Turkey Trot this AM 10k 1:01:04 (by my watch)
...unfortunately, celebrated with a pumpkin pie tart

Sznn, I feel for you. Pumpkin-flavored seasonal offerings are a potential weakness of mine. Pumpkin roll, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cookies studded with golden raisins, etc. You get the picture.

All, thanks for the good wishes on my trip, and believe it or not, I was thinking of the 3FC chicks each day, because you all would have relished that the whole thing was one big NSV -- from how well I fit on a crowded airplane seat, to my bringing my own salad & fruit onboard for the long flight, to all the activities that I was able to engage in each day. Truly, this was a great big payoff for all those times when I wonder if all my time & effort & sweat & turning down of delicious things is worth it. It is. It really is.

Paperclippy, yes, I'd call this a Yosemite-like experience, as Animal Planet actually ran a special on Yosemite during the course of the trip, and it was strange to have seen some of those very animals earlier in the afternoon & then to watch them on a TV program. No geysers, though. Just mountains. Isn't it extraordinary that we have these parks?

Jay, camping at Glacier must be a wonderful experience, although somewhat unnerving in the sections much frequented by bears. Our encounter with the female grizzly & cubs was mediated by our parked car & a bit of distance between us & her. She was eating berries of some kind, right next to an access road. There was no more hiking that day, after that sighting. In fact, we really re-thought the whole hiking thing, or at least, what terrain we were going to choose to hike through. I liked going back to the bear-free resort in the evening.

Today, back to work, the day after my long flight, & drinking coffee. I'd call myself slightly jet-lagged. Still ...

Monday, Oct. 11: 60 minutes stationery bike, resistance at 8, about 14.5 miles
45 minutes Pilates routine

And now I must get to the grocery store & pick up some good foods, or I will eat junk from tiredness. (Now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.) I find the days right after these trips are a little precarious. I need to fight a bit to re-establish my routine.

Tuesday, October 12:
5 mile treadmill run
~59 minutes

I really didn't feel like going to the gym this morning, and it gave me a bad feeling. My exercise tends to be phase-ish. I'll run a lot, and then get burned out, and then stop, usually for months. I am not willing to do that this time. I think it is time to mix it up -- start the NRLW, try some new classes at the gym, something to rekindle my interest! Or maybe I was just tired -- I stayed up too late last night.And since I've recently gone decaf, not even this will help me!

Oct 12: miscellaneous gym stuff as follows...
- 15-20 minutes of yoga
- 3x10 squats, no weight
- 10 bulgarian split squats, each leg, no weight (I tried to do them with my back foot on a swiss ball, but just fell over!)
- some inner thigh leg exercises
- karate kicks, 10 forward, 10 side, 10 back each leg
- ballet leg lifts, 10 forward, 10 side, 10 back each leg

Oct. 11: none

Oct. 12: 40 minutes running

Totals:
9 days
405 minutes

Oct 13: ran 20:30, 1.66 miles with doggeh, plus warmup/cooldown walks

Tuesday, Oct. 12: 45 minutes spin class
60 minutes weights

Since getting home from my trip, all I've done for two days is work & go to the gym & get home past 9 p.m., eat & collapse into bed. I don't like living this way. My workload has to let up soon.

Saef, I've long felt the push to get ready for vacation plus the extra work to recover almost makes it not worth it. Hope your work eases up soon!

Jessica, I think I am going to start NRLW next week. How many times to people have to say "strength training" before I listen? I can't wait to say I'm doing "bulgarian split squats." I think.

October 13
3.75 mile run with stroller
42 minutes

Wednesday, Oct. 13: 30 minutes Abs Express class, the one where we do aerobics moves
45 minutes spin class

AmytheSame, you & I think alike about vacations. I plan them with good intentions, then start dreading the trip, because of how hard it is to attain "escape velocity" from my job & all the annoyance of actual travel. (I'm thinking I've been on more comfortable Greyhound buses or even schoolbuses than United Airlines economy-class cabins.) Then I come back & have to look at more than 300 e-mails that piled up during my absence. And then, WHOMP! work hits hard again & I have to run alongside the train to catch up. (To get "up to speed" as the telling cliche we use at work says.) It's just accelerating further now because our working year ends in November.

