Halfway is better than nothing

I only made it halfway through my vacation before the treats crept back in. And then the floodgates opened. OK, it could have been worse, but still, it wasn't pretty.

We're going home today, and that is a good thing. I need my familiar environment to get focused, and you know what? I'm very excited about what the new year is going to bring, even though I know it's going to involve some learning and growing in ways that are sure to be uncomfortable at times.

So, my conclusion? Halfway through the holidays before meltdown was a good thing. OK, so things went downhill after the Jelly Belly factory visit. Lesson learned. Let's move on.

***

I am still not the same person I was 4 years ago. I love to racewalk. I love exercise of any kind, actually. That was never true before, and it surely is now. On Monday I decided to push my luck and racewalked for an hour. I didn't have any pain, though my IT band did get a little tight and I stopped 3x to stretch it. Later in the day I had some soreness, after sitting in the car a lot (we drove to visit some friends in another town). Other than that, I was OK.

Because of the soreness, I decided a little more rest was in order. So yesterday I biked with my brother on the "landfill route". Um, yeah, that didn't sound like a very nice route. However, the trip from his house, past the landfill, down road 105, and back to his house was quite scenic. It was a bit foggy as we started but it was patchy fog, so there were bits of sun along the way. We biked past what seemed like endless farmland, with cows, alfalfa growing (yes, even in winter stuff grows here!), horses, farmhouses, you name it. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed some great conversation. I wish we lived closer. Anyway, we did 11 miles in about 42 minutes, and his bike computer said we did 15.7 miles per hour on average. Not bad considering that I was riding a mountain bike with some serious gear issues (it needs a tune-up!). My heart rate was about 140-145 most of the time. Perfect :).

Today I'm taking the day off. We need to leave in 30 min to drive home, so no time to work out. If I'm in the mood when I get home I *might* do something, but I'm leaning towards a rest day for my leg.