Woke up really stuffed up this morning. I had signed up for outdoor yoga at the Y but think I need to cancel that and just stay close to home.

I'm the webmaster for our local cycling club and have been working with the president to launch a virtual century that will take place September 12-20. Personally, I'm not a big fan of this trend toward virtual rides but the reception has been positive and we had nearly 20 people sign up in the first hour. I went ahead and signed up. The club is somewhat hurting financially since we had to cancel our main fundraising event due to Covid-19. This might help raise some much needed cash.

It's a shiny new month! Hello September, one of my favorite months since I love fall.

I've been walking in the mornings, using Strava to record, and saw that there's a Walking Challenge on Strava now. You have to walk for 15 hours in the month. I can definitely make that work.

Our trip to Hermann, MO is on the 18th-20 this month and I'm far from being in bike shape for those hills. It's probably not too late to have a climbing heavy block, followed by a recovery week. Hills are hard to come by around here so Zwift may have to suffice for some rides.

I got in our new hot tub yesterday afternoon for the first time and have to say that yes, it is wonderful!

I'm a day behind on 80 Day Obsession --- it's too much on my legs to try to do long rides AND these workouts on the same day. My legs were sore after Friday's leg workout and I felt it on Saturday. I might have to add more rest days and extend the program past 80 days.

My now-oldest cat, Ollie, who is 13 and somewhat vision impaired, has gotten very clingy since we lost BeeBee. He keeps wandering around the basement crying and wanting me to go down there with him. Since the basement is where BeeBee spent her days, I'm guessing that he's looking for her. It's only been 3 weeks so hopefully this resolves eventually. It's pretty disruptive, as he's a very large and thus, very loud cat.

AFTERNOON UPDATE
Feels like I'm coming down with something. My stomach was unhappy this morning but I'm struggling to decide if it was just something I ate. My throat is scratchy and became more so as the morning passed. I was in the office early but decided I better get home since we're not supposed to be in there if we are sick. Took my temp when I got home and if anything, it's too low, so not a fever. My brother's family have all been dealing with late summer colds so maybe that's what this is. Either way, I'm taking it easy.

Our ride on Saturday was great --- it was good to see Barb, Joe and Brenda. We explored some new roads and revisited some old favorites. Had popsicles at the campground afterwards that really hit the spot. It had cooled down a little bit (still in the 80s but humidity was lower) and it's really starting to look and feel like fall is just around the corner. Purple asters and small yellow sunflowers are blooming everywhere in the ditches, and the corn and bean fields are drying up.

Dinner at Coopers Hawk was wonderful. We sat outside and enjoyed the nice evening. Had waaayy too much food and brought enough home for another meal. I don't drink much these days and had two glasses of wine. This morning I've got just the slightest touch of a headache.

On tap for today is a 45 mile ride with Brenda and a new-to-gravel-riding girl, Lane. Lane borrowed someone's CX bike and is wanting to get her own gravel rig. She did IMMOO a few years back but was a one-and-done person (like me) and now just runs.

Heading out to Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Park for a group gravel ride, we're headed west toward the town of Virginia and exploring some new roads. There are a couple of very old (circa 1830) churches out that way that are still in use and I'd like to take some pics.

Then tonight we have reservations at Coopers Hawk (sitting outdoors). Hopefully the cooldown that is predicted really happens.

Steve's DD and her family spent much of Thursday with us --- their a/c (heat pump) went belly up on Wednesday and it looks like parts won't be available for several weeks, thanks to Covid. They managed to borrow a couple of window units for the duration.

Big fun stuff today --- our hot tub will be delivered this morning! We had a landscape company build a patio (stone pavers) in the back yard and they finished up yesterday. It looks so nice that I almost don't like the idea of covering much of it up with a hot tub.

In the process of building a walkway to the new patio, most of the landscaping along that part of the house was sacrificed. I can't say I'm sad, it was a lot of day lilies and purple salvia which had all gotten very sparse and scraggly and needed to be divided up. The landscapers saved me from having to do that. Thinking we'll just put some kind of shrub in there with a ground cover.

Found a gravel race that's taking place in Sumner, Missouri, which is about a 3 hour drive. It's on the same day as the now-cancelled Little Sugar, which we were signed up to ride. It looks like a good event and gives me something to train for.

Today will be 80DO, maybe some yoga and most likely more Zwifting. It's still supposed to be crazy hot and humid here --- I'm really ready for some fall temps.