Finishing the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge

Back at the end of January, I signed up for the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge, then hosted by the Books, Fitness, and Other Stuff blog. The challenge was to reach 400 miles by the end of this year, either by walking, running, or bike-riding. I've been walking, and I was excited to reach that 400 mile goal this morning. :)

I had only been blogging a month when I decided to sign up for this challenge, and I had doubts about whether I would ever have any success with this blog, or be able to maintain it. The challenge was the first thing that really helped me to start meeting other bloggers, including the very kind and supportive Lynn Marie at Life through Bifocals, and it was also the first time I started to feel a connection to the blogosphere.

As the year went on, I realized that my little runner moving along the exercise ticker represented more than just my exercising goals. She had also come to represent my blog and my writing journey as well.

The blog was in its infancy at the same time she started on the ticker. Now that she's at the finish line, I can't help but look back on how the blog has changed during the journey to 400 miles.

The post that announced my participation in the challenge was my 16th post. This is post number 129. Back in January, I had maybe 5 or 10 followers, most of whom were friends and family. Now, I have 301. Back then, I had never heard of a blogfest or a blog hop, and I had no clue what on earth a blog award was all about. Now, I've been fortunate enough to both give and receive awards, and I've participated in so many fun blogfests and hops, where I've met some amazing blogging friends from all over the world. I've published two articles, been honored to write a guest post for another site, started a second blog, and even overcome my fear of sharing my work publicly.

It's been a good year, and it's safe to say that it all started with this blog. I am going to keep my 400 mile exercise ticker, as it will always be a reminder to me of what you can accomplish when you commit yourself to a goal. And, that you never know what else will come your way while you're on your journey. 

As the ticker has been such a great motivator for me, I've decided to start a new one for my biggest goal, completing my novel Polar Night. I know that 60,000-80,000 words is considered an average word count for a novel, so I'm starting a ticker to track my progress towards 80,000 words. I'm hoping this will be as motivating for me as the exercise ticker was, and I also hope it will be inspiring to track my progress publicly. 

The word count ticker is only at 12,892 words now, and 80,000 looks a long way off. But, I'm confident that I'll get there. And, I'm anxious to find out what new and unexpected joys I'll have as I travel along on the journey.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? ~ Vincent van Gogh

Spring Birds and Summer Challenges

I can't believe we are at the end of May already. The month flew by and, as usual, I have no idea where the time went. To all my American readers, I hope you enjoyed the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and the unofficial kick-off to summer. We certainly have summer temperatures here in Ohio as we turn the calendar over to June.

I met some new little friends in May as a pair of robins built their nest in the forsythia bush in my parents' yard. We discovered the family when my nephew was trimming the bush, and nearly cut the branches that held the nest. Thankfully, he saw the nest in time and quit trimming, but it was a big shock as the parents had done such a great job of hiding the nest, we had no idea the babies were there.

At first, we were afraid the nest would no longer have enough shelter since the bush had been trimmed, but luckily that wasn't the case and the babies continued to thrive and grow. I loved checking on them and watching their progress.

Yesterday morning, my mom saw one of the little birds fly away and, sure enough, by the end of the day they were all gone. When I went to check on them yesterday afternoon, the nest was completely empty, and had the look of a vacant house. No traces of the little bird family remained.

I can't deny I'll miss checking in on these guys. But, it was somehow fitting that as the temperatures soared and the holiday marked the start of summer here in the US, the little birds of spring went away.

As May ends and the summer months begin, I am measuring my progress on some ongoing challenges.

I joined the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge back in February, and I have found it to be very motivating. I love watching my little runner move forward on my exercise ticker, and was excited to see her reach the halfway point last week. I want to say thank you again to Shanae Branham at Triumph and Tears for taking over hosting duties on the challenge, and keeping it going. I'm anxious to continue on, and look forward to staying on track with early morning walks this summer.

Unfortunately, staying on track with my writing challenge isn't really possible, as I'm so far off the track I can't even see it. I signed up for May...You Write Your Novel at the beginning of May, with the goal of writing 1000 words a day and ending up with 80,000 words by July 19th. By now, I should have around 30,000 words. What do I have instead? About 8500.

I can only blame this on my typical pattern of procrastinating until the last possible minute to complete anything. If MYWYN had been an assignment back when I was in school, I would have been up all night on July 18th trying to hammer out as many words as possible. Old habits die hard.

