We are off to a good start!

  • I have my metroparks pass for 2025
  • I have a Runner’s logbook in the mail heading to me
  • I have Lauren Fleshman’s book Good for a Girl on my Libby shelf
  • I am registered for a race already!

I don’t have the patience to go through my 2024 year for all the statistics of my activities, see So Many Hobbies! But fortunately, Strava did a nice summary for me.

It isn’t a surprise that hiking is #1 but it is a surprise that yoga would be so far up there!

My yoga commitment is 4 classes/month, which… come to think of it, would be the length of a time for a decent 6-8 mile long run. Guess I really spent more time in yoga, than running last year! I ran only one half marathon and one 10k race! I have been attending Bikram classes. This style of yoga keeps the heat cranking and the humidity high! More on this another day…

Hiking is just thrilling! I did some pretty amazing hikes in 2024. One road trip over 10-ish days and 5,000-ish driving miles, we had summed over 90 miles hiking. With the half marathon we did in Spearfish, SD, not to mention the zoos and towns we walked, we surely would be over a hundred miles of activities. It was a great time and I’ll be writing about the half marathon soon.

Here’s a link to watch a video about one of the hikes. Note that the footage makes it look like you are walking on the edge of a cliff but there was a scree no pictured– so not as scary as it seems. The below picture is the topography area view that I love to see. It was an amazing 18-ish mile hiking taking all day. It is crazy to think how we are able to hike around a mountain like that. Running and training for the half marathon on our vacation was a really good idea: We had the cardio endurance for all the hikes we had planned.

As far as for strength training goes, let’s just say I got really into the fitness videos again. Of course, renting from the local library, mostly. Jillian Michael’s Ripped in 30 dvd was an excellent one. I thought I would be able to keep it up 4x/week for 4 weeks. I was wrong. I lasted for two weeks of that regime before a brief illness had me halt exercise for a few weeks. By then, the dvd had to be returned to the library. This is the second time I’ve tried to accomplish the Ripped in 30 regimen.

At present, I am signed up for a 1x/week 6-week session of Barre fitness class at the community center. The reduced price from not being a Purre Barre studio is a definite perk. Maybe I’ll make some friends and maybe this will aid my fitness as I am preparing for my next half marathon race! Official training starts soon.

I’ve been running on the new treadmill I got in December as well as heading outdoors here and there. Here I am at the park after my first “long run” of the year, 4 miles.