Run!

Gosh, that was good. I am taking a true day off (well, I do need to do a couple hours of work later, but nothing terribly taxing, just bits and bobs); I took the train to Prospect Park and ran six miles with L. We are doing the Philadelphia half-marathon in a few weeks, neither of us has been running much - me due to illness/overwork/ironman recovery, L. for the much better reason that she had a baby in June and has very limited babysitting! So it's a nice slow comeback race - today was a sort of reality-check as to whether this really is feasible, and we deem it so - 6mi, 1:05, on a 9:1 run-walk ration. We'll shoot to do 9mi next Thursday, this time I think instead trying 6:1, which is more likely to suit us for the race. (I am partial to using 7-minute intervals, I like how the numbers work out - I have always had a particular fondness for the seven times table!)

6mi, 1:05

Short and very sweet

In retrospect I should have gone out for a short run right when I got up. If I am planning to run later, I wait to shower, and basically if I am not woken up by either shower or exercise I groggily sleepwalk through my morning. (For instance I got back into bed to write my comments on student assignments, which is hardly ideal for either focus or legibility!) I only finished essential work just before 1, and need to be out the door just before 2, but it is such a beautiful day and I was already dressed in running clothes, so I went out for short sweet 2 miles. This is going to have to be the way of it, I fear, for the rest of the semester....

2mi, :22

Hot yoga!

That was good. I have been in slightly low spirits, mostly I expect due to fatigue; hot yoga is very beneficial. If I do a couple more hours of work tonight, too, I can have a long leisurely run tomorrow morning....

1.5hr hot yoga

Short run!

It proved impossible to exercise in Toronto; it was a worthwhile but very tiring trip. Still pretty much knackered, but had a good quiet day at home alternately working and napping, and I did get out for a short easy run just now. Left it a little late, and wasn't really wearing reflective or blinky gear, so I kept it short, though I felt good and wouldn't have minded doing the full hour.

:32, 3mi.

Short run

I was so tired I really hardly made it out the door, but it was lovely as soon as I was running - it turned much more wintry today, but really it was a beautiful sunny fall late afternoon, maybe mid-50s - perfect temperature for easy running. Just did four miles very easy; we are flying to Toronto early tomorrow, funeral Friday morning, home Sunday morning pretty early - I will bring exercise gear and hope to get in at least one workout while I am there, but it is honestly more likely to be one or none than two....

:44:00, 4mi easy

Short run

I find myself flattened by fatigue, much wheezier than usual and with a slightly sore right hip, but it was still worthwhile to get out there for a short run - I felt a bit better by the end of it. (My fantasy of going to hot yoga this evening was precisely that - really I have an early-evening engagement in Brooklyn. Out late last night for a friend's opera debut at the Met, couldn't get to sleep till very late - tonight may be a bit more of the same, though hopefully not quite so late....)

32min, c. 3mi.

Short run!

One minor downside to endurance sport, I think, is that it leads you to underrate the pure pleasure & mental/physical health benefits of a SHORT run! I only had time for 3 miles, and they were lovely indeed - it is the most heavenly running weather, upper fifties and sunny and calm. I am thinking I had really better do triage for the rest of the semester and pretty much just start every day with .5hr easy running, so that I don't log so many days without exercise - it is the best way of guaranteeing it gets done. Hoping to make it to hot yoga tomorrow evening, but not sure whether I will really have the vim at that point.

30:30, c. 2.9mi.

Hot yoga!

That was great (notwithstanding mild queasiness at various points in the standing series) - I really wanted to go on Wednesday, but was unable to make it happen; life just has been a bit too demanding this week. Unexpected twist throws things off for the end of this coming week too - we need to go to Toronto for the funeral of an old friend of B.'s, who died after several rounds of battling cancer. Funeral is on Friday, we'll fly up Thursday, I need to make sure I exercise every day between now and then. Looks to me like M run, T evening hot yoga, W run, F run in Toronto, Sunday hot yoga when I'm back - that would just about make the six-hours-a-week non-negotiable minimum....

1.5hr hot yoga!

Run!

Running is good for the soul! It turned into a very demanding week work-wise, with lingering bronchitis too, so all of my good intentions about getting back on a regular exercise schedule went out the window. (I am still a bit behind on letters of recommendation and a rewrite on a book review, plus normal week's prep stuff.) Ran a bit too fast for opening minutes (B.'s here, his easy easy is my mid-zone 2, which I should not do without a warm-up when my lungs are still full of junk - we parted ways at .7mi, I eased off a little after that), lungs very raw and sore for first half hour. Then they felt good and I was just full of bliss and gratitude at being outside in what is perfect perfect running weather (low 60s, sunny, hint of fall crispness in the air).

The next six or seven weeks will be very demanding work-wise, and I have no fantasies about achieving amazing feats of endurance or picking up mad boxing skillz over that spell of time, but I am hoping that I can at least now get back on what I think is a sensible "six hours a week non-negotiable exercise of any sort," mostly concentrating on running and yoga.

1:01, c. 5.8mi

Run!

I think it was slightly premature to run Saturday, at any rate I had a lot more surplus sinusage and lung stuff again yesterday, but this morning it was significantly less runny, so I did a full hour - woo-hoo! Very good running weather - I hate to have missed so much of it, though really it should be months more still very good. I still seem to have decent residual base fitness.

Busy over next couple days, but I am going to write in Wednesday 4:30 hot yoga class, I am really missing it....

c. 5.8mi, 1:02

Phew!

FOUR MILES VERY EASY! Ugh, what a relief, I have not enjoyed this past week one bit. It continues to amaze me how ill one feels, and for how long, on the basis of an ordinary cold. I first had raw throat and dry cough Wed. 10/2, sore throat and escalating symptoms Thursday, by Fri. 10/4 I had an absolutely dreadful streaming cold that pretty much lasted all through the week! On Thursday 10/10, I had made it through my weekend conference and the demanding teaching week and my energy levels were returning to normal, but both lungs and head were full of JUNK and exercise was still contraindicated, ditto yesterday. Still not 100%, that bronchitis takes a while to go away, but I was not willing to wait any longer...

4mi easy, 42:30

Lung ailment....

Not so extreme as to deserve an exclamation point, but - ugh....

(It was coming on me as I sat at the theater last night, G. said hopefully that it might just be allergies but really I knew it was not. Could be worse - lungs feel raw and a bit full of stuff, but there is no head cold involvement, which at least means I'm not spewing so many germs on others! Conference in New Haven, training it up later today and home Sunday late afternoon - I will bring one set of exercise clothes just on the off chance I'm better enough by Sunday morning to go for a run, but it's probably unrealistic, I should resign myself...)

Run!

Really it's been a difficult couple weeks. When I got up this morning, the only thing I really felt like doing was (as we familiarly call it) ostriching, i.e. staying in bed with my head under the covers. However that was not really an option, and it also seemed clear that a run would make me feel better - amazing how after about twenty minutes suddenly I feel relatively normal again. Turned around earlier than I meant to as the police had shut down the park (ugh, it looks as though this was what happened - I feel fortunate that I wasn't involved - it was clear that something bad had happened).

c. 4mi easy, 42:30