I have a niece in Rockville Md and she works in DC. I sent her an email but haven't heard back. I'm sure she's fine, but I bet her cats didn't like it either.

Lydia, I enjoyed your note about the rope. That is a wonderful feeling to develop a new skill. When I was watching the Crossfit contest, I enjoyed watching people wrap the rope around their legs. i've never done that.

I'll do my best with the rest, but I'm not giving up the tap dancing or the line dancing either. I don't think that's the problem

Nelie: Oh the CATS! You know they say that our pets can sense disturbances before we are aware of them. My tigress was outside when it was happening. Wonder where she was poor kitty.

Rhonda: Oh I hope you can continue to dance!

RE: Kettelbells: I was too but they're not too complicated. They are great because every muscle in your body has to work together to stablize the weight as you swing it forward and up with momentum. The deadlifts are good, windmills, swings, one-arm swings, snatch pull and press, etc. I used to roll my eyes and think it was just another fitness 'fad' but not so - I can attest that they do indeed work. And you work up quite a sweat too; I do three 10-minute circuits and I'm breathing pretty hard. Thanks for the warm welcome also.

P.S. I have two mini-me's too: my boys are 9 and 6 and my older one goes jogging with me. Love having them on-board with exercising.

Three ten minutes...that's thirty minutes...that's great! I'll work my way up to that. Right now, I'm more concerned with form and not hitting myself on the head.

How wonderful that your sons run with you. When I began working out I discovered I valued it as time for me. This summer I have put them through a few circuits and taught them basic lifting skills which was very interesting. Right now, its all about just keeping it fun for them.

Today I did wall balls for the first time at our Crossfit box. 50 of them. Then 50 burpees and 50 double unders. My burpees were a struggle. The first 25 felt like I was never going to see daylight outside the box again. I had to just keep plugging through. Double unders...I opted for 100 singles and then worked on the double unders as a skill when I was done. Meh. One day...one day...I will get that rope to continuously turn twice.

I've been doing a body weight circuit that I found on Youtube called: Crazy 8. What a workout, definitely not what I remember PE class in high school being like.

It goes like this:

60 jumping jacks
20 push ups
walking lunges - 20 steps
wall squats - 60 seconds
front plank - 60 seconds
spiderman climb - 20 on each side
5 burpees
50 high knees - 25 each side

Zero rest between exercises then a full minute b/t each circuit, repeat 3 times. The first time I could only do it twice, I felt so out-of-shape but the other day I actually completed the circuit all three times. It takes exactly 30 minutes and it takes no equipment and hardly any floor space to execute the exercises. It's killer! I was feeling it for days but I love it, lol.

This is a nice circuit and certainly one that could be modified for the younger guys. It's been raining on and off frequently so this is a good option for indoors too.

The above circuit is one that I plan to implement over the winter b/c I live in a state that gets tons of snow so my outdoor running will have to be put on hold until next April. To look at it on paper, it doesn't seem like much but halfway through the first circuit, you realize that body weight exercises are no laughing matter. My older son was winded after the first ten minutes...bless his heart for doing it with me.

And I recently did a front and side plank for 2 minutes after months of being stuck at thirty seconds. My abs were achy for three days..but in a good way.

I just wish my upper body matched my cardiovascular endurance, lol. I'm toned but not very muscular. I like to call my arms: 'Tori Spelling arms'. I keep working at it but it's tough being an ectomorph, we don't gain muscle very easy. In the bodybuilding circles, they call us 'hardgainers'...now I know why. Oh well.

Rain?

Snow?

What are those?

50+ days over 100F

Rhonda: I wish we could send some of that rain to you. I was up all night last night during the storm. Fortunately the worst is just some downed branches, lots of leaves, and the power flickered twice. I haven't been outside our neighborhood yet so it could be a different story beyond my street.

It's been a few days since my last workout and I'm really feeling crummy. Today's probably going to be a game of pick up sticks once the wind dies down a little more.

Well, we would appreciate some rain, for sure. We have cloud cover but no rain. The temperature was 110 at 6PM on Friday night and it hasn't been much better since then. I don't have the nerve to look at the forecast.

You have my sympathy about feeling crummy. I have intentionally not done any lower body work for 10 days and I really feel it. I had acupuncture on my knee on Saturday and I believe that the swelling is going down. I'm going to have 4-6 sessions, and not do any LB exercise until the swelling is gone.

Tomorrow is the end of my 4 weeks of no lower body work. It has been very difficult. The swelling in my knee is down, and I've also had acupuncture which is helping.

I'll begin with body weight squats and the treadmill.

In the meantime, I've done a lot of UB work. Can do 55 pounds with seated overhead press now, and it's not easy.

Rhonda: Great news that the swelling is finally healing. Please let us know how the squats go and be careful.

I'm still doing Crossfit a few days a week and working in my own stuff in between. Its a good mix. I get to learn from some excellent coaching and then apply it later during my off workouts. While the workouts are really tough I'm am seeing improvements in strength that surprise me. Since June I've added two reps to my dead hang pullup...this is significant because I've been trying to do this on my own for over a year. I also completed 5 sets of 10 overhead presses at a weight that I would have struggled with a year ago. All good things.

That's great, Lydia, good for you.

I struggle to get 55 pounds on the OH press, 3 sets of 10. I think I could add another couple of pounds and will work on that.

But, tomorrow, I'm going on a cruise for a week, up the NE coast and into Canada. I'll try not to undo all my good work

Rhonda - I'm glad that your knee is better!

Lydia - great job with the crossfit!