June 2018 Goals

Ryder dressed up in florals and a recap of May 2018 goals

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Do you know what I have *not* been doing? Monthly goals! (Ooooooops!) My last monthly goals post was the beginning of April and I totally dropped the ball on May. For the most part, my April goals could have easily carried forward to May with a couple additions, so I recapped the two months together and came up with a fresh list of goals for June. What are your goals for this month?!

But first, a recap of April (and May).

April (and May) 2018 Goals:

Writing

Post at least once a week. Fail. I posted 3 times in April, but then I also knew that was going to be a stretch because I was traveling a lot in April. I spent the first weekend of April in Charleston for the Cooper River Bridge Run and then immediately turned around and headed south to Florida. I stopped at the border of Georgia and Florida and spent a weekend in Okefenokee Swamp (gators! So many gators!!) and then spent a week at a conference in Orlando, so I was pretty much MIA for a week. Then the following weekend was spent helping my grandparents move to a new house (which, surprise! They didn't tell anyone they were buying a new house or moving and they forgot which dates I'd told them I would be in Florida to see them, so I guess it all worked out fine? I was able to help them with most of the moving, which is good. Because let's be real: my 85-year-old grandfather really shouldn't be hauling old solid steel tools and boxes of books anymore.) And then the next weekend I went climbing at Pilot Mountain and hiking with Dad and next thing I knew April was gone! Poof! Finite!

Well, what about May? Well, I guess May was better since I posted 5 times in the month (which averages out to once a week) but in reality I crammed all those posts into the beginning of the month (knowing I was really behind on posts) and then didn't post for the last two weeks. So I guess May was a wash in terms of posts. (Plus, I never did a May goals post, so teeeeeechnically my May goals were all an utter failure since I failed to even set goals! For this post's purposes I'm just saying that I extended my April goals into May.)

Okay, okay, but enough with the writing excuses.

Type up twenty pages of fiction writing. I did no useful typing these two months. (I've done lots of useful writing longhand though. So much so I had to buy a fancy new fountain pen after a 7 hour writing session resulted in me nicknaming my current pen "fountain PAIN" instead.)

Oh! And I suppose this is something else to add to the win column: I actually submitted a short story to a contest! I have no expectations of winning or getting a letter back or anything, but it's good to push myself to submit and see what happens.

Finish my e-book. Bleargh. I thought about this several times...and just didn't do anything. (But I upgraded my Adobe creative cloud suite though so now I can format the e-book all pretty all by myself!)

Photography

Do some nice wildlife and nature photography. So...originally I'd intended on bringing the big fancy camera to Florida and then I realized I didn't love the idea of spending two days in a rented kayak on a blackwater swamp with an expensive camera, just to go to a conference and have my camera sit unattended all day in a hotel room. So I took zero photos for two straight weeks. I did take some cool climbing photos at Pilot Mountain and I had a fun photo session in May, but I've been mostly running or it's been raining and I haven't been out there with the camera in my hand all that much (relatively speaking). So that's something that could be improved.

Running

Run 80 miles! Yeesh, nope, this definitely didn't happen. That Florida trip really threw a kink in my plans. Weekend long runs turned into kayaking and moving days and my week at the conference turned into "catch up on work and network" in the evenings with one day spent on a treadmill to release some pent-up energy. Total mileage (including all activities) put me at 57.42. I'm not even going to add up just running miles.

And what about May? Well, overall miles were 89.4 miles, but that included some hiking and an 18 mile bike ride. Running miles were 67.23 miles, which is a good number to ramp back up after the mileage slump of April.

Run Cooper River Bridge Run! Yay! This happened and I had a blast! 

Additional May running goals I *would* have set:

Run Doughman! Yay! I did that and it was a ton of fun!

Run St. Baldrick's 5K! Eeep this is the first race I signed up for and didn't start. I didn't realize I had a scheduling conflict between this charity 5K and a Oiselle meet-up/mural photo, and between the two the latter won. Oops. But hey! Support St. Baldrick's if you've got time and money to fight childhood cancer!

Run Margarita Mile! Heck yeah! Did this and was second place female finisher! (First time placing...ever!! Yay!!)

Hiking/Backpacking/Camping

Go on at least one "Sunday Stroll" hike. My dad and I managed to fit in a Sunday Stroll hike at Flower Hill Nature Preserve in April! (Yeah, that post still needs to go up though...) 

Go camping at least once. I'd wanted to do some exploring while I was in Florida for my conference. I managed to go down early and do some kayak camping, which was fun! I paddled 10 miles out into the middle of a swamp, slept in a hammock surrounded by alligators, and kayaked back the next day - yep! I did that! I was planning to do a little more car camping and exploring the weekend after my conference too, but when I found out my grandparents were in the middle of moving to a new house those couple of days spent with my grandparents turned into several days helping them move. Ah well, it was a good thing to do.

Additional May hiking goals I *would* have set:

Go on at least one "Sunday Stroll" hike. I went on a Sunday Stroll hike at White Pines Nature Preserve even if my dad didn't come! (He and I didn't hike together in May. And that post also still needs to go up. Oops.)

Lead another RhoTREATS hike! The first group hike that I led for co-workers at Hanging Rock State Park was a big success! So we were looking forward to doing another local hike at Raven Rock. That hike went well even though it rained all day. But we had fun despite the rain and I updated my old Raven Rock post with my latest hiking info format.

Climbing

Climb at least once a week. It was definitely tough getting in time to climb while I was gone for two weeks in Florida in April. I considered visiting a rock climbing gym in Orlando, but when I did some research I found all the gyms were an hour away from where my conference was, so that was a no-go.

