Plodding along...

The weather went from Summer to Winter yesterday, It is a very welcome change, but it is a cold wet few days. All of last week was wet, lots of rain which is desperately  needed. I didn't go hiking though as I knew the trails would be a muddy, slick mess. I don't mind hiking in the rain, but not after days of 4 inch rainfall. It was nice staying inside. I wore my new warm sweats and fuzzy slippers and watched football all afternoon. I wasn't a total slug as I did do my workout in the morning and upped the number of steps on the stair stepper. 

Mentally I am hanging in there. Determined, but sometimes doubting my ability to pull it off. Some days feel like I'm not making any progress. I guess I really won't know though until I can get on some more challenging trails than what I currently can hike at Mother Neff Park. We have a holiday coming up Friday of next week so weather permitting I am going to Colorado Bend State Park  and hit some of the trails there. They have much longer more challenging trails than what I've been on. So I guess I will have to see how that goes. I'm debating if I should take one of my dogs with me. It could be a challenge for her too, but I would enjoy the company on the trail. I need to decide which trail I'll hike first, then I can decide if I think she would be good. The upcoming weekend has a great forecast so I will most likely hit the trails at Mother Neff. Hoping maybe some of the leaves will be getting some Autumn color by then. 

Well I've to get through this week at work first... plodding along as usual.

Colorado Bend State Park

I can do this...

 A new week, but no new goals... well maybe just to increase the steps on my stair-stepper. I have made it back up to 150/300,  but still just can't get to the 200/400 I was at before vacation. I can hope I will be there this time next week. Otherwise my workouts are going great. I was looking forward to it this morning when I got up. I still felt like I had some energy to burn after getting out yesterday and hiking both loops at Mother Neff State Park.  I took my little introverted runt-mutt with me for her first hiking adventure and she was amazing, She walked right beside me and rarely stopped to sniff and kept up with me really well. I never would've thought she'd make a great hiking companion. She proved me wrong, she could do this. I am going to take my other little mutt next time, but I don't expect much from her as she has issues with her vision.

Recently I had been having doubts about attempting EBC. It's a big goal and I started wondering maybe I should set my sights on something simpler and closer to home. I mean really - I'll be getting close to my 68th birthday when I am there. How could I a  5 foot 3 inch, 120 lb grandma even think I could succeed at such a lofty hiking goal. But then peak trekking season started and people started posting pictures of their trek. I saw hikers of all ages and sizes out there. Oh yeah I can do this. I've still three years to train. I just have to get off my butt and get out there on the trails and challenge myself. 

I can do this!

Excuse me....

 Another new week is upon us. The days, weeks and months are just flying by. The weather has cooled off nicely for a few days. There was even a bit of a chill in the air this morning. The weekend weather was beautiful, but  I did not get out and go hiking. I just had too much to do at home and I have several busy weekends ahead. I did feel a bit guilty about it and I know that mentally I really could've used the time out in nature. I even skipped my workouts this weekend. I think I just needed a break from it all and needed to concentrate on my house and garden. 

Errands were ran on Saturday morning. Mowing trimming and yard work in the afternoon. Sunday I tried my new  Bissell Carpet cleaner and got both of my area rugs cleaned. That was quite the job as they were long overdue a good cleaning. I then spent the afternoon making three different pots of soup to be frozen so I have some quick and easy dinners and lunches in the coming weeks. I think that with all that I did over the weekend I got a pretty good workout. The scales agreed this morning as my weight had dropped to the lowest it has been in months. 56.2 kg. 

Skipping my scheduled workouts still causes me a bit of guilt. I'm trying to find a good mental balance that will ease the guilt but yet still remain motivated to work out. The hiking seems to be my downfall as I have to drive somewhere to hike. Walking around my neighborhood is hard as there isn't a safe place to walk. To even just walk around the block takes me on a narrow busy lane that I just hate. The parks in town with a trail are run down and don't feel safe so I tend to avoid them. I get tired of the same hikes at Mother Neff  State Park as there are only two trails there. One of the trails isn't safe on warm sunny days as there are quite a few snakes that like to sun themselves along it. Everything else is a forty - five minute drive or more which makes for a three hour or more trip. It is really hard to get motivated to get out there. How do I convince myself to get out there weekly when I can't even get out there once a month? I can always seem to find excuses not to go. It's very easy to convince myself that I'm just too busy or too tired or just too whatever.. The  thing is though is I know that once I get out, I love it and I feel so wonderful being out and hiking. Why do I convince myself otherwise? Well I guess I just need to give myself a good kick and just do it. No excuses... NO EXCUSES!!!!!!

Changes

 It's been a busy past seven days. I took a long weekend off Friday thru Tuesday so I could take my son's dog to him since he recently moved into a dog friendly apartment community. He lives down on the Texas Gulf coast so I was planning on some time at the beach and doing a bit of bird watching at the Botanical Gardens and Nature Center while there. I also took him out shopping to get him some new decor for his apartment. Well as usual things didn't always go quite to plan and I didn't make it to the beach. I did get to the Gardens and had a nice stroll around and did get to do some bird watching while there. While I did see several species that I hadn't seen before the best bird I saw was just outside my son's apartment. A Texas Red Crown Parrot - actually there were two of them together. I unfortunately did not get to my camera before they flew off. That happened several times over the weekend. que sera sera. 

