I have blogged before about how quickly women my age lose muscle tone. "Women lose muscle mass at a rate of roughly one-third to one-half a pound each year after age 35," I read in one study. In the last two years I think I have made progress in rebuilding muscle. But I lost some ground during August.

We came home from a vacation in the mountains to really hot summer weather. I was swimming two or three nights a week and running one morning a week, and that was good. But walking with my husband at dusk when the temperature was still in the mid 90s or riding my bicycle on errands in the mid-day sun was oppressive. It was even too humid to enjoy exercising indoors with a video tape, unless I turned the air conditioner way down (which would make the electric bill go way up).

Excuses, excuses - suffice it to say that I slipped into exercising every other day instead of every day. Then I hurt my shoulder, and couldn't do upper body exercises at all.

My shoulder is almost 100%, so I began a little weight work this week. I have lost muscle strength if not muscle mass. Reps that were easy in July make me tired now. If I were 20 or 30, I wouldn't have lost ground so fast. But as Popeye the Sailor used to say, "I yam what I yam!"

Rather than chide myself for a lapse, I need to plan my exercise the night before, so that I don't let the weather dictate my mood. Tomorrow I will swim at the indoor pool, and Friday I will run before it gets hot. This lost ground can be regained.