Football Epilogue

 Motivation has been tough to come by lately. The mix of a busy schedule plus Covid wearyness/fatigue really has me unmotivated on the workout front. Most of my activity has come from helping with my daughter's fastpitch softball practice or working on my basement remodel project. With fall getting under way I'm also encountering some allergy/mild asthma symptoms. The blowings from the west coast wildfires are also not helping things. Last year at this time you would have found me coaching and running around with my son's middle school-aged football team. While I wasn't getting the workout the kids were, there was plenty of sweating and moving around to be had. My son is now in the high school program, he seems to be really enjoying the practices so far, despite being modified for Covid19 safety. Fortunately, I'm able to find windows of time here and there and even remember to bring my gym bag. Yesterday, I decided to go for a run around the little lake between work...

 I've finally been getting back on the proverbial horse and doing some cardio. I surprised myself last night by completing my basic upper body workout  and followed it up with the 3.3 mile run. I was originally thinking of skipping cardio. I was tired and rather hungry. Mentally I had skipped it even as I got in my car to head home from the gym, but something pulled me to the nearby lake. Maybe it was my low step count on the day or just feeling like I could put in some overtime work. Still I got out there and agreed with myself, "just one lap, very slow pace". I can usually start with that, but for some reason my legs like to find their own pace after a while. I felt really good by the end of the lap, as though there was some extra energy tucked away. Seeing I still needed a couple thousand steps, I decided to do a partial "there and back" lap to get me to 10K steps. By the end I noticed the lack of food had caught up with me.

So I've been attempting this "run two miles everyday come hell or high water" thing over the last month. I'm getting in 4 to 6 runs in per week on average and it has made for a good routine. The run takes me anywhere from 21 to 28 minutes depending on how I'm feeling. Honestly, slower gives me more time sweating and huffing and puffing. I think I'm starting to see some progress in way of the bath scale. I was weary of stepping on the scale this morning after not being on it for at least a week. To my surprise though I have broken a threshold and can safely say I've dropped 10ish pounds since starting the routine. I'm feeling some relief over it as I've found something that I can be fairly persistent at and is showing results Go Joe! I have a little travel and such coming up, hopefully I'll be able to keep up the momentum. Another challenge is that I'm noticing the days are getting shorter and soon, the weather will be getting colde...

I've been feeling the need to get more cardio. Honestly, part of it has to do with going to Iron Maiden with a friend who "runs 4 to 5 miles every day". So, ok, time for me to saddle up and get moving as I see room for improvement in my workout.  I'm not looking to compete, but instead felt more motivated. Thanks, Old Top! The nice part about living in the land of 10k lakes is that there area a lot of little lakes with paths around them. Thus, for the last couple weeks I've been packing a small bag of workout clothes, changing at the end of the work day and taking a jog around Mt. Normandale Lake pictured above.  I don't typically feel the need to run a marathon so something between 1.5 miles and 4 miles feels perfect. This lake has an excellent path with just enough elevation variation to have to kick into small hill gear and a second lap (which I'm already starting to do) doesn't feel entirely daunting. There are enough shiny happy peopl...

It's difficult to fathom that 15 years have gone by since the 9/11 attacks. It was a moment of shock and chaos in what had been a quiet life until then. It was also a time of understanding and an end of innocence for the Generation X and Y crowds and predating the millenials, but not without changing their world. While growing up I recall the multitude of people who would say that they remembered exactly where they were when president Kennedy was assassinated. My grandparents remembering where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Such memory was an interesting concept to me. Historical events happened all the time, so why would you remember where you were when these events happened. September 11, 2001 changed that perspective. You recall such events because they change who you are and who we are as a people. They become times to unite and to get remember that we are of the "land of the free and the home of the brave". That is we are free and we are brave and what we ...