins the race.  If I had more time in Seattle, I may have made this (or the next day) a rest day, but since it was the last day, I pushed through.

So, takeaways were:

• I would 100% do this again if I had the chance.  Seeing cool things was worth the effort and getting out of my comfort zone!
• Camelback goes EVERYWHERE with me now that I plan to do this type of sightseeing.  Will always have backup electrolyte drink, snacks, cash, tums, and some other essentials.
• Bring at least TWO long sleeve shirts.  I could have easily washed one out in the sink while I wore the other but not on back-to-back days.  I didn’t even think to buy one, maybe next time.
• Headphones were a nice “no thanks, I’m not here to make friends” signal, though I almost never used them and also maybe it’s less of a thing in Seattle than Texas.
• The positives – going through the day at absolutely 100% my own pace, doing exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, eating whatever I felt like, walking as far as I wanted, stopping wherever I felt like…it was nice to only worry about ME.  Also, 6-8 hours of relative quiet, no conversation, just being aware and present in my surroundings was really relaxing for me.  Body, exhausted.  Mind, less frazzled by the end.
• The negatives – I made Joel very jealous with my adventures!  And… honestly, sometimes it’s nice when you’re at the end of your rope to have someone else help fix things or put your situation in context.  It was my job to fix things when they went wrong and get my head on straight and it was honestly just fine.

I don’t have any current plans to do this again yet, but I’m totally open to if I get the opportunity!

September… wooo! It’s been a lot. Lot of fun. Lot of stress.

But, like, overall, a lot. But the good news is that…

#1 The Unwanted Kettlebell

Even with all the crazy, and travel, and such, things are still moving in the right direction. It’s still like a big fight for like 2 lbs a month but if I keep at it, I’ll be a happy camper before I know it. This progress is pretty much motivated by workouts. Yes, I am tracking carefully, but I am eating a lot. Because I’m working out a lot. Which means I eat a lot. Which means I need to work out a lot to keep progressing. It’s a cycle, but I’m enjoying it and not really complaining. Because I love food (healthy or not).

Still, for the month, though, I have tallied my over/under and I am at -3728 calories over my goal. That’s -124 calories per day. Obviously, I am still doing well enough to make progress, but I always seem to be slightly lagged (what I do 2-3 weeks earlier seems to catch up with me) so I shouldn’t be surprised if things slow down and it’s actually pretty justified if they do.

So, October’s goal will be to get back to eating a little less and banking more calories for days I need a little more.

#2 Sporty Spice Stuff

But hey, look at all those garmin entries, lots of workouts to burn the calories!

I skipped strength the week after I got back from Seattle – I was effing zonked. As you may notice by the almost 0 workouts besides walking the first week of September, but somehow still at 12 hours… because 8 of those were from my epic walkabout on Monday. After a light week, I was back to it and feeling great though.

Run: 25.5 miles, 11 runs. I did some shorter runs after my vacation to get back into it, and just now am getting back to not just easy pace.

Bike: 182 miles, 15 bikes. It was just easier to get back on the trainer and pedal out some miles so I did that. Same with the run, I am just really getting back to doing “what the garmin says”, though the problem is that the garmin has a lot of “base 1h30” and “long ride 2h50” which right now is just a NO. So, I’m cherry picking until I have more time. But hey, 2 of these were outside! And the first one shook out some major problems on the bike (my tires were too big and they were rubbing constantly!). I would have been PISSED if I didn’t find that until I raced.

Swim: 1250yd, 2 swims. One in the lake (race prep), one in the pool (instead of racing, more on that below).

Weights: 6 hours, 12 sessions. It’s definitely the vegetables of my fitness regiment but good thing I like vegetables.

Walking: 77 miles, 29h. It’s finally starting to get nice at some points during the day again (dawn, dusk) instead of just being soup so we’re enjoying it a bit more.

Next month, honestly? More of the same. I am enjoying it, feeling strong, and making (some, even though my garmin says I’m unproductive :P) progress. I know I just need to take a day or two here and there if I’m not feeling it and do something lighter for a bit and I do and I’ve been pretty consistent here for 6 months with the run/bike/walk/weights, so I’m just excited for some cooler weather at some point in which to do that.

So, yeah, I was supposed to race this month. Cal Tri Austin. We woke up after a fantastic night of pre-race sleep in our own bed (which was incredibly novel), did our usual morning puttering even got our mile walk in and then when we went to load up Truck Truck? Dead battery.

We had driven it the day before, so no indication anything was wrong. We had parked in the middle of the driveway, so the Pruis was trapped in the garage. Our portable car battery charger was in the truck… but hadn’t been charged for months. We put it in the charger and put in a call to roadside assistance and the wait for both were too long. So, I had my fourth DNS (did not start) since I started racing in 2009.

