Few More Miles on the AT - Jarrard Gap to Neel Gap (Over Blood Mountain)

 Since we bailed on the Georgia section a few years ago, we've been meaning to get back but never really got it together. The stars finally aligned on 5-25, so we carpooled to Jarrard Gap and picked up right where we exited the trail last time. We wanted a light day and to still feel human at the end, so we just made the almost 6 mile trek over Blood Mountain to Neel Gap in about 2.5 hours. That means we spent almost 3 times as long driving as hiking, but it was good to make some forward progress again.

Another week down

 Rough week, but the streak is still intact -- 33 days with a 300 calorie workout of 30 minutes or more. If there was going to be a weekend to miss it, it was this weekend. Started off Friday night with an impromptu round trip to Nashville after work. With the time change in my favor, before heading home I was able to fit in a 30 minute run/walk at Centennial Park while it was still Friday in Nashville. 

Work Saturday ended up running over, then a great meet up with some friends from high school, so when I made it to the Greenway and it was raining, I wanted to wuss out, but ended up having a great soggy ride in the dark

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Today, I was close to having 100 miles on the bike for the month, so started out with a 12 mile goal, and ended up making it 20. Longest time I've spent in the saddle in a really long time. July bike total: 107.5

The rest of the week was a really long time ago, so I'm fuzzy on the details. 

July Stats though: 79 workouts, average time each: 32:03; 21,697 total active calorie burn. 107.5 miles on the bike, 72 miles run/walk. The number of workouts is skewed high because one workout may include 3 different activities by Apple standards, but it's been the best active month I've had in quite a while. 

Still Alive

 Heckuva week.. Battling kidney stones and it's the first week of teachers in the building at school, but the streak's still alive. Today was day 27 of a daily workout 30 minutes or longer with a calorie burn greater than 300. 

A couple of wins...

No Walk 5K on Saturday - 37:33 is the new time to beat

Walk run 5K today - 44:18.... unstructured intervals with the runs at a run pace instead of my normal molasses pace, and it felt good and I didn't feel dead afterwards

Hanging out with the boy and the dog 

   

  

Lunch break respite to the greenway and gym

 Lunch break workout has been very helpful this time of year. I’m working on trying to take at least one picture during my activity to exercise my mindfulness while I’m out there. Wins today - ran about a mile without stopping… getting closer to finding a comfortable and maintainable pace. 

Late lunch break walk/run/walk/gym

The win for today - running 1.25 miles non-stop. Slow as molasses and mostly into the wind, but no walkie-walkie. Busy day at work, so no lunch break workout till 2:45, but by 2:45 this was a necessary excursion!

 Gym was empty by 3:00, so nice quiet time in the AC to round out the sesssion.

Does swimming home from work count as a workout?

The bike (and I'm guessing the dog walk) are rained out for today, but I made it to the Greenway and the gym over lunch. 

The main greenway highlight was running a half mile nonstop. I've hit a mile on the treadmill a few times in the past few months, but half mile on terra firma, up the hills and into the wind, is a victory.  The other highlight is seeing some goal progress. My incredibly low-tech motivation was setting a goal at the end of June to complete 100 days with workouts that are both at least 30 minutes long and burn at least 300 active calories by the end of the year. Today was the 20% point of meeting the goal. 

 

Sunday Funday

 

Morning ride and walk from behind Dick’s to Clayton and back; evening walk in the woods with Myers and Hope

The hardest spot on the greenway right here… shortly past here is where you start to smell Lee’s chicken 😍

Work Day Saturday!

If I'm going to die on the greenway, it's going to be at the picturesque spot above right under College Ave, and it's going to be at the hands of a band of crazy cyclists. 

Session 1:

Started with 5K run/walk. Beat my 5K time from last week by about 4 minutes.... I contribute the improvement to being able to do more running and walking than recovering on mile 3 this time. 

After the 3.1, I hit the Steel Room open gym, and once again had it all to myself. I am not at home in the gym AT ALL in general, so being alone gives me time to take my time and quadruple check form without feeling like I'm as much of a goober, so I threw in more barbell work than normal. I MAY have been a little toasty, so the AC vent became my new best friend, and I scheduled rests around whenever it would kick on. Wrapped up with a full set of sanitizing everything I touched and re-racking all the weights :)

  

 

Session 2:

I hate sitting still, and with Jodie in quarantine time at home is a lot of sitting still. Quick 30 minutes on the bike on the greenway helped remedy that.

 

Summary:

 

Reward at the end of the rainbow: 

 

Friday lunch break and after work walk

Lunch time walk/run on the greenway and workout at the Steel Room; after work walk at Jarvis Park with Myers and Hope.