Rough week

Tuesday, I ran to work carrying my bike. Wednesday, I had a noticeable amount of shoulder discomfort, bordering on pain. Combined with knee discomfort, I decided not to exercise at all that day (except my usual stretches, strength training, and steps). On Thursday, I did my weekly brick workout in to work and it went rather well. That left me with two swims and a run for the week, but I knew I'd have to sacrifice one of them. Friday, I was getting ready to leave for a swim when I got a call in to work that lasted until the late afternoon; given that it was already dark when I went home, that torpedoed any hope of swimming that day. Now, it's early on Saturday, and I'm at work, seriously doubting that I'll get any more workouts in this week.

Ugh.

On the plus side, my new rain jacket arrived. It fits like a glove and, by God, it's a size medium. Medium; I don't think I've worn medium anything since some time in high school. Yet another motivation to keep this weight off. In fact, I'm inclined to think of this week as more of a rest week than a failure week. I also noticed yesterday that, though I had climbed at least 10 flights of stairs, my watch registered only 3. I could have gone out and climbed more, but I think this is a good first step towards giving less and less regard for what the garmin connect app has to say. It's a useful tool for measuring some things, but my measured life spreadsheet is the metric I should be using to track success and failure for that sort of thing. Badges are all fine and well, but that app doesn't know everything. For example, it claims my "fitness age" is fully eight years higher than my actual age, and that my VO2 max is abysmal. I'm inclined to think that this is due, at least in part, to me having no mechanism for telling the app that I'm carrying 50 pounds when I run.

I've also been considering my weight standards for myself. I'm pleased to be as lean as I am (around 11% body fat), and I don't want to gain a lot of fat back, but I have been increasing my strength training for some time now. I can't shed fat endlessly; right now, I'm carrying about 20 pounds of it, and I'm pretty clearly not pushing myself hard enough to lost more than 6 or 7 of those, at the most. If I want to progress in my strength training, at some point I'll have to accept additional mass.

Thanksgiving looms. I intend to cook a more or less full meal, or parts of it if (as is suspected) I eat over at someone else's home. Either way, I have a 12-pound turkey that will get roasted. I also need to get moving making crabapple jelly if I'm going to give some to my boss before she leaves.