July 2018 Goals
And Ryder wears stars and stripes sunglasses
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How cool is my dog Ryder? He's so cool I taught him to wear sunglasses! It was a struggle, but he wore his American-styled shades just long enough for me to fire off a few photos. In honor of 4th of July this month's photo shoot was all about the red, white, and blue and Ryder never looked so all-American!
But of course, those are spoilers, and we need to measure June's progress before we jump ahead to July.
June 2018 Goals
Writing
Post twice a week. I definitely didn't post twice a week since I just posted three times in June. However, I did wrap up the big post about my trip to Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. Yay alligators!
Type up twenty pages of fiction writing. Hmm nope. But I started a draft of a short story to read to my writers' group.
Finish my e-book. Haha it's not super pretty but I've got a good enough draft put together that I shared with Travis and Kristen prior to their trip to Italy in the coming months! It still needs some work, but it's a good start.
Photography
Work on some photography classes. I actually worked on some classes! (Mostly because I'm eyeing up some new gear and wanted some more working knowledge to guide any purchase decisions.)
Running
Run 90 miles! Aww this was a disappointment because I got a horrible summer crud for a week, and then it took me another week to recover some strength and not keel over and die whenever I tried to run more than a quarter mile. Despite all that I still managed to do 83.23 miles in June. (112.9 miles total if you include biking and hiking miles!)
Do two long runs on trails! I did this! I did a 13 miles long run at Eno River State Park and a 9.7 miles long run at Horton Grove.
Race Running of the Bulls 8K! Haha I cheated with this goal because I had already accomplished this for the month before I posted my June goals post!
Hiking/Backpacking/Camping
Go on at least one "Sunday Stroll" hike. My "Sunday Stroll" in June was with Becky and our dogs at Harris Lake! Aww I can't wait to hike with Becky again <3
Go camping at least once. I didn't do this. I had reserved a weekend in June for backpacking or camping, but I didn't save the time like I should have and let some other things locally slip into my schedule that weekend. It's fine, but I was disappointed that I'd compromised on my mountain weekend, so I need to make sure I actually protect my time when I set aside a weekend for mountain activities.
Climbing
Climb at least twice a week. I climbed 5 times in the month, and I didn't climb the whole week I was sick, so I was close to my target.
Keep working 5.9 routes. I've been on and off with my skill on 5.9 routes. But I sent my first 5.9+ which was awesome! I'm going to keep working at the 5.9 level for a while to build up more experience and confidence, but sending a 5.9+ is exciting because it means I could start working on 5.10s soon!
Keep sending V1s and working V2s. I can consistently climb some V1s now, but not all. I've been working on V2s but need to be more meticulous and purposeful with practicing these.
Other Fitness
Try out a new yoga studio. Didn't do it yet. This will stay on the list though until I get it done!
Travel
Go to Colorado!!! I did this I did this I did this!! It was absolutely amazing: downhill mountain biking, class 2 and 3 hiking and mountaineering, climbing, and so much more!! I can't wait to tell you all about it!
Personal
Read two books! Two books was a good goal because I that's exactly how many I read in June! I read Middlesex* by Jeffrey Eugenides so I've now read all three of his novels (the other two being The Virgin Suicides* and The Marriage Plot* - ps they're all great). I also listened to A Man Called Ove* by Fredrik Backman. (Confession: part of the reason I decided to listen to this audiobook instead of read it was because I wasn't quite sure if it was supposed to be "Ove" as in long o pronunciation like "jove" or if it was a European man's name (similar to the German name "Uwe". Conclusion: yes, it's pronounced like the name "oo-vay". Yay audiobooks!)
Okay! So what's in store for July?! (Even though we're halfway through the month...shhhhh...)
July 2018 Goals
I trained Ryder to wear sunglasses! It took lots and lots of bribing and he kinda wrecked my background in the process. But hey! My dog is cool and wears hater blockers!
Writing
Post once a week. I'm crazy swamped at work right now and I'm trying to catch up on some really big adventures, so it's going to take longer than usual to crank out some posts. Sorry.
Prepare a short story draft to read at my writers' group. My writers' group does a neat thing where every July and December we have a writing prompt rather than the usual critique structure. And...well...I need to write something.
Type up five pages of fiction writing. And I'm not allowed to cheat and say this is the same five pages as the short story draft ;)
Revise my e-book (again). I shared what I have with my friends Travis and Kristen, but I need to keep making some improvements.
Photography
Play with some lighting. I'd like to try some fun things with off-camera lighting, so I want to do some experimenting.
Work on some photography classes. Specifically I need to start studying up on my wedding photography as a second shooter! Ooh yeah!
Running
Run 70 miles! It's a little lower than usual because one whole week of July was already spent in Colorado and while I was super active with hiking and mountain biking, I didn't actually do any running. But now that I'm back I'm jumping right back into my training!
Do two long runs on trails! Zoom zoom! Time to ramp up some training miles on trails!
Hiking/Backpacking/Camping
Go on at least one "Sunday Stroll" hike. Hiking time!
Do lots and lots of hiking in Colorado! Ha! I already did this, but it was epic and it counts as a goal for this month!
Climbing
Climb at least once a week. Since we were traveling I reduced this from twice a week to once a week, but I expect I'll get back into the 2-3 times a week routine soon.
Keep working 5.9 routes. As I work on these I'm slowly getting better, so I'm going to keep pushing myself.
Keep sending V1s and working V2s. Ditto the 5.9 sentiment.
Other Fitness
Try out a new yoga studio. This will stay on the list though until I get it done!
Try downhill mountain biking! Whaaaaat?!
Travel
Start planning a trip to France! So the FIFA (men's) World Cup is great and everything, but you know what I'm really excited about? The Women's World Cup in France next year!! Plus I just realized it should be about the same time as the Tour de France, which I've always wanted to spectate, so I'm thinking this is the perfect time to plan a trip to France!
Personal
Read two books! Sheesh, I'm tackling some novels that are pretty substantial (Middlesex* was 529 pages and the book I'm currently reading is 607 pages) so it's taking some extra time to finish a book, but I'm making steady progress.
Survive and thrive at work. I'm working on a pretty exciting project right now but there's quite a bit of stress and a few tough deadlines so I'm going to be at max productivity on that for a while (so that means the blog is going to suffer this month).