I won’t sugar coat things.  I never gloss over the tough stuff unless it’s with a random stranger.  “How are you?” is just about the dumbest greeting you can give a random stranger because you know you’re going to get the canned response of “I’m fine. How are you?”  Seriously, how stupid is this exchange?  Often, we don’t care one bit how a random stranger in a store, the bank, or on the street is actually doing.  We’re being polite.  My primary medical doctor is a Russian lady.  She’s awesome and mostly because she doesn’t sugar coat things and just tells it like it is because I told her I wanted that.  Just tell me the honest truth even if it’s bad and we’ll deal with it, fix it, improve it; whatever it needs.

The summer sucked for me.  Today, I’m doing well.  And I’ll tell you that if you ask me.  Last week was purely awful.  And so were most of the weeks prior to that since about February when my boyfriend had spinal fusion to improve his quality of life.  My quality of life went in the toilet that day though.  I try to keep it in perspective that most of my issues are “first world problems” but much of it is just plain awful stuff. I won’t recap the wreckage of summer because it really doesn’t matter.  What matters is this week dawned a gorgeous late summer glow, the nights are now gloriously cool for sleeping, I am financially strong enough to be debt free including my house in 7 years, and I’m mostly healthy,

I have let my strength training completely fall apart.  It’s sad, really.  I love doing it but with the stress I’ve been under and other issues, I didn’t just put it on the back burner, I stuck it in a cold oven and shut the door.  On October 2nd I start a 2-day-a-week strength and nutrition program with an awesome trainer at gym near my office. That’s exciting!  In the mean time, I’m getting back in the groove with some bodyweight stuff and the suffering I’ve already experienced makes my lack of strength training obvious.

My training for the 25K Big Hill Pond Walking Tall race on October 20th in SW Tennessee has been a pile of poop.  Without failure, I will be there though.  Under-trained and smiling ear to ear.  Because, why not? Throw caution to the wind, hike the uphill, run the down hill, chug along on the flats.  I draw upon the words of Teddy Roosevelt at times like that.  I will never be a cold and timid soul.  I venture bravely into the unknown.

Next week I go on my much anticipated solo tent camping vacation to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula on Lake Superior.  I’m so excited it’s hard to focus.  Great trails to run, gorgeous views, and snuggled into a sleeping bag each night.  I learned to put the fuel tank on my little stove and light it a couple nights ago.  Nearly lost my eyebrows but I did it!  I’ll be sure to capture key moments with pictures to share and if I lose my eyebrows, I’ll capture that too.

For now, next to me at my desk is this one and I read it daily….