Plus, if I did climb in April with McCrae (because Emily and I did not climb together all month) then I didn't record it. That said, I did go rock climbing outdoors in April at Pilot Mountain, and I'm pretty confident that I climbed indoors at the gym at least once between getting back from Florida and doing that outdoor climb. But still, that just leaves me with...two climbing sessions in April? That's disappointing.

I climbed at least 7 times in May though. I didn't record anything the first two weeks of May, but that's not to say I didn't climb. I'm doing this Women on the Wall series at Triangle Rock Club that is a group class focusing on improving climbing and core workouts. It's been great so far! Definitely challenging, and while it's sore and fatiguing I know it will make me a better climber.

Keep working 5.9 routes. I've had mixed results with 5.9 routes recently. Mostly I've just been climbing more in the past couple weeks so I've been more tired, which makes harder routes even harder. But I've sent a couple 5.9s and have worked on several more.

Send a V1 problem. This was a goal I carried forward from March. I technically didn't set this as an April goal, but it's been an overall goal for me to tackle harder boulder problems. And I actually did this! I sent a few V1 routes now and I'm challenging myself to work on some V2 routes.

Other Fitness

Try out a new yoga studio. Nope, didn't happen. But this will stay on the list though until I get it done! (But hey, I have been doing some yoga on my own before running and after climbing though. So at least I'm doing *some* yoga.)

Travel

Go to Orlando! I did this!

Plan July trip! This has been on my list of things to do since January. Uhm...we have airplane tickets, so does that count?

Personal

Read two books! I crushed this goal and read 4 in April and 4 in May!

The books I read in April:

- Noughts & Crosses* by Malorie Blackman
This was an audiobook that I listened to leading up to my Florida trip.

- The Great Alone* by Kristin Hannah
I listened to this audiobook on the drive down to Okefenokee swamp and while I was kayaking in the swamp. Between the suspense in the book and the suspense of kayaking through a swamp crawling with alligators it made for one exciting weekend!

- The Girls* by Emma Cline
I read this while I was in Florida. It was nice to turn to a book in the evenings after the conference instead of turning on the TV and it was especially nice to have a book to read after long days of helping my grandparents move.

- The Glass Castle* by Jeannette Wells
I listened to this as an audiobook on the drive back from Florida. I might have yelled at the memoir a couple times while I was driving on the Interstate - all indignation at some of the BS the author went through as a kid - but it was so absorbing!

The books I read in May:

- I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer* by Michelle McNamara
I listened to this on audiobook and I zipped through it in a matter of days! I couldn't stop listening!

- The Song of Achilles* by Madeline Miller
I'm a sucker for Greek mythology, and I enjoyed this audiobook very much.

- Circe* by Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles was so good I immediately had to listen to Miller's other book about the Greek witch Circe. Circe was one of my favorite characters in The Odyssey* and it was amazing to hear her come alive through Miller's story. Even the audiobook performance was great! I'd say this is one of the best books I've read this year.

- The Burning Girl* by Claire Messud
I absolutely loved Messud's last book The Woman Upstairs*, and while I didn't love her most recent novel The Burning Girl quite as much it was still very good.

Do taxes. I did my taxes! Heck, I even did them a week before the deadline! (Because the deadline was when I would be in Florida, so I kinda had to do them early.) Yay for being an adult!

Okay, so that was a lot. A whole lot! Wayyyy too much in fact, so let's make it an unwritten (now written?) goal to not miss another monthly goals post.

So! What's in stock for June?

June 2018 Goals

Writing

Post twice a week. My backlog of posts to put up is ridiculous right now - time to get to work!

Type up twenty pages of fiction writing. Chop chop!

Finish my e-book. It at least needs to be nice enough to give to some friends heading to Italy soon.

Photography

Work on some photography classes. I really need to make sure that I'm constantly working to improve, which means adding to my knowledge and pushing myself to shoot more.

Running

Run 90 miles! Okay, well, the stretch goal is 100 miles, but I might swap out a long run for some backpacking. But I want to do 100 miles worth of training this month!

Do two long runs on trails! I might have done a stupid thing. Actually, I might have done two stupid things and they both involve signing up for trail races of varying distances. More on that later, but I definitely need to make sure I do lots and lots and lots of training on trails this summer!

Race Running of the Bulls 8K! Haha this is cheating because I already accomplished this for the month, but that's what happens when my monthly goals post is late!

Hiking/Backpacking/Camping

Go on at least one "Sunday Stroll" hike. Hiking time!

Go camping at least once. I'm currently unsure of whether my target backcountry weekend in June is truly backpacking or if it's just hauling some camping gear into the woods a little ways from the car...either way, it's camping at least.

Climbing

Climb at least twice a week. Three times if I'm lucky and can convince people to go that often :)

Keep working 5.9 routes. Well, I'm working 5.9 routes but not expecting to send them. I'm doing a ton of strength training which is kinda killing my stamina right now. But it will make me stronger in the end.

Keep sending V1s and working V2s. It's good to push myself.

Other Fitness

Try out a new yoga studio. This will stay on the list though until I get it done!

Travel

Go to Colorado!!! I leave at the end of this month!! I'm so excited!! (Wait, crap, I should probably book hotels and finalize plans...dang it.)

Personal

Read two books! Based on getting through 4 books a month in April and May I'd say I should read 3 in June but the one I'm physically reading right now is a few hundred pages long, so I'm giving myself a little extra time for it.

What do you think? Do you have any goals planned for June? Let me know in the comments!