Making Progress

Although this hasn't been a week where I've been able to check anything off, I feel I've made a lot of progress on my Operation 30 list.....

• Baseball stadiums identified - check!
  ...Hello Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, and Boston Red Sox
  
• Dates and travel companions locked in - check!
  ...The fun starts in May after my work trip to Brazil. I can't wait!
  
• Register for a marathon - check!
  ...I'm signed up for the St. Louis Rock n' Roll Marathon on October 23rd. Now it's time to put together a training plan to ensure I can achieve my Personal Record goal.
  
• Register for a triathlon - check!
  ...I'm signed up for the Alligator's Creek triathlon in O'Fallon in August. I'll admit, I picked it mostly based on the short distance of the swim - only 300 meters (which is a shorter distance than the Race for Sight tri I did a few years ago). Now to learn to swim before then. :-)
  
• Find possible dates for a winery bike ride - check!
  ...Thanks to Doodle I'll soon be able to lock-in on a date for a winery bike ride from St. Charles to Augusta, which is something I've wanted to do for years now.
  
• Plan Grand Canyon trip, kayaking, and when to ride a segway - check!
  ...In true multi-tasking spirit, my baseball trips will be filled with Operation 30 activities. The current plan (with details still to be finalized) is to drive to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix, go kayaking in San Diego (La Jolla, actually), and ride a segway in Seattle.
• Pick a music festival - check!
  ...Bonnaroo 2011 is it! I couldn't be more excited about the lineup - Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, Ray Lamontagne, Eminem, Girl Talk, Buffalo Springfield, The Black Keyes, and many more. Simply Awesome.
  

As I finalize the details of my trips I'll be looking for some input to ensure I make the most of them. So if anyone has any "must do" activities while in Phoenix, Seattle, San Diego, or Boston, I'm all ears! I'm also open to free flights, hotel stays, and car rentals if anyone has access. My 2011 travel budget will be significantly higher than 2010, but I'm good with it. :-)

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Holy Sweat!

I've found a new fitness love: Bikram Yoga! To clarify, that's pronounced Bee-krahm Yoga and involves a room heated to 105 degrees F and a set series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises for 90 minutes. It's something that I've wanted to try for a while. I've been looking for a supplement to the running and biking I do otherwise and haven't yet gotten back into swimming, so Bikram Yoga seemed like a good potential activity to pick-up. Frankly, I've tried regular yoga before and it's not for me...love the stretching but barely breaking a sweat makes me feel like I haven't done anything. Substitute regular yoga with a super-sweaty-get-rid-of-all-the-toxins-in-my-system-yoga (aka Bikram) and that's something I can get behind!


My friend Sondra recommended a place in Clayton that she'd gone to before. It was right next to my Sprint store, so I knew exactly where it was. We made a date for the Saturday 8am class and knocked out #7 on my list. For a morning class, there was a surprising amount of people in the room! I wasn't used to some of the house rules...no shoes or talking in the yoga room. (Much different than the aerobics classes I'm used to where lots of noise is involved.) But the instructor was great and there were people of all skill levels there, which made me feel more comfortable as a first-timer.

After 90 minutes of extreme sweating and barely being able to hold my legs and feet through postures because of my slippery grip, I survived my first Bikram Yoga class. I can honestly say that I've never sweat that much in my life. It was great! Afterward I refueled with a Peach Recovery power smoothie from the Juice & Smoothie place in the same shopping plaza. I'm not sure how often I'll have the time or be willing to pay the $18 per class, but I'm sure there'll be more Bikram Yoga in my future.

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Roll Over Beethoven

#12 - See Chuck Berry at the Duck Room....Check!

This past Wednesday I had what I consider to be a true St. Louis experience. I saw the one and only Chuck Berry live at the famous Duck Room at Blueberry Hill. In a word, it was awesome. I hope that when I'm 84 years old that I can still move and get around as well as he does! Even though Chuck could definitely hold his own, it seemed that everyone playing with him onstage was looking out for his well-being...making sure he didn't trip and that he wasn't too tired. His son even played back-up guitar for him to cover when Chuck needed a break, and reminded him of the lyrics to the remaining part of "Johnny B. Goode" after he deviated a tad from the original song (to another song he had just played). That, or maybe it was a planned re-mix. :-)



Joining me on my #12 quest were my friends Diane and Katie, as well as Katie's mom, Diane. We were lucky to get there early enough to get seats, which if you've been to the Duck Room before you know is no small feat. (It's only less than 50% seating. Mostly standing room only.) We all had a blast!

