I need to stop kicking my ass when I work out. What almost always happens is I set the treadmill timer for 20 minutes, I turn the thing on to 6.5 miles per hour, and then I'm so out of breath and in pain that there's still at least 5 minutes left when I have to start cooling down. If I were smart I'd find a speed I could sustain and then sit there for 20 minutes - or even 30 or something.

Maintaining that heart rate is so much more important than winning some imaginary race. It's just that for a week or so - at the end of the only month in my life when I had the time, energy, and inclination to work out almost daily - I could do 2.5 miles in 25 minutes, and ever since then that's been the standard I try to meet. Except, of course, I haven't managed it in a month. But from now on... I'm going to be smart and work on maintaining a heart rate instead of trying to meet some standard that's clearly outside my capabilities at the moment.

And now, I need to go work my ass off in a more figurative sense. I've got two homework assignments due tomorrow that I absolutely need to get a good grade on. Shit.