Despite sore muscles, Brian and I worked out in the garage again today. Same strength training stuff; crunches, push ups, planks, lunges. After three sets of each, we took a short jog, very short, only a half mile.

We walked out to the main road and Brian said, “I want you to jog all the way to N____” which is around three blocks away. He said I had to run the whole way without stopping. A big problem I have is with confidence, and giving up because A) I can, and B) I don’t believe I can push myself.

So we started to run. This was about a four-minute jog. Halfway through I definitely felt like stopping. This was the point when a personal trainer comes in handy. But I don’t have that, so I conjured one in my head.

Like Jillian from the Biggest Loser! Who sometimes resembles Paula Abdul.

Anyway, I heard this inner voice saying (yelling), don’t give up, don’t be a quitter, you know you can finish this, challenge yourself! etc etc motorvational ass-kicking kinds of things. And I ran the whole way to where Brian was already waiting for me. I was very out of breath, but I was proud of myself.

Speaking of challenges, my latest knitting project is a pair of ribbed fingerless gloves, which are knit in the round on a frame of four needles. For me, very complicated. Luckily gloves are small and if I keep at it, I may even finish before the end of the month. They are going to be incredibly cute. I am knitting them on a variegated baby alpaca yarn in an array of autumn colors — cream, yellow, brown, burgundy, dark green.