Football Epilogue

Going through some old photos at my folks I came across this gem. 8th grade football squad. Can you find me? The transition from July to August starts bringing dreams of two-a-days and thoughts that I could still play.... #TBT

Music is one of my great motivators. To mix things up a little, here's one of my cardio favorites (yes, I'm a child of the '90s)

I've been tired, very tired. Oddly, I find myself wide awake around 6 am, but then the tiredness happens when I opt to roll over and go back to sleep leaving my groggy on my second awakening. There's a lot of stressful stuff going on lately though so I shouldn't be too self-deprecating. I know I mentioned I didn't get a morning run in. Fortunately, I hit the gym last night after I got back to town and put in a 5K on the treadmill and did some lifting: pull-ups (4 sets of 7-10reps), bench press (3 sets of 20reps), biceps curls supersetted with overhead press (3 sets of 10reps) and some triceps dips on the bench (3 sets of 10reps.). Feeling good, but potentially sore tonight/tomorrow.

I'm in Chicago. I was wide awake at 6 am. I hopped out of bed to go for a run in the park across the street. I got "runner ready" which for me means teeth brushed, drink some water, splash some more on my face and get dressed. I was all dolled up to put in a 5K and then realized I DIDN'T PACK MY RUNNING SHOES. This is ironic as I've been accused of bringing more shoes on trips than many more style minded (women) do; from dress shoes to sandals to running shoes, most all in the name of functionality. I was hasty in packing light this time. Oh well, it was a 10 minute walk from my hotel to my conference. I guess that will have to do, although I might have to start recognizing training shoes as acceptible dress with slacks and a tie...

It's been a little while since my last post. Life has been busy. I did however get to spend a week in Barcelona in that time. It was an amazing trip where I now joke with my colleagues that my flat rental there starts in October. From a health perspective, big cities typically mean one thing: lots of walking. Barca has the added feature of being very hot, >100F during the day with a noticeable amount of humidity. With so much to see and do it was worth getting sweaty to see the architecture, walk la rambla and visit the beach. With a conference going on as well there was limited time for food. Spanish portions...along with portions most everywhere else in the world are smaller than at home. Alcohol consumption in the evenings made up for it. This was the first time in a long time I found myself notably dehydrated. After a day or two I found carrying a bottle of water to be essential. There is a lot of orange juice consumed there which was especially refreshing when served wi...