I've been back to the gym each of the last 4 days, but before then I'd been on a very long drought--hadn't been in about a month, and haven't been regularly in at least 2. It's been reminding me of why I love it--I do enjoy the lifting, and breaking a sweat via exercise legitimately makes me feel goo. It's also been reminding me of the bits I hate--the extreme soreness the first few days back (the difference between no chest pain and extreme chest pain the last 2 days has been the difference between holding my arms up almost to shoulder height vs. holding them up to shoulder height), and particularly the early mornings. Five a.m. just sucks; there's no two ways about it. I'm heartily hoping that my fall schedule will allow me to spend a much saner hour of the day in the gym.

Another thing that's been annoying about all of that is that for some reason, having my alarm set for 5 a.m. makes me spend half the night waking up and going back to sleep. I've had very fitful sleep for two straight nights now, and a third tonight wouldn't surprise me. Combine that with the fact that we're working somewhat long hours again this week, and it makes for one tired Joe.