Adorned in a green sequined shirt and captain's hat, Chuck sang some of his classics...."My Ding-A-Ling", "Johnny B. Goode", and "Roll Over Beethoven". I honestly hadn't realized just how many Chuck Berry songs I actually knew. I guess I should have had higher expectations for someone credited as being a pioneer of rock n' roll music. Well, consider me properly schooled on the matter. He really could play a guitar like ringing a bell. (Go Johnny Go!)

After playing for about an hour we were close enough to see him mouth the words, "gotta go"to his bandmates. One thing I've heard that definitely seems to hold true, when Chuck's done he's done. But just because he may have been too tired to keep performing, he wasn't too tired to sign autographs for his fans. We got a spot in line and were able to exchange pleasantries and thank him for a great show. I now have Mr. Berry's signature on my ticket stub next to my sharpie-ed #12 addition. A great souvenir for a great experience checked off my list.



Thank you, Chuck Berry!

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Yowzers!

One step closer to nixing nail biting! I recently acquired an anti-bite nail polish from an awesome supporter of my 30 before 30 quest. I put it on earlier today and tested it for impact....Yowzers, is it bitter! If this doesn't get me to stop biting my nails then I'm not sure what will. The taste literally lingers for minutes, not seconds. And I have a slight tingling in my eye which suggests that I might have touched my fingernail to it while enjoying The Grammy's tonight. This is potent stuff! (Which is surprising because just smelling it you wouldn't expect such a tongue-wrenching effect.) My hope is that this nail polish will make me aware of when I tend to bite my nails...and cuticles, for that matter. Once I become aware of my bad habit, then hopefully I can train myself to focus my nervous energy elsewhere. The trick for me will be to make sure that I don't simply replace it with another bad habit (like picking at my nails) instead. Wish me luck and stay tuned for progress reports.

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Borderline Ridiculous

Hello. My name is Danielle. And I'm a plan-aholic.

While I'm not sure if that's true in every sense of my life, it's definitely true when I have a goal to achieve and failure is not an option. (Is it ever an option, really?) So as I prepare to make the rest of my twenties as action-packed and fun as humanly possible, I've spent some time creating a few tools that I hope will help me along the way.

1) The daily reminder.
This past week I formalized my list even further by printing out a hard copy, laminating it, and putting it on the wall next to my mirror in my bathroom. Naturally, I spend a lot of time there every morning getting ready, so having my "Operation 30 Before 30" list there as a daily reminder of what I've set-out to do is a good visual. I may have to keep moving it so I don't get too used to it. (Can't have it become like wallpaper.) And I'm not quite sure if I'll worry about crossing off completed items as I go since I'm sure the only way to go would be Sharpe on the lamination. I'm actually secretly hoping that it'll help me to memorize the list so that when someone says, "I'm in for #26", then I'll know they're down to dance MJ-style with me to Thriller. :-)

2) My planning "dashboard".
I almost cringe at the use of the term (as we use it at work all too frequently), but in order to be able to take as many trips as needed to accomplish my list, there'll be quite a bit of planning involved. Managing vacation days, travel, transportation, and dates of events that are beyond my control will take some effort, so I created a tracker of sorts to help distinguish which items on my list I already have a solid plan to accomplish (like the tickets I already have for Chuck Berry and Dispatch), versus which I still need to give some thought and attention (um...everything else). Even though right now the list is skewed heavily on the "not yet planned" side, I'm planning to figure out the details in the next few weeks. (Yes, planning to plan...a standard practice for me.) If you've expressed any interest in joining the fun, then I just might be bothering you soon to pull together the details.



3) A lovely Gantt chart.
Aside from my trusty Google calendar, I wanted a way to map out the potential activities on my list to make sure I not only had time to do them, but time to prepare as well. I expect this to come in most handy as I determine which marathon and triathlon to do since the preparation involved will take months, not weeks. I'm also envisioning ways I can knock off two things at once as I travel for my baseball trips. (On that note, I think I'm narrowing in on Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix, and/or Denver for my next stadiums to fulfill #1.) I can't wait!




So while I realize the amount of time I've spent creating these reminders and tools is not something many people would deem worthwhile or even necessary- I don't care. Just having the framework of a plan makes me feel one step closer to accomplishing my list. It may be borderline ridiculous, but it works for me!

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