Heating Up

Okay kids, summer’s here, school’s out, and the weather is definitely heating up…and so is my training. Last Sunday, I put in a “quick” 6 miles in the morning before church. Then I did a little “cross-training” – behind my lawn mower! There’s nothing like working up a good sweat to get all the nasty stuff out of the body. Some like it hot and I’m one of ‘em. Good thing, too, since it stayed hot all week.

I walked three times during the during the work week, on my lunch hour with a couple of guys from the office. I don’t believe we’ve ever actually measured the distance, but it usually comes to an hour, give or take a few minutes. We walk pretty fast and don’t take any breaks for such silliness as stretching or resting. Since two of my walking partners are over six feet tall with a stride to match, I’m guessing we put in at least 3.5 miles on our almost-daily outings. In any case, it's been great to be able to do some weekday training, without having to find a way to squeeze it in before work (yuck, getting up early) or in the evening (always plenty of household stuff to do).

Tuesday, I saw my breast cancer survivor friend Stacey – she’s been healthy for more than three years and is doing great. She works in a hair salon and has cut my hair for over 13 years (actually, 17 if you count the years when I lived in other parts of the country and only saw her when I came home for Christmas). I’d offer more detail about our conversation, but it’s a little like going to Vegas…what happens between us, stays between us. I know, it’s rather odd for a salon whose primary customer base consists of gossipy women to allow secrets to be kept. Then again, Stacey always has marched to the beat of a different drummer.

As for the rest of the week, there was more heat and more walking – including a 7+ mile stroll on Saturday morning. One highlight of the week was going to the Twins-Braves baseball game on Thursday night with my dad…and several hundred co-workers. My company bought a block of tickets as part of a promotion with the Twins, so we went. We had a great time, although the game was rather frustrating for eight innings, as the Twins couldn’t do much of anything against the Braves’ starting pitcher. But in the ninth inning, the Twins rallied for a come-from-behind 3-2 victory. Yeah, baby!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be at it again tomorrow; I’m planning on walking another 6+ miles in the warm and steamy morning sunshine, followed by some cross-training in the afternoon – running around the backyard, chasing my two nieces.

Happy (early) Father’s Day!