Daily Success May 8 scored a shocking Outstanding.

Why shocking? Well, at dinner time, I was hoping to avoid “Failed.” Post dinner, I dragged myself across the (minimum) finish line on Upper Body and Core Strength. Then I struggled to get “one more mile” on the treadmill. Those two desperate measures avoided disaster. Then I looked at the work I’ve been doing on the website and found that two major posts (FAQ-06 and Ruminations on Exercise-00 Introduction) were ready to click “publish” with minimal added effort.

Bingo. Outstanding. Finally getting credit for a lot of behind the scenes work.

All that noted, yesterday was really defined by exhaustion. A look back at my tracking workbook shows that the last three weeks have had only one day on which I failed to do a pair of my strength exercises. Walking / hiking distance has been consistently good with the five day “calories burned” moving average having stayed above 500 for last month with the exception of minor dips on four days. The backpack has been added, albeit at Camino weight rather than training weight.

I simply needed a day off. Badly. And my scoring system does not allow for that. Some thinking is required, as a rest day should – well, must – have a reasonable score when there is little choice. I take days off from hiking in Spain when my body demands it and training should mimic that.

A hopeful side effect is that my weight appears to be dropping slightly at the same time that my strength, as measured by the weights and TheraBands I use for specific exercises, is increasing.

But that is all in the rear-view mirror. Today is a new day and requires a new effort to achieve another Outstanding score. The weather today looks good. It’s time to finish this post, get done with my stretches, have breakfast, and go for a training hike.