Spring Break - routine breaker...

[Photos: a nice sun set from the back yard as seen over my roof, my peanut butter cookie maker expanding to doughnuts (quite tasty unfortunately), same sun set out front.]

Spring Break, when all the kids are home and not in school, is a time of mixed up routines and broken schedules. Now in my family, I like routine more than the rest, so the others are probably just fine. For me the late nights rolls over to late mornings; late nights often lead to undisciplined eating close to bed time; missing my morning exercise; and other 'changes' as well.

Strength Training
So this week, week 20, I missed my Monday routine. It was actually the first time in 20 weeks (some may be saying after 20 weeks you 'should' miss one). So, Tuesday morning (late) I did a combined Monday and Tuesday routine; also something I've not done before. Excluding the warm-up time, it took 82 minutes: kind of a long workout with the weights. I certainly had some 'tight' muscles when I was finished. No real steps forward, just maintaining previous weights and repetitions.

Wednesdays core day was also missed. Last week I attempted it by myself but was having an achy back, so I stopped. This week there was just no time (probably over slept due to being up late). So this was the second week of not getting this workout with my wife - hopefully we can get this back next week.

Thursday is my heavy bench routine and I changed it a bit this week due to last weeks improvements. I used to do the bar, then put on 45's, then I'd start the 'work' sets and put on multiple 10 lb weights, take them off and put on 25's, ... kind of a hassle due to not wanting to jump to big from the warm ups to the work. But, now I am adding the 25's after the 45's: what that means is my first set is now 185 instead of 175. So, the new sets were: 185, 205, 225, 245 and 250 with 8, 8, 4, 1 and 1 repetitions respectively. I've gotten rid of a couple of the intermediate sets and added another single rep set at 250. The rest of the routine is about the same as before, but I did bump the triceps sets up by 10 lbs.

Running
This week, even with the broken schedule, the running time with my wife is still very high on my priority list and we've been able to get both 2 mile runs in and are planning on getting the 3 mile today. This will only be her second time running 3 miles, so we'll see how it goes. My main goal is to be an encourager to help her accomplish what she wants when she may think she can't.

For myself I've been trying to get in 1 longer run a week and was able to do that at the dam - 8 miles. The Garmin says it was at an 8:14 avg pace. That's fine with me.
Cycling
None. There is a ride on Sat that I was wanting to do, but it conflicts with the afternoon and evening plans. That's kind of a bummer for me. Last year I was zero on the weights by now and 110% on the bike. This year it's different: different goals, motivations, ... very different.

Life
A current struggle of mine: letting people make their own choices; want what they want and not what I want them to want - when those choices directly affect me. These are obvious things to say and very difficult things to do - when you really have to let others choose to like you, to be with you, or even 'want' to be with you. Many friendships and relationships seem to be in this place right now. It's a challenging balance to not pull back and to still let others exercise their own will - even after they've filled up at your table and now move on with out investing back to the level that I would want. It's very much a sense of rejection that has to be dealt with properly and timely.

It goes back to that difficult word "unconditional". I can't think of an easy application of it: unconditional love, unconditional friendship, ... It's a challenging standard to live by - and I continue to be challenged by it, deeply!

I'm meeting with two other men and going through the "Seven Pillars of Health" book. I've done this before with a men's group and a mixed group and each time it's a neat time of learning and applying; but mostly it a time of encouraging. Encouraging each other to seek out the truth and put it into practice in our lives; to be willing to see ourselves honestly and be wiling to make changes. It's a 7 week journey that's main challenge is to apply what you learn and let it impact your daily life.