Lots on tap today

If it (a walk) is to be, it's up to me. And it had better happen earlier, because later is booked.

I have an appointment this morning at 10:45 followed by a lunch meeting at 12:30, after which I will pick up a few groceries and come home to do laundry, make dinner and then leave for my volunteer gig at the prison.

The walk will begin at 7 a.m., fog or no fog. It's really foggy this morning, pea-soup foggy, LONDON foggy. (I've never been to London, but I'm thinking they didn't create an entire brand of outerwear called London Fog for no good reason.) I really, really, really don't like walking when it's this foggy.

But I shall.

Yesterday I finished Week 2, Day 1 of Cto5K. The number of interval sets was reduced from 8 to 6 and each interval was 30 seconds longer. Which would have worked out fine if not for the hills. It's so much easier to walk out my door and start walking than it is to drive to a flatter route. Until I'm supposed to run up a hill.

I couldn't do a couple of them. I ran when I could – and y'all know that the word "run" should really be "jog," right? – and walked when I couldn't.

No matter. Progress is being made, even though it truly doesn't look like it from the results.

Working my training sessions into a longer walk works well for me. I walked/jogged for about 2.25 miles before I started the warm-up walk. There's no way to work it out so that all the running intervals are downhill, though. Too. Many. Hills. Once I was done with the training, I had 2.3 miles to go to get home, and I ran jogged as much of it as I could, including the entire last mile.

So that was fun. Heh.

Then I worked in the herb bed weed patch off and on for the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon. The bed is a circle divided into eighths, and I was able to clean the weeds out of three slices.

Here's a handy tip if you ever decide to plant lemon balm: Put it in a bed all by itself.

The only thing I use lemon balm for is iced tea. I tie a large handful of leaves in a piece of cheesecloth and add it to the water, along with regular tea bags, when I make sun tea. It adds a light lemony flavor that is very refreshing.

Lemon balm, like mint, spreads like crazy. So does oregano. Or marjoram, whichever one I have planted out there. So does comfrey, I'm told, but this is my first year for it, so maybe I'll be able to keep it under control, since I know what to expect.

At any rate, three-eighths of the herb bed looks pretty darned good. I'm working my way around to the hard part, which is an entire slice of cilantro which is going to seed. I want to keep it going – I didn't have to buy cilantro plants or plant seeds this spring – but really? There's enough cilantro out there to stock a salsa kitchen. Or there was, it's pretty much dried up now.

Okay, that's it for now. I have 12 minutes to finish my coffee, get dressed and go swimming in air, which is what I call walking in fog. Have a great Tuesday!