It’s like a mother, when the baby is crying, she picks up the baby and she holds the baby tenderly in her arms. Your pain, your anxiety is your baby. You have to take care of it. You have to go back to yourself, to recognize the suffering in you, embrace the suffering, and you get a relief.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

I decided to switch up my quote this month — I’m still going with my word, Compassion, only this time I turned it on myself. About time, don’t you think?

How did October go? Let’s see!

Getting in scheduled runs
I got up to double digits a couple of times, and then I tapered. Then I hiked. Then I raced. It all worked.

Grade Earned:  A+

Dynamic Warmup
I did well with my dynamic warmups, including race day (where I threw in a few extra moves).

Grade Earned: A+

Foam Rolling
I fell off a bit towards the very end o October — while we were traveling — but I did foam roll before my race. Not after (but I stretched). We had to book it out of the hotel and get on the road.

Grade Earned: A

Nutrition
Nutrition was surprisingly good, even during travel. I only had one dessert, other than the chocolates I brought with me, the whole 10 days. It wasn’t even after my race! I haven’t gained any more, but I haven’t lost any either. The skirts I reach for for racing are now tight. Luckily it was cool enough for me to wear capris. I have some thoughts about this — I’ll probably share them later this month or next month.

Grade Earned: B

Cross Training
Yoga, Strength Training, Pilates. It hasn’t been easy to get enough strength training in. I’m hoping with less running it will be easier.

What I did in October

• Visited mom, once a day visit, the other an overnight visit
• Chiropractor visit
• Visited Ooms Conservation Area twice
• First visit to Greenport Conservation Area
• Saw an eagle at Peebles Island
• Visited Thacher Park again and lunch out on our Anniversary
• Watched Father Stu (just ok) & No Time to Die (good-ish if you like Bond)
• Visited & hiked in Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park
• Visited family in VA
• Run the Chessie for my second trail half & first half marathon since 2019 — my 20th state (VA)
• Visited the James Madison University Arboretum
• Short hike to Black Rock Summit — first night in Shenandoah National Park

Whew! Yes, October was busy. Grueling. Fun. Now it’s time to relax a bit.

October 2022 gets . . .
. . . an A. After a break from visiting my mom in September, I was there twice in October, once just to visit, and once again to onboard a temporary aide. I narrowly escaped doing that all over again when the other aide had an emergency and didn’t come back (my sister handled it).

October Goals:

• Run 3 x week. Y. I think I managed three times a week — until the week of my half. Oops.
• ST 3 x week. Y/N.  I don’t think I actually managed it 3 x a week, and intentionally took it easy before my race. Subbed more Pilates.
• More hiking. Y.  No long, epic hikes, but plenty of hiking in October.
• Finish booking hotels for the trip. Y. We had one final hotel and booked it just a few nights before we left.
• At least one real rest day a week. N. There was just way too much to do this month. However, we had a forced rest day on Halloween when it poured almost the entire day. Probably a good thing — we needed some resting!
• Continue to try to eat intuitively — unless the weight starts to creep up. Y. Still eating intuitively but definitely not at a happy weight.

Which leads me to November Goals:

• Run 3 x week — after a recovery week post race. I took a week off of running post race — although of course there were some short hikes.
• ST 3 x week. I really hope that I can get more ST in. I’ve been feeling the lack of it.
• More hiking. Probably not much — I’ll be visiting my mom this week so hope I can get in a short hike then. It means an early start because of the now early darkness — I hate driving in the dark.
• At least one real rest day a week. The vacation was great, but it was anything but restful. My stress stats were pretty high for the first part. It’s time to find a bit more balance again.
• Continue working on Yoga stuff. I have a lot of projects I want to work on. This time of year is also the time to start relaxing more — I’m gonna try. Hopefully this aide will stay put — that would help a lot!
• Continue to try to eat intuitively — unless the weight starts to creep up. Obviously this has been a struggle for a while now. Not sure why, but have some guesses. I’ll just keep trying to make healthy choices.

As Fall rolls into Winter, it’s time to scale back activity and prioritize rest. I am totally on board with that. Going forward I would *like* to shoot for one half a year. Not sure that will happen but hopefully. I know that I could finish off the last 30 states, if I made short trips out of them — but the idea was always to take our time and explore states we’ve never been to (and many that we have been to).

Right now my thought is to try to get a half in in the states I really want to visit. Some of those require longer vacations and flying though, and that continues to be difficult with what’s going on in my life. I actually did calculate how long it would take to drive from here to Asheville, NC — another state we’ve considered for retirement, although neither one of us have ever been there! It’s an even longer drive than it was to VA.

I have not done DE yet. Or OH (although that’s not really high on my list and another really long drive). We decided early on to concentrate on the states that were near us, knowing that we eventually wanted to move somewhere else. We’ve done almost all of those, except DE. Although now that I’ve been to WV — well, that would be a long drive, too — but doable, maybe. Thoughts for another time. We have no travel plans on the horizon right now.

Linking up with Zenaida Arroyo and Kim @ Kookyrunner

This week I am also joining up with the new Runners’ Roundup linkup.