Exercise helps with the stress, but I have to remind myself of that. Tonight I made the mistake of going home & eating dinner before going to the gym, because I was ravenous & thought I'd be light-headed if I didn't eat. I almost stayed home. Almost. I'm glad I didn't.

Oct. 13: 65 minutes spin class

Totals:
10 days
470 minutes

Thursday, Oct. 14: 60 minutes elliptical, half backward, resistance at 8, and the small of my back was sore afterward & required some stretching & rolling on. So my form was somehow "off."
60 minutes Pilates class, after 10 minutes rowing for warm-up.

TM: 10 mins warming up
Rower: 10 intervals, 200m, 30 sec rest
X-trainer: 15 mins
Yoga and stretching: 20 mins

All good. I've seen the chiro who tells me I no longer have any inflammation in the rotator cuff, it's all tension in the traps and rhomboid. I'll keep on stretching and icing.

saef - commiserations on ridiculous amounts of work. Credit where credit's due for getting back into the exercise groove.

Amy - you'll love being a weight lifter!

Friday, Oct. 15: 15:06 minutes rowing on Concept II, resistance dropped to 5, 36 s/m, 2922 meters, 2:35.2 for 500
45 minutes weight training
45 minutes arc trainer, resistance at 8, hill intervals

It's so dark & chilly in the mornings now. I'm resisting my animal instincts, which are telling me sleep later, eat more & conserve energy against the approaching winter. (That would translate to: Eat more & move less. Start storing fat. NO I WILL NOT. Resist, resist, resist.)

Silver, so glad to hear that your rotator cuff is out of the danger zone, and that you're left with dealing with residual stiffness in the surrounding muscles. I'm taking this to mean you've got a good method of communication with your body (i.e, it talks to you sometimes at family dinners & tells you how its day went) & that you have cared for it well over the past few weeks.

My body isn't speaking to me these days because it's not getting enough sleep. So it gets back at me by making me waver in & out of consciousness at my keyboard sometime between 3 PM & 4 PM. I'll wake from a one-minute nap to find myself pitched forward with my chin on my chest & a spot of drool on my blouse or sweater. I'm waiting for someone to come around the corner into my rather privately situated cubicle at the office & find me that way. I will not look like an optimal performer at that moment.

Oct 14: 18 min Pilates video workout.

Doing exercise videos at home is always an adventure. The dog doesn't get what I'm doing. He's like, "she's on the floor, that must mean she wants to play/pet me!" So I'm doing this Pilates video, trying to do The Hundred, and the dog is sniffing in my face and trying to stick his head under my hands so I'll pet him.

Saef - my bod and I are on pretty good terms. We sing from the same hymn sheet, especially with regard to rest. Physical tiredness reverberates in my brain and brain fag has a physical expression. The difficulties come when there isn't the time or space to rest safely. (But this evening I broadcast to you from bed, having given up the ghost almost entirely. It was a legs day and rest is the priority. I urge you to give it a go. Optimal performance may result!)

Today was the end of my 6 week gymn programme. A three-way split in lifting (back & biceps, chest & triceps, legs); two days of cardio intervals; yoga & stretching on the five days . Active rest at the weekend. That was the plan. Some of you will remember the rotator cuff niggles earlier on which made me rethink things. I got some of our firewood cut and stacked for winter: good cardio and a full body workout. An average of two days a week at the gymn. I'm pleased that I kept going despite difficulties.

My new programme is four weeks of full body workout (weights), three days a week; two days of slightly different cardio intervals; yoga & stretching on the five days; and active rest at the weekend. Let's see how things go.

Jessica - thanks for the laugh! Good for Carter, being so keen.