I did manage to get in a few yoga workouts while there. I didn't take my stair stepper, but his apartment is on the third floor - 40 steps up and 40 steps down... I lost count of how many times a day I went up and down. I know that on Saturday I had down 5 up and 5 down before lunch time! It was great though as I never tired on them event when carrying heavy loads. I could really tell a difference from just a few months back going up the same number of steps at my daughters flat. Baby steps I know, but it is progress. 

So now that I no longer have my son's big dog my hiking companions will be my little Runt Mutts. The weather is finally cooling off nicely so I am hoping to get back on the trails in the next week or so. I might do so this Sunday, but will have to see how the weather and my schedule goes. I might just take them one at a time for the first few outings to see how well they can handle a hike. The smaller of the two may require a harness as she is a bit of a tugger and chokes herself when she pulls out too far. I guess I will wait and see first. 

 The Autumn EBC trekking season is in full swing. Unfortunately the weather isn't cooperating at the lower elevations and flights into Lukla have been grounded for the past six days. I heard that there are over 2000 people now waiting on flights. Many are giving up on EBC and are going to Annapurna instead. Some are managing to get helicopter flights up and others are going by jeep and taking a longer hike in. The talk has been that in recent years the Monsoon season is staying later and it makes trekking in October a bit riskier. It is one of the reasons I am looking at a November trek. It is quite a bit colder in November, but it is usually dry and sunny. I would much rather be faced with that than rain and delays. I'm still hoping that I can get a Volunteer job in that area where I can start my trek from there and then just finish in Lukla. Time will tell I guess. It is still too distant to be concerned with it. Things can change all too fast. 

 
 
           Pictures taken at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center

Mindset

 Today I was a bit more motivated to do my workouts. Writing yesterdays blog really helped my outlook. It is one of the reasons I write this. It is mostly just for myself to document my journey and to keep me focused on the goals. So if you are reading this welcome, but understand I am not a professional writer and that this is written more as a personal diary. 

I am hoping to get some motivation from some new books I have ordered and am expecting to get delivered today. They are all written by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. One is a daily devotional, one is a prayer book. The other two are his teachings on living a mindful life. I enjoy reading his writings each evening when I go to bed, or if I awaken during the night and have trouble falling back to sleep.. His writings calm my mind and sooth my inner- being. I find it much easier to relax when reading his books than the usual fiction I read on my Kindle. I save those for my lunch break at work. 

I think this afternoon I will look into some trail recommendations in my part of Texas and also New Mexico. I know of the few around Cloudcroft, but I'd like to maybe venture outside of that area next Spring. I'll try to post if I find anything of interest. 

Motivation Slump

 It has been an odd week. I was in a weird place emotionally on Sunday, I suppose it was a bit of a funk. I wasn't depressed, but neither was I as happy and joyful as I had been. I have no idea why, but I just was. I did improve a bit as the day went on. I did not do my workout until mid-morning and that did help my mood, but I had to cut way back on the stair stepper as the 200 steps I had done on Saturday left my muscles a bit sore. I have been trying to get back into Sunday NFL football after not watching it much the past four years since my divorce. I'm a Houston Texans fan, and I grew a bit tired of watching them lose. But I do really like them so I am back to watching them and they are now 2-2 for the season and played a great game this past Sunday. I did wish I had taken the time on Sunday though to go hiking with my son's dog one final time. I had though it was going to get hotter than it did, so I missed out on a nice morning hike. I will get out this coming weekend while at the coast and take some nice walks. 

Motivation to do my workouts has been very low this week. I somehow manage to get started and complete all three series. The funny thing though is, they have gone really well. Oh my thighs were a bit sore on Monday still so I only managed 100/200 on the stair stepper, Wim Hoff has been really good. No struggles at all to complete the series easily. I even held my breath longer on the third set. Today I just took the stair stepper up to 125/250. I'll add a bit more on tomorrow and go a bit slower on increasing it back to 200/400 so I hopefully won't get so sore. 

So to address the lack of motivation I have to look at some of the goals I have. EBC of course is the big one. It is quite distant and I have many smaller ones I need to accomplish first. Local hikes for the next six months, but venturing a bit further than Mother Neff State Park. I was looking online at some of the easier 14,000+ peaks that are classified as easy in Colorado. I think I have three picked out that are close together that I could do over the course of a week. It won't be next year but most likely in 2025. Next Spring I still plan on Cloudcroft New Mexico  area of the Lincoln Forest and the trails at 9000 ft. The 14ers in Colorado start at around 11,000 ft. and of course summit at over 14,000. If I could tackle two to three of them over several days I think I would easily be able to complete the Everest Base camp trek. But for now I'll focus on my Sunday hikes and start planning a trip to Cloudcroft for next March or April. I do know of one trail near Cloudcroft I want to tackle as it nearly kicked my butt ten years ago. One killer hill on a hot afternoon had me gasping. I couldn't give up on it though as it was the only way back to the car. I'm planning on kicking that hills butt when I return!

                                    Photo taken about ten years ago on Hike near Cloudcroft.