Catching Up

Hello and happy Tuesday to you! I feel I have some catching up to do. First off, we had a very nice weekend in Duluth. The Nancy English Memorial 5K had over 400 participants, which is pretty great. I think the scholarship program is a good cause, and I’m really glad they had such a successful event!

Personally, it wasn’t my best ever 5k. I wasn’t surprised. I haven’t been giving my all to running lately, to put it nicely. I have still been running about 30 minutes two or three times per week, but since I haven’t been feeling very well (allergies), I haven’t been pushing hard or putting in much mileage. Last year when allergies hit, I nearly abandoned exercise until the first hard frost, so it’s an improvement over last year that I’ve kept up a modest exercise schedule. For a while, as you may know, I had been setting specific exercise goals each month, then when summer came, I decided to be more casual about it. I tend to get more activity in my daily routine in the summer, so I thought I might not need the structure of a specific goal. That’s all well and good, but I realized that without structure, I do not get much strength work. I can honestly feel the change in my body, not in a good way. Without doing purposeful core work, I noticed my back beginning to get more and more sore. I have a tendency for back problems, so core strength is very important for me. (If anyone thinks exercise is all about being в