and now for plan A

Can I ask a question?  Why are people so obsessed with being 29?  This is a sincere question. How many people do you hear, when asked their age, say "Oh....I'm 29. Wink wink."  I do not understand.  Frankly (in my experience at least) 29 sucks.  I cannot wait until I turn 30.  Anything will be better than this whole "29" nonsense.  It's been a crappy way to end an otherwise awesome decade.  Bring on my thirties!

I am going to spend everyday of my thirties like I live in the 30's. Bring on the bootlegging!

  I know you're probably thinking that I'm being generally grumpy today. (True.)  Or maybe you've known me a long time and you're thinking "honestly Kristen, you've always been about 35 on the inside." (Also true.)  But I swear to you this is not a product of a crappy mood.  I sincerely feel that my 29th year has been a struggle.  I've struggled to balance an all-consuming depression with the demands of marathon training.  I've formed horrible diet habits by indulging the voracious hunger that comes from intense training.  I had stress fractures, and eventually gave in to my depression.  I spent 5 weeks essentially glued to my couch, watching more television than ever.  And I was ashamed of it.  I've gained a significant amount of weight, and watched as my depression/body image issues have reshaped every aspect of my life...and not in good ways.  And I haven't learned to use my sewing machine.

Yeah, I feel like this.

And also like this.

HOWEVER this is where I stop and realize I still have three months until my 30th birthday.  There's still time to turn 29 around.  I mean sure, I realize it's like throwing...something at sometime...I don't know any appropriate sports metaphors.... But still, I have a plan.

THE PLAN:

1. Enjoy the holidays.   Likely you're thinking, duh doy. But, most years my "holidays" are simply Thanksgiving.  This year, however, I will be spending Thanksgiving with Chris' family, and Christmas with my family.  (Yay! Christmas with my parents! First time since 2006!)

2. Continue Weight Watchers.  Yes. I do weight watchers, well...rather I've been paying for weight watchers for a year...and have finally started participating again.  It's shocking to see how much CRAP one can eat in a day.

3. Sign up for races through out 2013.  I've already got three on my place.  The Vancouver Half Marathon.  The Missoula Half Marathon. And Hood to Coast. (No falls 2013!)

4. Continue Personal Training.  It's kicking my ass. In a good way.

5. Let go of perfection.  I am not perfect and I should not expect myself to be perfect.  I'll repeat it again.  I am not perfect, and I should not expect myself to be perfect.


Yeah.  That's about it.  Maybe I'll start blogging about running again.  And how my goal is to get down to a 10 min mile by Feb.  (Yeah. I'm slow. But...I haven't given up yet!)

Also on my mind.  Spinning.  Good cross training or no? 

Camping.

So.  The achilles tendonitis seems to be healing itself nicely.  I only had one little flare up this weekend, and that's just because I hiked to some beautiful water falls in my sandals.  I blame it on the camping brain.  You know, how all the rules become super flexible and how things that seem really important just kinda fade away? I love camping for that very reason.

We went camping this weekend.  First time camping in Oregon.  This is not to say I have not been camping in the past five years.  I have, but never in Oregon.  We went to central Oregon, in the Deschutes National forest. Paulina Lake.  It was beautiful.  It was serene.  It was full of all sorts of recreational activities.  It was cold, and full of mosquitos.  Most importantly it was 6350 feet above sea level. 

Why is this important?  It's important because I am a delicate flower, and my feelings are often bruised.  Especially when it comes to "not being in shape."  You see...Portland has an altitude of approximately 50 feet.  (Whee! We're so high in the sky!) There's lots of lovely oxygen here, and my body is used to it.  It likes it.  It relishes all the oxygen.  It cries out in pain when there isn't as much around me.  Hiking at 6350 feet? I get super winded.  I forget that my body is used to zero altitude, and then spend the majority of the hike bemoaning the fact that I'm uber out of shape.  And then I'm cranky and declare that an obsidian flow is a RIDICULOUS name for a flow that is OBVIOUSLY MOSTLY PUMICE.

But I'm very pleasant about it.

Running and camping are an interesting combination.   Well, at least the kind of camping I do.  The kind where you gloss over the amount of clothes you need while you're packing figuring "hey, it's camping...everyone is dirty" but then only pack one pair of socks for 3 days.  One pair of socks to run in, hike in, sleep in, to wear to prevent mosquitos from sucking all the blood out of your feet.  One pair of pants.  No wash cloth or spit bath materials.  And certainly no fancy schmancy camp shower.
So...you figure maybe you don't need to run.  You're hinking! You're treking in creepy caves, (all the while trying desperately to not think of every horror story ever, or miners).  You don't need to run! Besides...you'd only smell more! And then you'd attract more mosquitos.  And who the hell wants more mosquitos?

So I didn't run, despite bringing my running shoes. Bad bad bad.  But I did have a marvelous time! Yay! And now I'm determined to get in uber shape so I can hike ALL THE MOUNTAINS with out getting winded.  Ha.  Just kidding.