Clever Fox Planner!
It arrived! My new planner for 2026, the Clever Fox Planner Pro. I think I’m really going to like it! Here are the highlights: As you can see, it’s undated. I didn’t initially want that, but it will be fine- I can fill in the dates. And there are a lot of planning and goal pages as well: It also comes with an instruction booklet… Actually, I’m pretty sure I can figure it out on my own! And- I probably won’t use all these pages exactly the way they’re intended. Right now I carry around a much smaller planner and a couple notebooks- I think with all these extra pages, I can just use the planner and not need extra notebooks. There’s plenty of room to write everything I need in the planner. 2026 could be my best, most organized, and most intentional year ever! (Or-I could end up neglecting half the planner and have a ton of empty pages at the end of the year. No, no! That won’t happen). I can’t wait to get started- once we get into the new year, I’ll check back in and show how I’m using this planner. Do you use a paper planner? Do you have one for 2026 yet?
Tuesday Topics- Black Friday!
What do you do on Black Friday? I… go to work. It’s one of my least favorite days to work, to be honest. I COULD take the day off- but then I wouldn’t get paid, and, there are other people at work who have young kids and need the day off for travel, so I don’t feel right about taking off just because I don’t feel like working (don’t worry though- I’m taking Boxing Day off this year, and I’m excited about that!) Since it’s a work day for me, I don’t usually do any shopping on Black Friday. I’m not opposed to it- I know some people consider Black Friday a “buy nothing” day. I’ll buy something if I want to, but there are other days I’m more likely to do my shopping. Let’s pretend for a moment that I DIDN’T have to work on Black Friday. I would sleep in, then get up, make a big cup of Earl Grey tea and get out the pumpkin pie (yes- pie for breakfast. Obviously). Then I would do some online shopping, starting with… AbeBooks. I usually get my Christmas Book Flood books from Amazon, but this year I’m going to shop from used bookstores. I recently got three books from Abe- they were used, but in perfect condition, and I paid a total of $14 for all three (including shipping). Another great site is thriftbooks. I could happily spend a morning browsing through both sites. Fitness-wise, I do most of my shopping at REI. Their holiday sale starts November 14th. I need running shoes! And shorts, socks, and new gels… luckily I earn rewards points every time I shop there. If you want a great guide to Black Friday shopping, check out Jenn’s post today! Follow her advice and you will be shopping like a pro. Do you like to shop on Black Friday? Link Up With Tuesday Topics Welcome back to Tuesday Topics, as Jenny, from Runners Fly joins Jenn at Runs With Pugs to co-host this link-up! Please join us every week for a new topic! Write on our weekly prompt or choose your own topic! Make sure to add your post to the link up, link back to your hosts, and comment on the other shared posts! Next week’s topic: Holiday Gift Guide for Runners. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter Top photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash
A Demerit, and Two Gold Stars
I’ve mentioned that as soon as I get into my house, I put on pajamas (my “daytime” pajamas, not to be confused with the pajamas I sleep in at night). On Friday evening, I had to pick my daughter up from her friend’s house. Since I didn’t plan to get out of the car, I didn’t bother to change out of my pajamas. Well. As I was driving, I realized I desperately needed gas. Oh well- I can pump gas in my pajamas. I mean, it’s dark, no one will really notice. But when I got to the gas station, all the pumps were CASH ONLY, which meant… I had to go inside to pay. Crap! I tried to act confident, as if this were a fashion choice rather than a horrible mistake. My daughter said “I guess anything can look good if you wear it with confidence.” Really? I looked good? I doubt it. Anyway! As Gretchen Rubin would say, take us up with a gold star! First, I’m giving myself a gold star for going through the Christmas wrapping paper. It was one of those nagging tasks that really didn’t take long, once I got started. A bonus gold star goes to the cats! There was SO MUCH DRAMA when Foxy first came to live with us- and now look at them: And here they are again- Muffin kept getting annoyed that Foxy was putting his feet on her, but not annoyed enough to leave. Even Charlotte is tolerating the situation! Do you have any recent wardrobe demerits? Have you done any Christmas prep yet? Top photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash
Weekly Rundown- Just the Usual Ups and Downs
Hey there! Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by Kim and Deborah (thanks, ladies!) Also a big thank you to San for being our fearless NaBloPoMo leader! I had a pretty great week- well, there was one little snafu, but I mean… I’m me, so it’s to be expected. Let’s just see how it all played out… Sunday 15 mile long run on my favorite trail. Most of this run felt great- I had a low point at mile 12, but got a second wind and finished feeling strong. Hooray! Monday I woke up feeling good- a little soreness in my quads, but nothing major. I started the morning with Adriene’s yoga for lower back pain.. Then, I was at work and suddenly out of nowhere, my foot started to hurt. It was one of the craziest things that’s ever happened to me (and I’ve had some crazy things.) One moment my foot was fine, the next moment there was a very distinct pain. It was like my body said “What? Nothing hurts? Let’s fix that.” It’s always something. Tuesday Yep, my foot still hurts. I started the morning with Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout., and then, grudgingly, went to the gym and got in 45 minutes of cardio, the hard way… Wednesday Leg day at the gym, plus hip stability exercises! Here I am at the squat rack, as usual. Thursday Okay, let’s try running. 4 miles, and the whole time I was thinking, “Do I feel my foot? Is that pain, or is it my imagination?” Finally I told myself that if I couldn’t tell if it hurt or not, it’s probably fine. At night I did yoga for lower back pain again. Friday Caroline Girvan abs workout, and then upper body strength. And, yoga for lower back pain at night. Saturday It was a double workout day! In the morning I got out for a 5 mile run… … and later in the day, my daughter was going to the gym so I went as well and got in another lower body workout. When I go to the gym in the morning, it’s so crowded. Luckily there are eight squat racks so I always get one, but there are people on either side of me. If I try to take a video I feel like a jackass. It was less crowded on Saturday afternoon so I got a rare action shot! By the way, if you’re looking at my running photos and thinking, “it looks kind of warm there” you’d be right. I’m not loving 88 degrees in November… but you can see we have a cool front on the way! Sunday On tap for today… yoga! Other than that, a day off. From now on, I’m on a 10-day cycle for my long runs, so the next one will be Wednesday. How was your week? Would you trade your weather for 88 degrees?