Abbreviated Monday

I made it to the gym today, managed to do some cardio, got some pull-ups and part of the core routine before having to rush off to shower and change. An abbreviated workout is always better than no workout at all. I'm hoping to make it to the gym earlier tomorrow so I can have a less truncated routine. 

FitBit from 3 days ago

The dogs went to the park as always. Today was so much nicer, temperature and humidity-wise. Unfortunately, I'm reading about a heat dome with corn sweat complications wreaking havoc in the center of the country, which will make its way east. I confess I've never heard this term until today, so learning something new all the time, even if it's kinda scary... 

It might be 100F by Friday! We'll still go to the park; maybe I should bring an old portable tabletop fan to plug into the electric outlet inside the shed. There's an extension cord but it's not a very big fan. The malevolent deer fly are out in mass and giving the dogs a panicked run. Those fly bites really hurt! My sis swears by this lemongrass spray called Bug Soother, and she's normally as bad a mosquito magnet as I am. I ordered a spray bottle and some wipes to test out, but I remain skeptical. Picaridin and DEET seem to be the champions of insect repellents, but I'm willing to test out something recommended by personal experience. 

FitBit from 2 days ago

I'm trying to decipher my FitBit app. It tells me, rather incongruously, that my readiness scores are higher when I've had less sleep than more. That makes absolutely no sense. And what's a readiness score? Quote: A high score indicates your body is well-recovered based on sleep and heart rate. Uh, no. When I'm getting under 6 hours of sleep, I tend to drop off for a nap in the late afternoon. I don't think that means I have a great readiness score. 

I've been trying to prime myself for bed earlier than my normal nocturnal 1-2 am tendencies, cuz that makes getting up at 6:45 really hard. Ditched the chamomile tea, and especially the version with valerian root: that tea seems to give me stressful dreams. For a while, tart cherry juice before bedtime, with some magnesium glycinate and a capsule of tryptophan worked. But my natural reluctance to sleep (unless I'm totally exhausted) can overcome that combo. For the past few days, I've added the 5 mg melatonin back, and within 30 minutes I'm ready to curl up with the lights out and the sound of peepers & crickets filling the air. I wonder how long that'll last. Eventually, it'll lose effectiveness, which is a bummer. 

The sunflower seems to have made a rather dramatic recovery from the woodchuck attack. Although the stem has been broken (I can see through a huge hole to the other side) and bound up with some pink plastic ribbon, the plant has sprouted several leaves and flower buds at the very top. We're expecting an actual Moonshadow sunflower bloom any day now. It's not supposed to be a good container plant, but that's where it is now, so we'll see... 

21 July 2025 11:40-12:32

Monday — Abbrev Cardio

Pleasantly Sunny

Precor elliptical #1

Program 3

Time: 30 + 5 (5340)

Distance: 2.76

Cal: 302

Avg Hr: 140, 190-108?

New FB: 40-130

HGPU 19

20 Hip Bridges 

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

Piriformis stretches

Child’s Pose

Cat/Cow stretch 12

Child’s Pose

Fire Hydrants 25 x 2