New Beginnings

Hellow fellow wanderers ✋ Today is finally the day. I’m putting into words what I’ve been hinting at for a couple of posts now. Please bear with me because this might feel a little all over the place, but honestly, so is life right now! 😂 First off, I want to apologize for the quietness around here lately.   Balancing a full-time job with hiking hasn't been easy. Finding new, exciting spots can be tough when it feels like you've seen it all locally, and let’s be real, I'm not always in the mood or physically up for a 3+ hour drive just for a walk. But I really am trying my best to stay out there! 🚗💨 But work isn't the only hurdle that's been slowing my momentum.  There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, both challenging and exciting. Let’s dive in!
The Balancing Act 🤹 To be completely honest, it’s a culmination of different things.  Some are what you'd call "luxury problems," while others are real personal hurdles I’ve had to work through. Outside of work and hiking, I have a lot of other passions. For one, I love creative writing and worldbuilding. ✍️✨ I recently finished my very first complete story and I’m currently bringing it to life on WorldAnvil!  On top of that, I’m already plotting my second story and trying to keep up with my gaming YouTube channel. 🎮👾 I love gaming, but sitting at a screen definitely doesn't help the body. And that brings me to the tougher obstacle I've been facing. 🛑 For a while now, I’ve been feeling tired, sluggish, and physically drained. My hikes were hitting a hard limit at 15 km max. I felt stuck, like I was getting nowhere, and it really started to get me down and leave me uninspired. 📉 On longer treks, it felt like my own body was quitting on me, and I hated feeling like I was losing control.  I still loved being outside, moving through nature with my favorite music in my ears 🎧🌲, but the aftermath wasn't pretty. I'd come home to swollen knees, aching feet, and muscle cramps that kept me up all night. 😫
	Finding the Spark⚡ That’s where some amazing colleagues stepped in! I can’t quite explain what happened or how it happened, but somehow they inspired me to sign up at Basic-Fit. And without thinking too much about it... I did! 🏋️‍♀️ My two colleagues started taking me along, and I really got into it. Before long, I was going to the gym three times a week while also getting back into running. 🏃‍♀️💨 Suddenly, my weeks were packed: running twice a week, going to the gym three times a week, and cramming my weekends with writing, keeping the house in order, and doing on-call duties and emergency shifts for work. It might not sound like that much, but to me, my agenda felt completely full! And don’t get me wrong, I was having a blast. I loved working out and seeing progress in my running. At my peak, I managed to run for 20 minutes straight! 🎉 But that progress came at a cost. Once again, my body wasn’t quite cooperating with what I wanted it to do, and I injured one of my groin muscles. That made it impossible for me to keep running for months. 🩹 It was another reminder that my body wasn’t always going to do what I wanted it to do. But you know what? I did feel like my mind was getting stronger, because despite that setback, I kept going. 💪 I kept going to the gym, kept walking the trails I already knew, trying to improve my general strength and fitness. And yes, not being able to run sucked big time, especially because I felt like running was really starting to tone my body. But at the same time, I was having a lot of fun at the gym and started feeling more comfortable every time I went. 🏋️‍♀️✨
And I guess that’s where things slowly started to improve, and where the future comes in! ✨ Because I have some exciting things planned and a few ideas for expanding the blog...if I can keep this current energy going! 😅 First of all, I’ve picked up running again. I’m taking it extremely slow this time, especially since I managed to reinjure myself along the way. 🏃‍♀️ But... I’ve signed up for my very first 5K run in September! 🎉 It’s for a good cause and takes place in Arnhem: the Airborne Freedom Run. I’m honestly really nervous and a little scared, but I also see it as a stepping stone. We can only get better from there, right!? 💪 And there’s another milestone I want to share! I’ll go into much more detail about this in a separate blog post, but I recently completed the MegaWandelMarathon, where I ‘competed’ in the 21K. 🥾 It was my first time ever taking part in an official walking event like this. And sure, I was absolutely dead afterwards, especially because that 21K somehow turned into 24 km thanks to some miscalculations by the organisation. 😂 But what really encouraged me was how quickly my body recovered afterwards! And there’s more coming. On June 21st, I’ll be joining the Midzomernachtwandeling for 20 km, another charity walking event, this time in support of cancer research. 💛 So yeah... apparently we’re doing official events now. 😅
A Fresh Look for OnlineWanderer 🎨 With all these scary but exciting challenges on the horizon, it truly feels like I’m entering a brand-new chapter. It’s a new era of training, and a new era of hikes where I can hopefully push past that 15 km limit consistently! 🥾⛰️ To celebrate this new chapter, I felt the blog deserved a fresh boost too. If you’ve looked around today, you might have noticed our brand-new logo and a completely refreshed theme! 🌟 Moving forward, new blog posts will feature a dedicated "community section" and some new media. And if you look closely at upcoming posts, I will be adding trail videos! 📹 So if you want to virtually walk the paths with me, you’ll be able to! Over the coming months, I plan to re-hike some of my favorite old routes just to add video updates for you all. 👣 Finally... there might be a podcast in the works! 🎙️ I absolutely love talking about walking, gear, and the outdoors. But I want to know: what do you want to hear? Would you like gear reviews and deep dives, or should I stick purely to hiking stories? 🤔 Please let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you! 💬 Thank you all for sticking with me through the messy phases and the quiet moments. Until next time... Happy Wandering! 👋