Spin/swim!

That was good, though clearly if I want to swim a full workout I need to adjust something about how I'm doing this (either a gel, or else just make sure to do a proper workout some OTHER days of the week!). Rode down to Chelsea Piers, did Joanna's spin class, swam for a bit. Very nice!

:50 easy round-trip bike
:45 spin
1050 swim (200 kick, 200 swim, 4 x 100 drill [RaLaCuBa, 6-3-6, front scull, fists], 100 IM easy, 100 free hard, 50 cooldown)

Run!

A very nice one with Liz. Because we were slightly idiotic, we met at Tavern on the Green at 9 - only to have the horrible realization that a five-mile race was about to start RIGHT THEN AND THERE! So we modified our plan and ran north to the bridle path, did a reservoir loop and some more bridle path and then rejoined the road on the east side and ran clockwise back to where we started. 1:05 total, probably just under/about six miles?

Run/spin!

Mmmmm, that was good - enough exercise to make me feel pleasantly calm! (Now I need to get mentally energized to do some work - that may be a trickier enterprise....)

Ran down to CP with Coach's instructions in mind (20min warmup, then 5:00 chunks as :30 @ 5K pace, 4:30 jog) - 1:05, c. 5.2mi. Then did double spin. Joanna's class is much more demanding than the 11 o'clock one, but that's OK. Then I met my friend T. for a delicious lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. We split the appetizer-sized scallops; she had lobster bisque and roast chicken salad, I had skate with lemon, butter and capers. The bread and butter there is also particularly delicious....

1:05 run
1:55 spin

Spin/swim!

Book party last night - took me a while to wind down before I got home, and I decided not to set an alarm. Mild horror though no actual surprise when I finally woke up properly to see that it was almost 11:30! Rode down to Chelsea Piers, Joanna's spin class (I was tired - legs tired from running, brains tired from a week of hard work, body more generally tired from evening spent drinking prosecco and talking to many people!), short swim. Hadn't eaten and figured at that point I'd really better stop and refuel before riding home.

10mi easy ride
:45 spin
1000 yards swim (200 flutter kick, 200 free; 3 x 100 IM as kick, drill, swim by 100; 4 x 75 on 2:00 as 50 easy, 25 hard

Good day of exercise! Not as humid today, finally, so that is beneficial as well.

Run!

Gotta get a move on, was late getting out of the house and have another dissertation defense at 11. Very good run, though it is unpleasantly warm and humid. My assignment was the Central Park loop, running strong up hills and taking recovery as needed on flats and downhills. I cut short across the 72nd St. transverse due to time constraints, and when I reached the end of the loop at 110th St. I turned off the clock and power-walked home up the hill, as I was criminally thirsty and felt I had run enough! Still, v. good.

c. 6mi, c. 1:10

Run class!

Yesterday was a bust. I had a ton of work to do, with midday deadlines sufficient that I couldn't exercise in the morning; by the time it was early evening, I was dug deep into the fatigue hole, and I realized that the notional workout was just not going to happen.

Today has gone much better. I went to Andia's 9:30 class, and it was super. Unfortunately the sand volleyball was double-booked, so we did our workout on the track, but that's fine too. 20min warmup with dynamic stretches (ankle rotation, leg swings, etc.) and some form and conditioning exercises (running with high knees, butt kicks, Frankenstein walks, etc.). 10min core (misc. plank variants, v-sits). Then 30min with a great setup of cones at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 - we started with a set of 5 where we just accelerated to a faster pace at each marker, then did further sets with specific form goals: high gaze and high knees; heels to butt; etc. still with the accelerations.

:50 run form and conditioning
10mi easy bike

Run!

Hmmm, not an inspired one - it was a struggle to get up and out (I am frazzled about work stuff and have a lot of things still to do this morning/today/this week).

:40 (4:1)

Run!

That was very good. 40min total, 8 x 100 hill repeats. Tomorrow I'm getting started for realz....

More bliss!

Gosh, that was good - I feel immensely physically prosperous and soothed. Ran down to Chelsea Piers, did double spin with Joanna, then had Thai lunch with Lauren. Was fading a bit in the second half of the second spin class - tired legs!

1:07 jog (9:1 run-walk, c. 5.6mi?)
1:50 spin

Bliss, bliss, bliss!

Yesterday I was really just feeling rather low - too tired to do anything useful, so tired as to not really know what to do with myself. But I slept for a long time, and felt much better when I got up this morning. Now I have had an exercise midday of BLISS. It is the most perfect weather - high 70s, low humidity. I rode my bike down to Chelsea Piers (is it the transition from Bloomberg to de Blasio that has led to so many more people smoking weed in Riverside Park?), did Joanna's excellent spin class, swam 1000 yards and had a quick hot-tub dunk, ate a two hard-boiled eggs and a toasted bialy with butter in the cafe and then rode home. About to get in the shower - pleasantly soothed by large quantities of exercise!

