Spin!

Golly, that was good. I must have a better set of exercise habits for the coming academic year - if it's another cold winter, I want to have a strategy!

Rode bike down to Chelsea Piers for Joanna's spin. Beautiful day, though rather windy and not as warm as you might imagine - but the blue of the sky over the huge open expanse of the Hudson as I rode home was particularly attractive. Left knee not quite right - I actually think it was a loose cleat on the spin bike I rode both Saturday and today. Will hope that twinges recede....

:50 spin, :50 round-trip ride

Run!

Gosh, this turned into a terrible week for exercise (it was somewhat beyond my control - sore foot, huge amounts of work and too many evening plans!). It has ended well, though. I couldn't get to sleep last night & regretfully realized around 1am that I shouldn't go to Joanna's workout downtown this morning - really at this point in the semester, trying to be downtown for a 10am workout Saturday and Sunday is quite unrealistic. So I spent the morning closing tabs of one kind and another, then talked myself out the door for a lovely though arduous and slow run. I am not in good shape (not terrible, but not good), and I weigh too many pounds - but I have to say, running is still my favorite activity EVER. Most beautiful weather - a bit chilly for non-running purposes, mid-50s and quite windy, but incredibly gorgeous along the river (funny pair of mallards sitting on rail looking very wind-ruffled!). Did 9:1 run-walk - my back is very tight and sore, I need to start doing those stretches again, but I'm optimistic that once I get through the next 2 weeks of frenetic school stuff and a week of travel during which exercise may be dodgy, I will be able to dig in for some really enjoyable exercise....

6 very slow and rather arduous but lovely miles, 9:1 run-walk (with a few extra bits of walking) 1:15

Double spin!

Hmmm, the week got out of my control - I was working incredibly hard, I was out Wednesday and Thursday nights till pretty late and I had an extremely sore blister on my right heel - altogether inpropitious to exercise! Good double spin this morning - it was a bit of a struggle to get up and get out of the house, but I was glad once I was there. Evening plans tonight and tomorrow as well, which is a little crazy, but all good. Not sure when I am going to catch up on work though!

2hr spin

Glorious spin!

Mondays have been challenging for me this whole school year as I have an 8:30 Monday morning meeting pretty much every week - as a night owl, I find this is a dreadful way to get things started! However it makes me feel justified in taking a chunk of midday to go to my beloved spin class downtown. All winter I was castigating myself at the stupidity of belonging to a gym that's so hard to get to - but now is the shining time when it is absolutely lovely, it is the most gorgeous day, low 60s and sunny but with a hint of coolth in the air to make outdoor exercise blissful. I rode down to spin, had a snack afterwards in the cafe (I was underfueled riding home yesterday, I should have eaten before I got back on my bike), then a ridiculously beautiful ride home along the river. Glory!

10mi round trip bike (c. :50)
:50 spin

Workout of bliss!

It is absolutely perfect weather today for being outside - low 50s, but sunny and calm, PERFECT! I was a little frazzled/late for outdoor bootcamp class downtown - I forgot how much slower you have to ride on a crowded Sunday path, and then I had the wrong keys (my running keys do have locker and bike lock key, but not the electronic fob for the locked cage), so I had to go up and down and up again, changing into running shoes & dumping stuff in locker and then jogging down to the Charles St. pier, which I realize is closer to a mile further downtown from Pier 60 rather than the half-mile I casually envisioned. But the workout was amazing - we did the usual sort of stuff (walking lunges, box jumps, various plank and pushup variants, etc.), in the most idyllic lower Manhattan setting of utter beauty. Good for the soul to exercise outside!

I have an almost unimaginably vast pile of work to do over the next few days, and it's generally just a busy week, but I think I can shoot to workout M/T/W, Thursday is simply too packed (scheduled with no breaks from 9:30 allergy shots through to a friend's evening concert at Carnegie Hall (!)), Friday probably I'll just be knackered and also busy all day, then back on for Sat and Sun. Two more weeks after that very busy, and then I fly to Israel for a week - I am giving two talks at Tel Aviv University, but otherwise it is really a week of holiday and sightseeing, for which I'm very excited. I should be able to do some runs and I hope swims, possibly even Bikram yoga if I find a studio, but I don't want to count on it being a good exercise week, which means I am really going to try and make the 3 weeks between now and when I leave pretty solid.

10mi RT slow bike
:45 boot camp

Double spin!

That was amazingly good - I am lucky to be living a life in which very many things make me happy, but certainly double spin (both classes taught by Joanna today) is one of my favorites....

2hr spin

Hot yoga!

I bailed on Andia's exercise class - it just seemed too cold to ride my bike downtown (it was freezing, literally!), and particularly to ride home in sweaty clothes! Went to 10am hot yoga instead. It was excellent - just what I needed. This week seems to be going much better exercise-wise than the last couple, that is good....

1.5hr hot yoga

Run!

