Wow- this was a long week. i can’t believe I just got back from Texas a week ago! It took me a couple days to get my footing again after my trip; my daughter started high school; and I answered the question once and for all: Which is hotter, Florida or Texas? Read on for details!
Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting.
Sunday
I REALLY didn’t feel like running today! I was tired from traveling the day before, and in order to make up some hours, I had crazily agreed to be at work at 9 am (grumble, grumble.) I slept as late as I could, then got out for 3 miles before work. As always, running made everything better.
Monday
It had been a week since I was at the gym (the hotel gym with two dumbbells just didn’t cut it.) I had a good leg day, including squats and deadlifts.
Tuesday
Hmmm, doing squats again after just one week off made me REALLY sore. I got out for a 3 mile run, and decided morning runs in Florida are officially harder than Texas. It’s around 80 degrees at 7 am in both places, but the humidity put the heat index at 90 for this run. Texas is drier so the heat index is lower EARLY IN THE MORNING. But as the day progresses, the heat index in Texas surpasses ours, even with our humidity. Also, we have a good chance of getting some rain in the late afternoon, which helps a little. In Texas once the sun is up there’s no hope- it’s just going to bake you until sunset. I asked my son if it ever rains, and he had to think about that, but said spring seems to be their rainy season.
Wednesday
Okay, I’m finally starting to feel back to normal. 4 treadmill miles at the gym with hill repeats! Since regular speed work always seems to hurt my shin (grr) I’m going to do hills once a week instead. It gives me the same cardio workout, but always feels good on my legs.
Thursday
Back to the gym. I realized the way my week was panning out, I had to do a full body workout today. Squats, benchpress, lat pulldowns, calf raises (always), abs and low back. I’ve been doing abs consistently and I think it’s making my stomach look even worse. Of all the muscles to get bigger, of course it would be my abs. Sigh!
This was also a big day- my daughter’s first day of high school! She dyed her hair turquoise for the occasion. She doesn’t like her picture on the internet, but I say, what’s the point of having turquoise hair and a septum piercing if you don’t want everyone to see it?
Friday
Traffic is SO BAD the first week of school. What should have been a 15 minute trip to school took 40 minutes. As I said in this post, with my new schedule I’ll be doing my workouts after I take my daughter to school. By the time I was running, it was much later than I wanted and I was worried about the heat- but I was fine! Go figure. 4 miles and I still felt good at the end.
And, very exciting- the Dolphins first pre-season game was tonight! Football season is here!
Saturday
Off! I like making Saturday my day off because I can sleep in a little before going to work.
Sunday
On tap- a longer run, 7-8 miles. My “summer of strength” will soon be at an end. In September I’ll still be going to the gym, of course, but I’ll start pivoting the emphasis to longer runs. According to the rudimentary training plan I’ve concocted, my long run should be 10 miles at the beginning of September.
Overall it was a good week! It’s always hard to start a new schedule- my daughter had to shift her wakeup time, oh, about four hours earlier than her summer schedule. But she did well! I think we’re off to a fine start.
Has school started where you are?
Are you starting to think about football and fall? Or are you still in “summer mode?”
46 Responses
School starts after Labor Day.
I’m in summer mode. Thinking about fall means less daylight. Boo.
I like my long run on Saturday. I get it done and can relax on Sunday.
Yes, I like everything about fall except the darker mornings. I’m already noticing the sun is rising later!
Nice work in the gym this week! I hope you keep up with some of it even as you up your running. I always feel like my strength training is like injury protection from running.
I’ve been busy doing school physicals–school starts this week for a lot of kids around here! It seems so early to me. This is the first year that I don’t have anyone starting school (except for 2020, when my son took a gap year due to the pandemic). I can’t believe I’m done with that. I’m driving up to Madison today to help him move to Chicago. I feel oddly sad that this part of life has come to an end. But excited for him to live with his brother.
I will DEFINITELY keep going to the gym, no matter what. I absolutely need the strength training.
Every transition is hard! Having kids in college is one phase, then having them out on their own is another. Good luck with it.
What a great week of workouts! And I love your daughter’s hair. That is a stunning shade of turquoise. My kid would LOVE to have hair that color. Maybe in a few years.
School hasn’t started here yet but I have been watching Quarterback on Netflix and it has me excited for football. I love fall but I do wish summer would linger a bit.
Yes, I don’t think I would have let my daughter dye her hair when she was 10!
I think school here starts REALLY early. August 10th is definitely still summer, but it doesn’t feel like it now (well, not psychologically at least- it’s certainly still plenty hot here,)
I was never a late morning sleeper (my brother was). How do they do that? Wow on the turquoise hair!
