Spring Break

Sis had knee surgery again last week and timed it so she would recover during spring break. Spring break is also when South By Southwest hits Austin and now that I don’t live there anymore, this is one of my favorite times to go there. The energy is high and there’s lots of people coming out and getting to experience first hand what a great place it really is. Mom and Dad were out to help with her recovery too, which was really rather minimal after the first few days. We spent time talking, shopping and relaxing. I even also managed to squeeze in 3 workouts at her top of the line gym (thanks to Mom's early wake up calls and excellent workout partnering skills) so I was pleased as punch. Of course coming back was not so nice. The return flight is always the hardest part. We take off and I'm looking out the window, watching as we leave this lush, green rolling hill country and two hours later, we land in the dusty, dry desert. Not exactly a terrific trade off but certainly we had a great time as usual and our appreciation for “home” grew just a bit more with each tasty bite of Tex-Mex.


...and that one naughty but nice, deliciously decadent cupcake.

Boot Camp

As some of you may know, I did a month long boot camp fitness program these last few weeks. It involved a lot of running and interval-style cross training. I did it three times a week for an hour at 5:30 in the morning. The first day was totally brutal and I wanted to die (right after I caught my breath that is). I’m under the impression that running should be reserved for life or death situations only so needless to say I was questioning the whole thing when the first words out of her mouth were “Let’s start with a short lap.” I struggled through that lap and most all other things we did that day. The first week I could hardly move my arms, bending or extending them was painful since they were so sore and I'd cough and wheeze for hours after class. Eventually, however, my endurance and strength started to improve and I didn’t totally dread it anymore. In fact, I did the unthinkable and signed up for another month that began today.

I'm happy to report that while it was certainly hard, I noticed a huge difference between this session's first day and last session's first day. I'm feeling pretty good about this whole thing now and would recommend this type of fitness class to anyone considering it.