If this was an A race, I could have found a way. I could have run over some bushes with my car. We could have called two Uber XLs. But this one wasn’t. I was bummed to see I probably could have secured second or third in my age group, because it’s always fun to hear your name called and get a shiny piece of plastic to randomly validate your triathlon worth. But I signed up because it was close, and I wanted some motivation to keep training once Kerrville was canceled. Mission accomplished there, see above.

While we both felt the pull of the couch after 2 hours of waiting for a jump, we took our race day caffeine and headed to lifetime north and did our own little triathlon instead.

Great swim. I usually take this easy in practice but gave it some gas. 2:07/100m is decent for me these days!

I chased the pace too hard on the bike. I really wanted to see 20mph, and I was so close, but I faded from 19.9 to 19.7 in the last 10 mins because I backed off knowing I had to run.

The run sucked. I cooked too hard on the bike, and I paid for it. I just couldn’t accelerate much past 11-minute miles which is fairly easy pace for me these days. It was what it was, and I didn’t quit. Like I wanted to at half a mile in. And a mile in. And a mile and a half in. With one mile to go I was resigned to my fate and even sped up a bit, but I’ve had so many way better runs with less perceived effort. Bleh.

I feel like I pushed myself about 90% (if 100% is a race where you fall down just after the finish line), so a solid effort in spite of the circumstances. No medal or t-shirt but I’ll live to race again. Next month, even, on a race that starts on a waterslide!

After the race, I plan to keep at it. What I’m doing is working, and while I probably can take a week lighter/recovery at some point, I need to make sure I’m ready to ramp down the eating that week as well to not stall THAT progress. And I’m not sure that’s going to happen this month.

#3 Adulting:

I nailed my two softball goals:

• Hang my art in my (at work) office that is sitting in piles.
• Return any of the sports bras I ordered from amazon that don’t work.

This month, I have a few more very easy goals because we are already entirely booked up for the month

• Hair appointment after the race, I’m sick of the grey streaks and forever wearing it in a knot.
• Dr. appt for a check up sometime later this year
• Return any of the second batch of tri kits and sports bras I ordered from amazon that don’t work.

I would say put up Halloween decorations, but they’re already done! One perk about not racing Kerrville is getting a jump on spooky season. We are supposed to get back with the financial planner and have that on the schedule in Nov. Maybe at some point we’ll do big adulty things but for now little adulty things are really all we can manage and that’s ok.

#4 Hobbies:

Seattle Trip was awesome, and I am going to do a whole blog post about solo sightseeing adventures.

Book 3 is in the can! Well, first draft and first edit pass that is. Next step is giving it a little space, and doing a kindle read and making notes. I’d like to finish that in October.

Still picking at the guitar on days I’m at home. I remember most of the chords for most of the songs and can usually play a song or two before my fingers hurt. Baby steps. Hopefully we can restore the electric at some point (just takes time and prioritizing it and haven’t done that) and then I’ll play more.

I took most of the month off photo editing to focus on book editing (and frankly, a lot of reading to disassociate from stress), but back to Bonaire. October goal will be to work on it, I don’t think I’m going to finish the whole trip, but maybe halfway?

Krause Springs painting is done. Next painting (maybe Seattle skyline?) has, uh, white paint on it. Maybe it will even get a second color this month? (or maybe not)

This month has a lot of social events and an unexpected travel to a conference (so TWO trips out of town), and I may need to tolerate a little more staring off into space vs being creative to keep myself sane.

Still haven’t locked in the November camping trip but we have a bunch of places we’re looking at. Hopefully will book that soon!

#5 Work Life Balance

Ehhh. Let’s get the big October projects done and dusted and perhaps I can relax a bit. I am doing a pretty good job at drawing work boundaries when my partner in crime lets me 😀 but occasionally I’ll have some (usually unnecessary) angst the night before something I think is going to be a thing, and very very very occasionally I’ll get the 2am thinkies. I feel like I’m not perfect, and not as detached as I want to be sometimes but compared to the average professional human that deeply cares about their job, I am probably a model student.

Alright, October:

• Eat a little less daily
• Keep doing sporty things and enjoy the race. Next year may be the year to take this ish seriously.
• Hair and Dr Appt
• Return things I don’t want so I don’t get stuck with them
• SPOOOKYWALKS!
• Survive the social craziness
• Book 3, guitar, Bonaire editing
• Did I say SPOOKYWALKS? 🙂

Looking forward to a fun, productive, active, and hopefully COOOLER month!