....And Counting

I made some progress on the hiking goal today. The weather was chillier than what we have been having, but it was still very fair for this time of year. It was overcast and a little misty and right around 50 degrees. It felt cold at the beginning of the hike, but by the end I was sweating.

I was with the members of the Genessee Valley Hiking Club at Lucien Morin Park, formerly known as Ellison Wetlands Park, and commonly known as the Rifle Range. Derek was the hike leader, and at one point he did send me to take a couple of people on a bit of a shortcut, so my mileage at 5.0 was about a quarter of a mile less than what the rest of the group did. Still, it's a very hilly hike and I was out of breath several times. Loved it!

243.6 miles to go before December 31, 2012.

I have had a headache all week and wonder if it might be due to the switchover to the generic of my Lexapro. If it continues to bother me, I will mention it to my doctor at my maintenance appointment which is coming up next week. Hopefully this will just pass. I am going to ask her about the generic drug anyway because I wonder if she has any insight into efficacy.

Goal Setting

Our early spring (80-degree weather in March!) has me thinking about the outdoors obsessively. I am going to teach myself to tent camp this year, and have been slowly buying equipment over the last several months. And while I look forward to my new adventures, the camping part is simply a way for me to get close to trailheads which are farther away from home and to perhaps transition into backpacking.

So, today I decided I should set a goal to help keep me hiking actively throughout the rest of the year. I'm now resolved to try and get in at least 250 miles of hiking before the end of the calendar year. That should be very doable since we're only in the first quarter yet. If I was still hiking regularly with both of my groups, I'd easily surpass that mileage, but I have stopped doing a lot of the organized hikes.

For the purposes of this challenge, I will not be counting miles logged in the gym on the treadmill, my daily walks in the neighborhood with Patrick or my daily commute to and from work. If I take Patrick to the park in the afternoon, I will count that mileage.

In fact, we went to Highland Park this afternoon to check on just what might be coming into bud early. The answer: EVERYTHING. Patrick was tired in the heat, so we didn't go far, but I'm going to count these 1.4 miles towards my total.

In other news: I am now taking 20mg of my antidepressant again. Recently, my insurance company switched me over to the generic which makes me a little nervous, but so far the transition hasn't caused any noticeable problems.


248.6 miles to go!