Back in the US, and despite not having really slept since Tuesday morning (or maybe because I didn't? my family usually makes me sleep too much...) I'm feeling both awesome and more or less in the right timezone. I'll be taking tonight as a jetlag crash night and plan to sleep in 8 minutes (when it's midnight) and sleep heavily for quite some time (more-than-6-hours) but from lots of prior experience and a decent gauge on how I'm feeling now, I think that's probably all I'm going to need.

This week and next will be gorgeous. Still some hills to climb - plenty to do - but I plan on taking it at a nice, loping pace with occasional sprints. There'll be downtime between worksprints; I'm in Chicago at my parents' now and therefore have a piano to play, and there's a library nearby, and my little brother's going to be around, and I have a car. Muahahaha. So yeah. Nice easy pace, sprinting, rests... it'll be a nice rhythm to fall into, even for a short time (~10 days).

On the less metaphorical front, I decided I could probably stand to give an actual running schedule a shot. (I'm skipping to week 3 since that sounds the most like what I do when I randomly run around). I'll try it this week and next and see how I like following a set routine. I've been way less active the past few months (too much sitting at my computer, not enough running around) and would like my muscle tone back now, please... (not that I had much to begin with). I haven't got a good rhythm or well-developed strategies for staying in shape yet, but as long as I keep on paying attention to it, there'll be momentum in that area that will go somewhere, and I learn what works by doing things that don't. (At least that's what I keep telling myself.) Physical awareness (including awareness of the stuff that isn't so great) is a nifty thing to gain.

Ok! I made it past midnight! Time to sleep.