Double spin!

Just did it as easy endurance effort (zones 1 and 2); alas, I fear I am coming down with a slight cold, I had a runny nose last night that I thought was allergies but it occurred to me mid-afternoon that it was really a sort of postnasal drip centered on the right sinus.  Hoping if I take a sleeping pill and shoot for ten hours in bed tonight that I may fend it off; I have also followed B.'s advice and sucked on zinc lozenges...

1:35 spin

#5/20

Fatigue from many hours of exercise over the weekend and several nights of poor sleep.  Saturday really was the disaster no-sleep night, and I felt devastatingly knackered all day yesterday; around 7:30pm, I still had at least 3 hours of reading to do but I literally couldn't keep my eyes open, so I lay down for an undesirably timed but necessary nap (set the alarm for 4:30am just in case I could sleep through and needed to carve out the reading time for early morning hours).  Woke up around 9:45pm feeling much better, read hard till 1am, fell asleep around 1:30 and slept till about 5, awake for a while, then one more chunk of a couple more hours of sleep - it was actually better than it sounds, all three stints of sleep were of reasonable quality, but I did not have as much vim as I should have for my 8am workout.  I think it's undesirable to do double spin Saturday, long run Sunday and hard workout Monday morning; I need to try and move the run earlier in the week, and use Sunday for a yoga session and perhaps a short spin or run.  Otherwise I lose quality on the Monday morning session...

20min warmup, 1hr strength

Week in review

8:37 total hours exercise for the week.  Short one yoga and 2 spins, but really it was a function of my work schedule - I had evening things on Tuesday and Friday, and I went to a play with an early curtain time on Thursday night, so it just wasn't realistic to squeeze in more.  This coming week should be easier: I'll do double spin Tuesday night, midday spin Thursday and double spin Saturday morning...

Long slow run!

I had bad insomnia last night - at 3:30 I changed the alarm from 8 to 9 and gave up idea of running first thing in the morning.   (I'm not complaining, I like my job, but Monday's my big teaching day and that means I usually have at least 8 hours of work to do on Sunday - double spin yesterday morning was not conducive to a particularly productive afternoon, and I knew that if I were really underslept I'd be wise to get at lest 4-5 hours of work under my belt before embarking on exercise.)  Got out the door around 3:30 and rapidly realized that it was going to be one of those runs where you sort of wonder what the hell you're doing out there: very sunny and rather beautiful, but coolish (low 40s) and windy as well.  I was running straight into the wind on the way out, and my right Achilles was extremely sore and stiff; but once I turned around, it was much better, suddenly felt like a much calmer day and by that point the lower calf was more thoroughly warmed up.  I wanted to go quite long but did not make it, due to prudence mostly (got to get this lower calf working more smoothly); very slow, with walk intervals to make it mentally easy as I start to build mileage back up...

1:17 total run-walk (4min run, 1min walk), c. 6.5 miles?

(Garmin is frustrating me, it gives wacky HR numbers for long stretches and takes so long to capture a satellite that I can't be bothered to hang around waiting for it to locate itself, so distance is only approximate - I might need to get a new device, for the HR consistency/accuracy more than the GPS question)

Yoga!

That was extremely beneficial: I really have been missing yoga in the last week and a half, going from doing quite a bit to virtually none is not enjoyable.  Need to make it more of a priority.  (This week was bad for exercise, as I had two evening work things and one other evening out that knocked out all of those days for anything useful!  Coming week should be significantly better.

1.5hr yoga

Double spin!

1:55 spin

Run!

I was very grumpy with myself for not getting out yesterday (miscalculation of times needed for various work and errand-type things and fueling issues).  However this was a good one - very very slow, and tight right calf and both feet sore, but I did the full hour.  This morning it was what seemed as though it must have been the rainiest day ever witnessed in the city of New York, but it has now largely stopped raining: it's almost sixty degrees, insanely foggy but really very good running weather!  Will aim to run slow and long on Sunday, double spin tomorrow; and now I gotta get some food in me, shower and get my show on the road, I let everything drift a little late, I am giving a talk at 4 in midtown!

1hr slow run

#4/20

Such a great workout - I was certainly working as hard as I reasonably could...

1hr strength

Run!

It is the most outrageously beautiful day for a run: almost 50 degrees, incredibly bright and sunny, with that springlike feeling of thaw in the air (the snow is by now almost entirely gone after a day of warmish rain yesterday).  Saw a cormorant bobbing with gulls in the water just north of the boat basin.

