Today I feel like...somewhere in the vicinity of the Smashing Pumpkins' Stand Inside Your Love and Terry Crews doing this:

YouTube Link

I feel good, though my cardio regimen...has really made it possible for so much needed recovery! Yeah, this cold weather needs to pass, though officially, it is another Alaska belt buckle day.

So, yeah, I can't implement my daily walking that I've been doing—NO Starbucks, Yell! or St. Elmo's Fire. I've already hit my daily steps goal before noon. In fact, just today here on the 15th, I earned a 300,000 steps badge for the month of January from Garmin.

I slept in to 3:15 AM, because of a misconfigured alarm. My tardiness neither hampered my lifting session for my back nor kept me from adding new content to my morning:

1. A 15-point, bumper-to-bumper inspection of stretching;
2. a grab bag of agility

While I envision more, for now as promised, my fitness form (media content yanked to optimize site), a Google Sheet rendered to PDF, inspired by the DND 5E character sheet.

As there's no lifting on Saturday, I added the extra hour to my recovery regimen which is critical to this—well, both feet. Neither shoes nor concrete are kind to them. At a 21℉ windchill, it would be on the fringes of what I'm comfortable to thrive on with my typical combination of a workout thermal, short-sleeved compression shirt, and 94% polyester t-shirt guarding my core.

As I look ahead to this week's weather, it's going to give me the opportunity to hone my strength workout and add a couple of other foci that adopt from my history with taekwondo, karate, yoga, etc. Body movement! I'm starting to think that my mid-December push to incorporate line dancing and Napolean Dynamite for 2024 wasn't that far off—gotta get those steps in:

Music's got me feeling so free
We're gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance so free
One more time

-Daft Punk, One More Time

Violence
Speed
Momеntum
Domination

-VHS Glitch, In the Midnight

This morning's walk @4:15 AM had a truckload of promise: 59℉ with a persistent wind just fit organically into my Thundercast persona. Is this the mornings that will follow? Is this spring 2024?

As I walked, the wind swirled around me. I felt the draw of the miles that lay ahead. I recognized that this morning was special. The temperatures will drop tonight and begin their descent into the teens and single digits this upcoming week. But, this is a special moment in time. While I have been training at a windchill factor in the 20s, I don't know if I have the appropriate gear for anything below that—I could very well have to shelve my outdoor approach for a week.

But alas, I only put 2 miles in. I've had the fortune to experience specific pain from across both feet—you name it: top, bottom, inner, outer—but, I've just walked it off. But today was different. The midfoot sole of my right foot had the occasional hot surge that even now makes me get lost in it.

Clearly, the attrition of achieving and exceedingly by a large margin for 20-going-on-21 days straight has come a'callin'.

Sitting here with my leg propped up, this predicament irritates me. I've settled into a good rhythm and lovin' the routine. I am building a body I have never possessed. And BAM—this zinging pain, the kind of thing that has happened time and again, those times sidelineing for months–is this the setback?

Do I pull out the crutches again? Is the momentum fumbled away? Is it over? Am I gone? Is 2024 just another wasted year?

No, as it has been sung, "When I'm gone, I'm never really gone." I hope this foot thing is a passing gimmick, just a brief scenic tour off the main road. As to my 2024, nothing has changed. By year end, Heads Will Roll.