While traveling in Spain, I was not able to fit in much exercise or yoga practices. The week before leaving and all the prep work required that I ease off on my practice and running. So it's been about three weeks since I've really pushed my body out of its comfort zone. Today, I went out at lunch time to run on the Mall on my own. I felt good for the first 15 minutes, but then I began to notice how hard it was becoming, a queasy feeling in my stomach, a heaviness in my legs and a tightness in my breath. The sun was bearing down like a klieg light and I relished every spot of shade along the route. Although the heat had backed off its 100-degree-plus peak of the preceding days in Washington, it was still more than what I had been used to in Spain, which had been consistently chilly. After two miles, I had to pull up and just walk the remaining mile back to the office. My stamina was just not there, because of the heat, the lack of exercise, just the fatigue of travel, or all of the above.

During the summer, it's going to become more difficult to run at lunch time, due to Washington's heat and humidity during the summer. I enjoy getting the sweat going, but I've never tried to do anything like jogging under the midday sun in muggy Foggy Bottom. I know that one of my running mates and switched over to a gym in the morning. In any case, I need to work my way back into full operating strength gradually and accept the pace that my body dictates.