Only went 45 mins., not a full hour, as (a) I was a little late getting out and (b) my right lower calf was ridiculously tight and stiff.  Stopped to stretch it out a few times, and it was much better by the end of the run, but it is noticeable that a week without much yoga makes that area feel as though a block of wood has been taped to it when I run!  NB do 20-30min. yoga on mat at home if I can't get to more classes: I never have been in the habit of doing this, but it would surely be beneficial. 

45min run (c. 4 miles)

#3/20

It's so good - the hour just flew by, it was ridiculous!  More core stuff today.

1hr strength

Week 1 summary

I am one yoga course short of my stated goal for the week (I am still tempted to go to 6pm local yoga this evening, but I have a lot of work to do both for tomorrow and in general and I think it will relieve more anxiety for me to make headway with some of that than to go out again this evening)!  I am one hour short of the ten-hour goal (that's where I'm hoping to set base weekly level of exercise), but the workouts with Mark are strenuous and it's better to give them some time to get absorbed than to overdo it right at the start of the program.  I've got ten weeks' worth of sessions with Mark, if I see him only twice a week, so that's what I'm counting off, I guess...

Summary:

2 strength sessions (1:00 each)
1 yoga class (1:30)
3 spins (:50, :45, 1:50)
3 runs (1:00, :11, :43)

Run!

Very nice 4-mile run with Liz.  I was dreading cold and snow on ground, but really it was absolutely fine - temperature in mid-20s, but with very damp air, so it's not too bad on the lungs.

4 miles (43 mins., c. 10:45 pace)

Double spin!

Woke up to unexpectedly snowy morning; the spin studio at Chelsea Piers looks out over the river, and it is mesmerizing to watch the snow fall into the water.  Very good double spin - muscles noticeably less fatigued than they were yesterday when I tried to do things...

2hr spin

Yoga!

It was an 'easy' class (really yoga classes aren't easy or not easy, there is always something challenging to learn or contemplate in a pose, but let's just say it didn't involve a lot of strenuous muscular exertion and sweatiness), which is just as well - very beneficial.  It was over in a flash!  I only ran one mile beforehand, as I slightly lost track of time and didn't have a ton of vim - in general I think it fair to count runs of 2 miles upward as runs as opposed to warmup activities, but I think in this case as it's first week of arduous new fitness regimen that we will let it 'count'...

1 mile run
1.5hr yoga

Spin!

45min spin at Chelsea Piers.  I'm going to stick around here and get some work done, then go to 6:30 yoga (hopefully with a 40-minute run beforehand, if I can muster the vim).  I'm sorta shooting for a basic week of 2 sessions with Mark, 2 yoga classes, 3 runs and 3 spins - will go to double spin tomorrow (J. is teaching both, that's good) and run 4 or so miles with Liz on Sunday, so if I go to one yoga class over the weekend as well, I will have just about made it for this week...

45min spin

Belated post

to say that I had a very nice run earlier: possibly the slowest hour-long run I have ever done, it was at near-shuffle pace (all muscles esp. in upper body ridiculously sore from yesterday's workout), but it was good to get out.  Had meant to do it in the morning, but it was in the low 20s & that is not good for wheezing; late afternoon was chilly and damp and overcast, but more like low 30s, which is fine...

1hr very slow run

Session 2/20

In retrospect Monday's session was just child's play, to ease me back into it...

1 strenuous hr workout with Mark

Spin!

50min spin class @ Chelsea Piers

Session #1 of 20

Flew back to JFK last night and wintry weather; got home around 10:15pm, I guess, and was very glad I had set up this morning's appointment, otherwise I would pretty certainly be only just getting up!  My fitness splurge for 2012: a three-month membership at Body Strength Fitness (the full membership, which comes with unlimited yoga at what I usually just call the local yoga studio), and twenty sessions with friend and former trainer Mark.  I'm keeping my Chelsea Piers membership, but I need the jump-start and these are the months when it's hardest to get down to CP on cold winter days/evenings...

1hr strength

Run!

OK, that was good.  I wasn't sure I was really going to get out the door for a proper run - it would be better if I could get up earlier, as even leaving at 7:30 puts you in a situation where the run back is noticeably warmer than the run out.  But it's not as hot and humid at this time of year, really, and perhaps I got some heat acclimation by dint of yoga: the newspaper says 79F right now, with relative humidity of 73%, and I am certainly pretty darn hot by the end of it, but there was a good breeze and the sidewalk hadn't yet trapped the heat of the day.

1hr slow warm run

Yoga!

This class is particularly challenging - the teacher is very good.  The studio is doing a 30-day challenge that is just at the end of its first week, and it is having a devastating effect on attendance - it was mat on mat, the room was packed to its max, it got insanely hot!

