Progress...Slow but Sure

It's hard to get back into shape once you've slipped a bit.

I am slowly making progress in consistency and length of workouts. My hamstring seems to be tolerating things well. I ran 2 1/2 hours on Sunday and felt great. I felt like I could keep going forever. Monday I ran in the pool for an hour and followed that with a 1000 meter swim, and later ran on land for about a half hour.

Today I ran for an hour and threw an 8:24 mile in there, to see what the hamstring would do if I picked up the pace beyond my ultra plodding gait. No problem with the hamstring, but that 8:24 was a hard effort! I know it will come back, but it was a killer today!

I'm just working on my own stuff, spending lots of time in the woman cave and with the girls, who are happy to have their mom at home more often. I do have a few shifts scheduled over the next two weeks. I'll be going to Arizona for a few days at the end of the month to visit my dad and stepmom, and work on some marketing ideas. The business website and logo are coming along. I have a photo shoot this week for website pictures and marketing materials. I've got some great supportive friends helping me with that.

Iris is keeping me out of trouble. She minds my daily schedule, she tells me when it's time to take a break and go for a walk or play frisbee.

Isabelle has decided she is my new boss. She sits in the woman cave making sure I do my work, and she stares me down. She's a micromanager, she needs to know everything I'm doing at all times. It's not enough to keep the water bowl full in the woman cave, I have to give her reports every few hours on my progress.

I'm lucky to have two Australian Shepherds, otherwise I'd be lost.

The only excitement I have to report is last week when I filled the hot tub and turned it on. It started to go through the priming process, but then something happened and smoke started coming out from under the side panel. I shut the power off. It smelled like electrical/burnt plastic smoke. I think it's finally dead, it's been trying to die and we kept reviving it. I think we put more money into that hot tub than anything else we've done in the house.

Just more incentive for me to work hard. I'll miss that hot tub.