1000 yards: 200 kick, 200 pull, 200 swim; 2 x 100 drill (right arm, left arm, catch-up, swim back), 2 x 100 free on 2:30 as 25 easy, 25 moderate building to hard, 25 easy, 25 hard

:50 round-trip easy ride (10mi)
:45 spin
:30 swim (1000 yards)

Run!

Got home yesterday evening, rather tired this morning but had promised self and coach I would do 40min easy run - good evidence of why having a coach is helpful!

:40 with some short accelerations near the end

Run!

That was good, though warm - I was very glad I was doing the workout fresh rather than after a spin class!

20min warmup (3:1 run-walk), 10 x (1min hard, 1min walk), 20min cooldown (3:1)

1hr

Spin/run!

This has been a blissful island idyll - if I come here when I'm stressed out or depressed, it kind of magnifies it and I have a tendency to feel like I'm bouncing off the walls, but if I'm in a good frame of mind, there are few distractions to steer me off course! Went to 6am spin class at World Gym, then did a very good treadmill workout specified by Coach Dave. Traveling tomorrow, but will run in the morning for sure. Might have a swim later if I feel so inclined - the yoga schedule does not offer me super-convenient options today.

:50 spin
:35 treadmill (2.5mi) as 5:00 warmup, (5 x 3:30 jog, :30 fast, 1:00 recovery), 5:00 cooldown (5.0/6.5)

Run!

It became clear to me last night that I should NOT do a long bike ride this morning - the floor was covered with the detritus of the last few days' activities, I was slightly sunburned and generally all-over tight due especially to swim having activated old sore back muscle! Really a better description is that yesterday was taxing and I didn't need to do a big thing with willpower again today. So I just had a nice short morning run, and will do some stretching later to work out the back stuff. Tomorrow is the Try-this-Tri - it's a public holiday here, B. and I will be volunteering for many hours at this very nice event. Going home on Wednesday - minor ongoing woe of my life that B. and cats do not live in the same country!

:40 run-walk (3:1), to the Ritz pedestrian bridge and then back to Cafe del Sol for a smoothie

Now I just need to put away some of these things!

Sea swim!

That was nice, though it is a day of mournful commemoration rather than a day of celebration for us here - on this day four years ago, Wendy died shortly after completing the race. Also very much on my mind as I swam was our friend L., who had a stroke two weeks ago - I wished he could have been racing, as he intended, rather than immobilized in a hospital bed with a long road to recovery. We are lucky to enjoy good health, minor medical woes notwithstanding: I felt very fortunate to be out there.

1mi sea swim

Run/spin

Got out early just for 3mi or so. Then double spin class at Jerome's. Walked home, picking up bike from Uncle Bill's Home Improvement on the way.

Next up: the Flowers Sea Swim! Very happy that it is shaping up to be an authentic swim-bike-run day....

:36 run-walk (5:1, c. 3mi)
2hr spin

Run!

That was very good, though I lost steam towards the end and walked the last bit home.

20min warmup as 3:1 jog-walk

6 x (1:30 easy, 1:30 moderate building to hard, 1:00 recovery)

8min recovery as 3:1 jog-walk, then 15:00 walk home

:52 run-walk with intervals

Strange to say, that might be the only exercise I do today - might go to midday hot yoga, but need to take bike in to the shop and probably will find that is sufficient for fitness-related projects....

Easy spin

Just 1hr, it was all I could persuade myself to do! With that and one more Green Machine smoothie, the experiment is over. It has been surprisingly pleasant - today was the first day I had spells of feeling hungry.

1hr easy spin

Spin/walk

OK, that was very good - two hours of exercise done (one hard, one easy) with no significant heat stress. I feel much less overwhelmed than yesterday! Will try and do one more two-hour easy effort later.

(The spin class was very good - I have to try and keep Tuesday and Thursday 6am class in the zone of possibility, everything goes better for me in Cayman when I can stay on an early rising schedule. The teacher is very good and also a mighty athlete!)

1hr spin, 1hr treadmill walk (3mi)

(No part 2 today)

Instead of doing any further exercise, I took a deep two-hour nap - frankly just spent too much morning time in heat and fairly strenuous exercise, running and hot yoga are not really in the spirit of the original parameters! My left knee is still slightly suffering from that episode a few weeks ago in which I did double spin class at Chelsea Piers on a bike with a loose pedal, and doing even this easy stuff over the last couple days has touched the tenderness up again - wise I think to take a day off. Tomorrow I am looking to mix things up a bit and start out with 6am spin class at World Gym, then have my smoothie and do some treadmill walking before the day gets much older - take the day off from yoga I think....