If you want humidity in TX, go to Houston & the coast. It’s awful there. And yes, it rains, but it’s either drought or flooding.
Good job figuring out what works for you for the speed work (aka hill repeats). I actually do like them (on real hills, which we have in spades) — but not so much in Summer!
Actually, I DON’T want humidity in TX! The dryer heat was bad enough.
I would definitely do hill repeats on real hills if we had any.
Nice work in and out of the gym this week. It always takes me a few days after vacay to get back in my rhythm too. It’s definitely hot there and in Texas! Stay cool friend. Hope your daughter weathered her first week of HS ok 🙂
Starting school on a Thursday is so civilized! They only had two days and then the weekend. I think they should always do it like this.
Hope both of your kiddos have a great school year! The turquoise hair is pretty! You’re so right about hotel gyms. Most of them basically suck. Nice work!
Thank you Marcia! And I hope your daughter enjoys her senior year.
Up here in MA, my girl doesn’t start school until the day after Labor Day (it’s wild), so we are in that part of summer where I simultaneously want to savor the camp chaos, birthday excitement, and family vacation prep AND find myself longing for school and routine. Congrats on a great first week!
I grew up in Illinois and we always started after Labor Day. August 10th is just so, so early. But we get done with school by the end of May, so we still had a long summer.
Good job getting back on track after being away! School has not started here! Paul doesn’t start until 9/7!! The Kindergartens start 2 days after everyone else to give them a shorter week. But pretty much every in Mn goes back after Labor Day. I think it’s because summer is so short and the resort industry (which is pretty big since we have lots of lakes!) really needs those late summer weeks!
We are still in summer mode since we still have about a month before the return to school. But Paul and I are going shopping for school supplies today which I am SO EXCITED about! Ha! I will be ready for fall soon, though. I just have to hold onto the summer vibes as long as I can because it is such a short season for us!! We watched the QB documentary on Netflix so that got me in the mood for football season!!
I grew up in Illinois and we always started after Labor Day. August 10th is just so, so early. But we get done with school by the end of May, so we still had a long summer. I was thinking about you as I was buying school supplies this week- I do NOT enjoy it like you do!
It is rough starting a new schedule, but it sounds like your week went well.
Most schools start after Labor Day around here. Since I live in a school neighborhood I have to make sure I leave before school starts and get home either well before or after it lets out to avoid the carpool line backups!
Yes! The elementary school is very close to our house, so I have to make sure to avoid that route during school dropoff/pickup.
Tell your daughter that a random woman in Canada likes her hair! But not just the colour, I really like the texture and style. I wonder if it’s naturally that wavy or if she uses a flat iron or curling iron to get those waves? Anyway, from what I can see it’s really cute and I also like her outfit.
School starts after Labour Day here, but my son moves onto campus on the 25th for the “jump start” orientation week for new students. Very exciting around here!
Traffic was always a nightmare at pickup/ drop off times around our schools; people jaywalking and dodging cars with small children, people parked in the bus zones, people stopped in intersections…I thought it would get better after elementary, but it got progressively worse.
My daughter’s hair is naturally curly! Well, it’s kind of a combo between wavy/curly- sometimes she uses a curl enhancer and it looks really good.
We actually have police lurking around our school zones during dropoff/pickup, so people are pretty well behaved!
We were just talking about back-to-school stuff on our group run yesterday. Barb and I didn’t do much of the talking, LOL. Although that was always an exciting time of year, I really don’t miss it. For me, it was always sad to see summer winding down. At least now, with no one in any kind of academic setting, I can pretend summer is still going strong.
I hear you. When I lived up north, I HATED to see summer end.
Her hair looks wonderful! Such early school starts for kids these days! My birthday is mid-August and I was never in school before my birthday! Is it that schools are required to get more hours now or do they also get out really early (our school would generally run until the last week of May/first week of June)? Why is it so different?
I should probably go for a run today because it’s in the 70s and mostly cloudy and whenever we get cooler days in the summer, I always think of you and how you brave super hot weather to run. But chances are pretty good that I won’t go for a run because I’m not as motivated as you are. LOL.
Ha ha… yes, I would kill for 70s right now!
I don’t know why we start so early. I’ve never heard a proper explanation. We got out pretty early this year- summer vacation is usually 10 weeks long.
Cool hair! The kids haven’t gone back to school here yet, it will be in September, university in late Sept/early Oct.
Oh wow, university starts late! I know my son starts college August 21st.
We started Thursday. We carpool so I’m on Monday mornings, and then Tues-Fri afternoons. So far, afternoons are fine, but I know the mornings have been rough. We are also short 50+ bus drivers in our district, so some routes have been dropped, some leave the kids, and some are just crazy late. It’s a mess.