1.25hr yoga

Yoga

1.5hr yoga

Misc. cardio

1hr elliptical

Run-walk intervals

I was slightly dreading Wednesday night run club, as it is warm and humid here (not as hot as at the hot time of year, but high 70s and high relative humidity) and the runners in that group are fast - I don't mind being slow, but I get nervous when I am running along the side of road about to be mashed by traffic!  However it was all good - B.'s friend L. was there and wanted to do run-walk intervals, so we did some laps around the playing fields at the Cayman International School rather than trekking out along the highway.  It was nice enough that I might have to have another run in the early AM tomorrow, since it is a no-yoga day...

47 min. run-walk, plus 2 x 15 min. walk to and from start

Yoga!

Also very hot (door opened to outside partway through to allow 'cool' air to enter, but it remained super-warm!).  Think I will take tomorrow off from yoga, as I can feel little spots in neck and shoulders that will benefit from recovery.  Tonight is Wednesday Night Run Club...

1.5hr yoga

Hot yoga

Not "hot yoga," just hot yoga.  Hot enough that the sweat was pouring off me even in corpse pose at the end of the class: someone said afterwards that the thermometer read 93 degrees.  Class was packed (body heat raises temperature).  Yoga is beneficial...

1.5hr yoga

Misc. cardio

This is the last week for a while when my time is truly my own (school starts up again next week, and the beginning of the semester is usually very busy), so I'm trying to get as much exercise in as I can.  However I was thwarted by raw asthma-feeling lungs as I segued from treadmill to elliptical, so I figured I should call it a day. 

30 min. treadmill intervals (10 min. warmup, 10 x 1 min. hard, 1 min. easy)
10 min. elliptical
15 min. walk home

55 min. total

Yoga!

A very good class that left me feeling much better than I did all weekend.  (I flew to Brent's Saturday morning, but the flight leaves early enough from JFK that I literally didn't sleep a wink the night before, I've been going to bed pretty late and when I did lie down around 1:30 and try and sleep a little, I was anxious that I wouldn't wake up when the alarm went off at 5:15.)  Weekday plan for this week: I get a ride to the cafe with Brent around 7:20, work on book revisions for a couple of hours and then go to 10am yoga.  It is good - I do best with a very regular routine...

1.5hr yoga

Blissful run

OK, that was good, it was right that I took yesterday off.  My nose is still runny and chest not quite back to normal, but it was a most beautiful afternoon for a run (52 degrees, sunny, calm!) and I was determined to take advantage of it.  It has been extremely to my chagrin that I haven't been able to run over the last couple weeks (I was really looking forward to a lot of running, and I could have used the mental boost), but runners amongst you know that one cannot always run when one wants to...

1hr easy run

Yoga

A very good class at Chelsea Piers, I think my favorite of the three I've gone to in the past three days.  I am holding out hope that if I keep doing yoga 3-4 times per week for many months, I may actually get somewhat more flexible... I had intended to run for 40 mins. on the track beforehand, but in fact the cold air on the walk from the subway made me too wheezy for it to seem advisable, so I went to the 30min abs class beforehand instead.  It is a very demanding class, with some Pilates-type stuff in it - I should do that stuff more regularly... Now my muscles need a day off from yoga...

.5hr abs
1.5hr yoga

Spin, yoga

Nose still very runny, but really I can't wait forever for it to stop!  Had a good spin workout on my own at Chelsea Piers, then yoga with Lauren (last time before she leaves town).  Have some good plans (good, but slightly expensive!) for getting back to peak fitness, about which more anon.  I'm going to Cayman on Saturday for a week, during which I'll mostly just do much yoga and some treadmill running, but hit things hard once I'm back here from Jan. 17 going forward.

1hr spin (5 x 5min zone 3, 3min easy)
1.25hr yoga

Yoga!

1.5hr local yoga (also very beneficial)

Highly beneficial short run

Ugh, I'm still sick, and I was feeling very grumpy indeed about having to cancel the projected mid-afternoon run with L.: it would have been 5-6 miles at a moderate to hard pace on hills, and it was clear that this would not be at all a good idea.  But after moping a bit I pretty much just decided that I had to get out for 30 mins. at easy/moderate effort: mental health benefits outweigh cost to lungs!  Felt particularly un-fleet of foot, with very stiff and slightly sore feet and lower calves, but it was highly worthwhile regardless...

30min slow run

Brisk walk

Lungs still wheezy/gummed up, and sinuses are in terrible shape, so I figured I'd better not run, though I really wanted to!  1:05 brisk walk (down to just north of boat basin and back).