Hot

It has been miserably hot here as of late.  The heat index yesterday topped 100 and the actual temperature for Saturday is supposed to be almost 97.  As such, any kind of actual physical exertion outside has been a stretch.  Every night I look over at my work out gear carefully laid out so I can get up, dressed and out the door without too much fuss.  And every morning I wake up, stick a hand out the back door, and realize that even at 5:10 in the morning, it's already disgusting.  Not wanting to be completely lazy and not wanting to be scrambling come August to get into some kind of passable condition, I've been taking an indoor approach to things.

It's a walk I'm planning to do, and while that goes largely to my legs, core strength is important too.  Instead of killing myself in the insufferable heat and humidity, my core has been the focus this week.  I've been doing lots of sit ups, leg lifts, and plank exercises.  I'm trying to get stronger all around so I can go farther, and go faster.  It's funny - as much as I have strong ab muscles and as much as my back is in decent shape too, even the addition of five or ten more sit ups to what I had been doing is making a difference.  And anyone who says that plank exercises don't work cannot be doing them right. 

I do wish it would cool off some as I'm really wanting to get striding, but until I feel like I can reasonably be outside for a long period of time without collapsing into a pile of much, I'll keep to short distances and to getting in all around better shape.