Love your daughter’s hair!
Hope she has a great year.
And be safe. I have finally given up trying to run for the moment. It’s just not safe in this.
Yes, I’m a little concerned that I have to start ramping up my long runs, and it’s still going to be hot here for a couple more months. I’ll have to get out my ice hat again!
I wish we had a carpool! You are lucky.
We start school in a week and a half and I’m not ready yet! I am not ready for the early mornings and busy evenings and afternoons. Hope your daughter has a great year!! Love the hair!
Thank you Melissa! It’s a LOT easier for me with just one kid to deal with! But I agree- it does make things way more busy.
We don’t start school until after Labour Day so it just feels shocking that other kids are already back! One blog I read mentioned their kids starting July 31st! Wow! But, we also finish much later in the spring. This year, my kids literally went until the very last day of June.
Congrats on settling into routines and for a great week of workouts <3
Yes, your kids are on a MUCH later schedule. But July 31st??? That’s just plain wrong.
Nice gym sessions! And you know that I marvel at how you Florida runners make it with that humidity! Are you dialing back on strength to start training for something?
I hope the start of high school goes smoothly. I can’t believe we’re a couple of weeks away from my high schooler’s senior year. Time goes by too fast!
Oh yes- time is definitely going by WAY too fast.
Somehow I crazily registered for a 50 mile race (gulp) in February. I’ll start the training for it in September!
That looks like a good week of running and lifting! And I think you look great, there’s absolutely nothing bad-looking with your abs! Be proud of your ab muscles!
How you describe the heat in Texas during the days reminds me of Italian cities in the summer. There’s this suffocating heat and nowhere to escape from it (except shops with AC). Being baked is a great way to put it.
I hope you had a good long run today!
Thank you Susanne! My run was a little hot, but good.
I appreciate your vote of abs confidence- I still wish my stomach could be a LITTLE flatter. But it is what it is.
Someone in my house is going to have a rude awakening next week when he has to shift from getting up in the afternoon to getting to school by 7. But hey, he’ll figure it out. As for me, I’m in big time denial about the end of summer. Not until after Labor Day…
Yep, that was my daughter. We didn’t even ease into it- she went from sleeping until 10 or 11 to suddenly getting up at 5:45. This is the type of thing that only works when you’re young.
We were out of town so we missed the Commanders’ first pre-season game. I can’t wait for college football, but we’ll probably have another tough season with recruiting having been a bit blah the last couple of years with the coaching turnover. It’s still too hot to think about decorating for fall, but once the mornings start to cool I’ll be all in!
I don’t worry too much about preseason results (the Dolphins lost last weekend.) My sister said the Bears won every preseason game and then only won three regular games all season!
It’ll be hot here till November- but I’ll decorate for fall anyway.
Great week, Jenny. You got right back to it 😉
It’s still very much summer over here btw and I felt very much seen when you talked about TX… it’s the same here in the Central Valley: once the sun is up, you get backed until sunset (LOL) and we usually don’t get rain in the summer at all).
Turquoise hair! Now, I never pulled that off, but I love that your daughter expresses herself in that way. 😛
Yes, I did think of you. That dry heat is intense!
You’re doing great running in the FL heat and humidity! We definitely have the heat here in AZ and this is actually typically our rainy season but we don’t get storms daily and the humidity has been 40-50% in the mornings which probably seems low for you but is very humid for us lizards lol.
The long runs are the hardest to adjust to in the heat. I was so excited to sign up for my second ultra in the fall after finishing my first in April and taking a couple down months but now I’ve been having to do my long runs in the heat and questioning my life choices! Hopefully by the time your long runs get really long, it’ll be at least a bit cooler there.
The school district I work for started August 3, and lots of school districts in AZ actually start in July for some reason!
Ack! School starting in July is just wrong.
Yes, 40-50% humidity would be low for us, at least this time of year. But after being in TX I know how hot it is for you, and 50% humidity doesn’t help. What is the ultra you’re doing in the fall? Most of the ultras in FL are in the winter, for obvious reasons. I’m REALLY glad I didn’t have to do long runs through the summer.
Seriously, your daughter’s hair is amazing. But her schedule is not – who on earth thinks that it’s a good idea to make the high schoolers start earlier than the elementary school kids? We know they need more sleep. Argh. Sorry. But I’m glad she got up!
And I hope the traffic and the heat abate for you. Both miserable things. 😛
Yes! Having teenagers get up at 5:30 is like making them get up in the middle of the night. How is that good for their brain development??? No one likes this. But thanks for the hair compliment!