Gosh, that was a nice one - by conventional standards, yesterday was by far the nicer day (today is high 50s with light drizzle), but today is really almost perfect running weather - cooler, park almost totally deserted. Jogged for 10 minutes to warm up then did 4 x (3min moderately hard, 2min recovery). Need to get back out the HR monitor, this was just on feel. It was gorgeous!

:38 run (z3 intervals)

Run!

3 more weeks of school, I think I can get through - in the meantime it is a struggle to get much exercise, though! Nice run just now, only it has become quite warm & yet the water fountains are not on yet, mostly (I should have brought a bottle of water) - I did get a few gulps from the functional fountain by the tennis courts, but I was so thirsty that I stopped running and walked the last bit home. Have now happily refluidified....

:55, c. 5mi

Run!

Another pretty poor week for exercise, but it's OK, it's just a combination of intense workload & also the very pleasant fact of B. having gotten here Thursday late afternoon! We ran in Riverside Park this morning, it's absolutely lovely weather - usually I go to spin class on a Saturday morning, but I couldn't quite tear myself out of bed & out of the house. Will probably run again tomorrow morning - brunch plans in Brooklyn & I don't want to count on still having vim for exercise after that.

1hr easy run (9:1 run-walk), c. 5.4mi

Workout!

Yesterday was a wash - I got a pretty good long night's sleep Monday, but nevertheless & ill-advisedly took two dissertation chapters into bed mid-afternoon to read and woke up many hours and not very many pages later. Then I couldn't go to sleep till 5 in the morning - got back up around 2 and read for a while, then canceled reservation for this morning's fitness class as it was clear I needed to sleep later than 8:30. Fortunately for me the same teacher does a 6:30pm variant today - a corporate event had booked sand volleyball court and there was noone else signed up for the class, so I had the luxury of what was essentially a personal training session! We did a lot of things that are for flexibility and agility as a runner, I am very bad at them and that is why I know they are good for me. Well worthwhile having gotten down there - now B. is here for a week, as of tomorrow, so it is unusual schedule, but it might be I should more often take my gym stuff in a bag with me to afternoon meetings and then get on the subway around 5:30 without stopping at home first. At least that way I can't take a nap! (I do now have all tomorrow's seminar reading still to do, which is not ideal - but the work always gets done, while the exercise does not necessarily...)

:45 misc. flexibility and strength (incl. the dreaded caterpillar walk, which piercingly reminds me of Gerald)

Run!

Well, the rest of last week was a disaster (not from the life point of view, just from the POV of fatigue and exercise) - Thursday I was simply so knackered that I couldn't do anything other than essential work; Friday and Saturday were extremely demanding through mid-evening (conference went very well - it was killing me on Saturday, though, that the weather was so beautiful and I couldn't slip away for a run!); Sunday I had to myself, with moderate need to work and also tidy/reclaim apartment from week of living as a wild animal - I slept late, then I fell asleep again while trying to read in bed, and in the end I wrote off both more ambitious (Chelsea Piers classes) and less ambitious (short run or hot yoga) plans - all I could do was lie in bed and doze! Still utterly knackered today, but got out just now for a slow hour's run - I need to be careful getting back into it, I've really barely run at all over the last few months. One more month of school - I am just doing to do my best and exercise when I can, shooting for that 6hr/week non-negotiable minimum....

1hr run-walk (9:1), c. 5.5mi

Ride/beach!

Not the actual beach - Andia's Manhattan Beach workout at Chelsea Piers! It is really incredible - at some point not very far in, I am just flooded with those happy exercise chemicals that make you feel totally blissed out. Also rode my bike down for the first time since forever - it is an incredibly time-efficient way of getting there compared to the other options. Excited that we're back into the season where I can do that, and really pleased, too, that they've added these 9:30 weekday classes - that's perfect for me.

This one was particularly suited to my tastes - we did some warmup and stretching stuff, then alternated circuits of the sand volleyball court (easy jog or walk short sides, "strides" on long sides) with one-minute abs. 3x, 4x, 6x. Very good workout, low-impact because of the sand but your heart really is pounding!

(Tomorrow I am going to try the offputtingly named Bikini Booty Bam - was there ever a worse name for what I believe is a perfectly respectable exercise class? Left change of clothes in locker today, and will run VERY SLOWLY down before class tomorrow as I have to go from there to get allergy shots. Really Thursdays have a demanding lineup for me compared to Wednesdays this semester, but since I need to be in Chelsea sometime in the morning for allergy shots, I'm going to try and combine with exercise where possible.)

Dreadful end of week coming up, Friday and Saturday have full long lineup of work stuff all the way through dinner i.e. 10pm, but I will also try for a 3-mile run Friday morning if I can get myself out of bed in time. Then Eilon's classes Sunday afternoon - it's not going to be an amazing week of exercise, but better than some. If I can finish tomorrow's reading and prep in time, I might be able to go to 6:30pm hot yoga this evening, that would be good - I was notionally going to stay at CP this morning and do a spin with L., but she had to stay home to look out for a sick baby, so we called it off - probably for the best as far as my schedule goes.

:45 conditioning
:50 bike (10 real miles!)