It is so damn odd to have Sports Boy here during the month of July! I have felt so disoriented. Every summer for the past five (six? seven?) years he has hopped on a plane to Sweden pretty much within a week of school ending. Sometimes the very next morning. He would return the last weekend in July because pop warner football practices would be starting Aug 1. Even though he started high school last year, he still went on his trip because he could get away with missing the summer weights program as an incoming freshman. The next three years? Not so much. As a JV or Varsity player you had better participate. There is a mandatory No Contact period for two weeks beginning the week of the 25th before two a day practices start so football families are expected to plan their vacations accordingly. This year he is saving the Sweden trip for Christmas. It will be his first winter over there and while I will most likely whine about it, I have also known for three years that he would go there this year. Great grandma turns 90 at the end of December and yeah, he needs to be there for that.

So this summer has been a whole new experience. Weight training 4 days a week. Passing league (since he is a wide receiver) for a couple of hours after weight training two of those days. Sometimes the passing league is away at another school so they can compete in a touch football style game. That means driving since there are no buses taking them anywhere over the summer. Then he has his dog sitting job providing him with a little spending money which has been just perfect. The house is around the corner from mine and once we gave them his football schedule they have inserted a few hours every week for him to give their new puppy a break from the crate while they are at work. We opened a teen bank account for him this week so that he can deposit the checks he is getting and I’m sure it will be fun teaching him cash management!

Then there is my fitness routine. No longer is it an after work for an hour class thing. Now it is me finding time to run – often in the morning no less! It just makes sense in the summer to go out before work. No school drop off to rush to and it is a much more pleasant temperature. I can get in a good 30-40 minute run and still get into work by 8am without too much effort other than actually getting OUT of bed when I wake up vs lounging around with the cats watching TV until 7am Since I am trying to run 3-4 times a week that means at least one or two morning outings. The other times I usually join our teammates on their training runs. This week I did intervals for the first time. That was interesting! You try to run faster for intervals of 5,4,3,2 and then 1 minute with short 1.5 minute rests in between to get your heart rate down. I kept it still fairly slow the first 3 intervals but then I really tried to keep up with Eve on the 2 minute one and I ran flat out with her on the last one. My heart rate shot up to 184 at the end and I was starting to get a bit fuzzy vision but it was pretty fun! The good thing is that my recovery was no problem. No soreness or pain anywhere after.

I’ve also started helping out a friend on a business idea which means me doing more writing. Which cracks me up to no end! Me? I *hate* writing! Well, yeah, but I also hate running and well..see the paragraph above. Apparently I need to be careful about what I declare that I hate because sure enough, that will be the next thing the universe puts in front of me that I just cannot avoid. On the other hand, in just about 20 minutes I’ve written over 700 words for this blog post so – I guess it’s not so bad eh? So if I can find a way to make a little extra $ then I am on it. Plus, it’s pretty interesting and fun. That’s the best right? When you can do something that sparks your imagination and interest?

That’s the first half of my summer so far – how is yours going?