#8 do an overnight hike not with my husband

The very first time Mike took me backcountry camping trip was in the summer of 2005.  We had been together 2 years and were preparing for possibly backpacking around Nova Scotia in the fall (we ended up driving).  We decided to do the Mantario Trail - a 60 km trail that ran along the Manitoba/Ontario border that at the time, was mostly maintained by volunteers (I am not sure the status of the trail now).   Mike was a boy scout and had spent two years in the outdoor rec program in Thunder Bay, had tree planted for a number of years and was just overall an outdoorsy guy.  And although I didn't consider myself a city girl or even all that high maintenance (ie I didn't (and still don't) wear make up or blow dry my hair and I considered myself fit (I played hockey in the winter and soccer in the summer), this hike definitely tested all of my physical and mental limits (and running out of toilet paper and not having the car at the end of the trail trailhead were only the tip of the iceberg).

But I did it and I learned from that experience and now enjoy multi day hiking trips. (Mike also learned from the experience too - he now knows he needs to pack more toilet paper when he is hiking with me).

However, in all of our hiking trips, it often feels like Mike does everything.  He packs the tent, the food, the thermarests and all the other things I probably don't even know about.  He cooks the food each morning and evening, hangs the bear bag, and sets up a tarp to try and keep our stuff dry in the rain.  And yes, I carry a pack and set up the tent and thermarests but I often feel that these are things he could do but I am not sure I could do his tasks...

So this is my plan for summer 2019.  Do an overnight hike not with Mike.  Can I pack everything I need into my pack.  Can I ration my food and cook it that night?  Can I hang the bear bag?  And most importantly, can I deal with things that might come up that I don't even know about?

So stay tuned....anyone want to join me?

#7 do at least two races

I used to run half marathons.  Not super competitively and maybe only 1 sometimes 2 per year but I would pay entry fee, train, show up on race day and cross the finish line.  Sometimes I ran with friends and sometimes by myself. Sometimes I would have a goal time in mind and would really push myself and other times I was just out to enjoy the race.  Sometimes training would be hard and lonely and I couldn't wait for the race to be over (so the training would be over).  And other times I was training with a friend and loved doing the long runs as a chance to connect and catch up and talk about our lives.

And then I stopped.  

Achy joints? Maybe
Tired of training?  Could be
Wanting to spend my time doing other things?  I guess
Not getting out of the race what I thought I wanted to get out of the race? Hard to answer when I'm not sure I know what I wanted to get out of the race

Whatever it was, I kind of forgot about racing and I definitely stopped running (at least longer distances).  

So how did 2 races end up on my healthy and happy list?

I don't know if I have the answer right now.  I know that I enjoyed doing a cross country race a year ago with friends and knowing other friends who were doing it (and a beautiful March day probably contributed to that one).  I know that I biked 100 km 2 years ago and NEVER thought I would do that but it felt amazing to accomplish it (and even more fun accomplishing it with a friend).  

I think there is something about signing up for a race (or event) that makes you want to push yourself a bit harder than you would otherwise.  So I want to push myself a bit harder with mountain biking.  And not necessarily to go more technical (hiking a bike is not a sport I want to race in as evidenced in my tongue in cheek vanbatical post about it).   But I want to see if I can go faster.  Push my legs a bit harder.  There is something in me that is curious what it would feel like to cross a finish line again.  

Although this time, I think there needs to be a balance too.  I still love great rides with great friends where we just enjoy being out on a beautiful summer day, on super fun trails and chatting when we get to the top of a hard hill about how hard that hill was.  In this way, maybe I don't get to the point where I am just wishing the race would be over so I don't have to train anymore.  

So 2 races.  And no pressure.  If I am still not getting from the race what I think I want to get from the race, then I stop racing again but I don't stop riding.  Healthy and Happy.

Now - does anyone know how to train for a mountain bike race?

#6 Start another blog and post once/week

Didn't really give myself any safe guards on this one did I?  I committed to "once/week" instead of allowing myself  "at least twice/month".  And writing this blog post has definitely been harder to commit to the once/week.  In fact, the friend who introduced me to the Healthy and Happy for 2019 and is currently the only reader of this blog, had to give me a little nudge when I hadn't been posting once/week (again my list of thank yous to her continues to extend).

But here I am with what started out as a few days late and is now a week late for my once/week goal.  The important thing is that it does make me happy to post things regardless of the time frame so let's do it.

I don't actually consider myself a blogger but did really enjoying writing the blog "Vanbatical".  Initially it was a joint blog post with my husband and in the beginning, he was WAY more keen to get it going than I was.  But I started writing and found I really liked it.  It was not only a way to give myself purpose (which I very much struggled with in a 6 month trip living in a van where I often felt I didn't have a purpose) but also a way to share a story which, for an introvert, is often hard to do in the spoken word.  The written word to me seems easier and still gives that satisfaction of sharing the story.  So back to the vanbatical blog and the end of the vanbatical but I still wanted to write.  And yes, I could journal but there is something about "publishing" something (and sharing your story) whether it is going to be 1 person reading it or 200 people reading it that makes you really think about how you are telling the story (as well as editing that story).

But my first challenge was coming up with something to blog about where I would have ideas each week.  My first blog about the vanbatical was fairly easy.  Content could be - where we were geographically what neat features were we experiencing or the challenges of living in a van.

So wanting to start right away and not feeling many other ideas come about, I decided to blog about the healthy and happy 2019 goals.  And the blog also seems to be serving another purpose - accountability to make sure I am reviewing them and adhering to my healthy and happy goals regularly (or at least once within a 15 week period.).

The second challenge though is writing in a way that does not sound condescending or patronizing or promoting myself as "look at me", I am doing this or I am doing that and you should too!  I especially found this hard with the making food from scratch post.  How to write about what I am doing which is making me happy without making anyone who reads it feel like they should be doing the same thing.  And in this pondering on "tone", it got me thinking about self help books in general (which I have been reading a lot of lately).  And not that I am trying to write a self help blog or tell someone what they should do but a self help book (or book editor) must also have to decide whether the tone of the book is "do this in this way and it will help" or "hey, here are some ideas, hope they help".  Anyway, now that I have catered to my inner critic who worried about me appearing like a "know it all", let's move on.

The third challenge is as discussed above - keeping up with it.  But this post is feeling done and while I am here, I may need to peak at goal #7 so I can at least start to think about what I have been doing to meet it and what I am going to write for it too...