So May was a bust for me on this challenge, but I'm determined to make June better. I still have 50 days to go until the end of MYWYN, so I can start now, give myself a kick in the pants, and crank out those words. I'm turning to one of my favorite motivational quotes to get inspired.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. ~ Samuel Beckett

Happy June, everyone!

250 Words A Day Challenge

I'm probably the most undisciplined person in the world, or if not, I must be in the top 5 at least. I've written before about my tendency to procrastinate, and there's no question that habit is having an effect on my writing goals. I haven't sent out nearly as many queries as I wanted to in the first two months of the year, simply because I will jump at any excuse to waste time and not work on my writing. With March around the corner, I want to get focused and work more steadily.

While not related to writing, one of the things that has helped me become more disciplined in terms of exercise is participating in the 400 Miles Fitness Challenge, hosted by Ellie at Books, Fitness & Other Stuff. I'm really enjoying keeping track of my miles, and watching the ticker move along towards the 400 mile goal. I know this has helped me stay on track with my exercise, as I've pushed myself when I felt lazy just so I could add some miles to my calendar and to the ticker!

In this spirit, I wanted to find a similar challenge for writing, or at least something that I felt would help me to stay motivated. I ended up committing to the 250 Words A Day Challenge at Debbie Ridpath Ohi's site, Inkygirl.com

This was already one of my favorite sites for writers, as I love Debbie's tips and the Writer's Guide to Twitter, among other features. So I was glad to stumble upon the challenge again, and I hope committing to it will help me stay more focused. I decided to start with 250 words a day even though I also had the option of 500 or 1000 words, as I figured it was better to start small and move up from there.

I posted one of the 250 Words A Day badges on my site to keep me motivated. As per the rules of the challenge, if I don't stay consistent I'll remove it. I like visual motivators, so I think this will be a good one for me.

On a side note, thanks again to everyone who showed up here on the She Writes blog hop. It was great to meet everyone and learn about so many wonderful blogs!

400 Mile Challenge Updates

I didn't intend to write two posts in one day, but I wanted to create a post to update my progress on the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge. I'm hoping I'll be able to edit this post to update my mileage each week.

I had a good first week, and walked 11.5 miles. I'm so happy that I found this challenge, as so far it has been a great motivator for me to be more disciplined again with my exercise. I also love updating the ticker and seeing my little runner moving along on the way to the 400 mile finish. :)

Week 1 (1/30-2/5): 11.5 miles
Week 2 (2/6-2/12): 9.5 miles
Week 3 (2/13-2/19): 11 miles
Week 4 (2/20-2/26): 11 miles
Week 5 (2/27-3/5): 13 miles

400 Mile Fitness Challenge

Last week I discovered the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge at the Books, Fitness, and Other Stuff blog, and I’m so glad I did! Before the holidays I had developed a great routine for my exercise, and I was walking or getting in some form of exercise every day. But ever since Christmas, I have lost my motivation and have slacked off, so I think this challenge will be the perfect thing to get me back on track.

The Challenge is to reach at least 400 miles by the end of the year, either by walking, running/jogging, or biking. I love to walk and that is how I plan to reach my goal, but I would also like to do some jogging as the year progresses. Last year I set a goal for myself to run a 5K race. I didn’t meet the goal, but I’m considering shooting for that again. I have a training program for a 5K on my Ipod, and may give it another shot.

But whether it is by walking or running, I definitely plan to reach my 400 mile goal by December 31st. I’ve walked 21 miles in January, so I've got 379 miles more to go.

I love to travel and visit new places, so I thought it would be a fun motivator for me to figure out where I could walk to by the end of the year. Give or take a few miles, if I go south from my home in Cincinnati, I can make it to Huntsville, Alabama. North, and I will end up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If I go east, I will find myself in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. West, and I will be able to climb the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

If I exceed the goal and go a little farther, I can make it to Toronto or Washington, D.C. My favorite city that I’ve ever visited is San Francisco, so I checked the distance for me to get there. I don’t think I will make that one, as it would take me 2,368 miles! Maybe I can combine several years together to make that goal. :D

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this challenge, and I’m grateful to Ellie at Books, Fitness, and Other Stuff for coming up with the idea!