(Then on Friday, sleep schedule permitting, I will indeed jog over to 6am masters swim, walk back after. There is a noon hot yoga class I'd like to get to that day, but will also perhaps take a chunk of time to walk my flatted wheel - no point bringing the entire bicycle! - over to Uncle Bill's Home Improvement, local hub of cycling expertise and supplies.)

Day 3, part 1

Did a short run this morning (41:30 at 4:1 run-walk), read for a few hours in the cafe and then did 1.25hr hot yoga. Walk home seemed very tiring and warm - it is possible that calorie deficit is starting to add up. Left knee still rather tender - I am going to read for a few hours, then shoot for 2-3hr easy spin.

41:30 run-walk
1:15 hot yoga
:30 walk

Day 2, part 2

1hr hot yoga, .5hr walk to and fro, then 2hr walk on treadmill at gym. Not fitness walking, as it were, just regular - 6mi, 3mph/2% incline. It was an incredible relief at that point to get into a shower - the amount of time in sweaty clothes is really unpleasant - feet also rather sore. Hopefully today will also have a part 3 of 2hr easy spin, but whether or not that actually happens, I am definitely about to have a good stint of reading on the couch with my feet up!

1hr hot yoga
.5hr walk
2hr treadmill walk (6mi)

Run!

Well, more precisely a rather sedate run-walk, but it was very good. To the Ritz pedestrian bridge (that hotel takes up so much frontage that it is necessary to specify - that is a good hard clear turnaround point!) and then back by way of World Gym for a Green Machine smoothie. I am very happy - I am having Homemade Spa Week! I am sure I am not alone in having looked longingly at some of these very fancy canyon/spa-type retreats where you hike, do yoga and other exercise classes, meditate and have delicious low-calorie meals cooked for you, but really they are extortionately expensive - it is possible to approximate many of the virtues at home....

:48 as 4:1 run-walk

Day 1, part 2

OK, I am laughing at myself, I will call it a partial success! In theory - the study that put it into my head was this as reported here - I was going to do six hours of easy spinning (that is already a reduction from the study - I have somewhat raised calories and somewhat altered and lowered exercise).

Three hours was my utter limit!

(I took a ten-minute break every hour, but even with that, it was a struggle to stay on for so long - sore bottom, tender left knee, general feeling of failure of willpower!)

So I thought I'd go out for a long beach walk, geared up for it but immediately realized (a) wrong shoes and (b) WAY TOO HOT, despite visor, sunglasses, sunscreen, Camelbak with major hydration, etc. Briefly thought of going to gym to walk on treadmill or do elliptical for more hours, but realized I don't have it in me - may have to seriously modify plan for tomorrow....

(Might just have to leave it for today at 40 min. run-walk, 1hr yoga, 3hr easy spin - that is not at all on the scale of the original research project, but it's possibly all I can do this week! The climate and terrain here are really not suited to outdoor walking on that sort of scale....)

Anyway, 3hr very easy spin (bottom of zone 1)!

Day 1, part 1

Embarking on a four-day experiment with calorie deficit and low-intensity exercise - hoping to jump-start summer weight loss. More details to follow.

Ran :40 (4:1 run-walk - still very warm, but good cloud cover makes it a little less overwhelming in the later part of the run). 1hr flow yoga (plus :30 walk, :15 each way).

Now will get on spin bike. Hoping to be able to prop up this large tome on the bike - it's a book I've dipped into regularly over the years, but never read cover to cover, and I want to read it properly to get into the zone for writing the book proposal that's one of my summer projects. If that proves logistically unfeasible, I will instead read this on my Kindle

Partially successful bike!

Alas, the long bike ride was cut short by an audible though otherwise undramatic tire blowout on Frank Sound Road. I replaced the tube and used a (Caymanian) dollar bill for a makeshift patch to cover up the half-inch gash in the tire - I do not have a patch kit in my saddlebag here, only in New York - but it was to no avail, the second tube popped about twenty minutes later.

B. very kindly came and picked me up - really the whole thing was fine, it's good to have these non-catastrophic minor woes on long rides now and again so that one doesn't become discombobulated when similar things happen in higher-stakes situations. I did get enough of a ride for it to seem like a reasonable workout - hope for full three hours next week, though!

c. 1:45, c. 28mi. (Garmin took a while to come on at the beginning, and then I forgot to turn it off when I stopped for the second time, so this is just an estimate)

Double spin!

I always really miss Joanna's spin classes when I am in Cayman, but there is a good spin studio here as well and the Saturday morning double spin class (here, at 8 and 9) is a very good part of my local routine. Didn't work super-hard, I was rather tired, but it was very good regardless. Extremely rainy - I am not optimistic about the prospects for riding outside tomorrow morning (the roads tend to flood, which makes riding rather dangerous due to hidden potholes!).

1:50 spin

Run!

I put out things last night to go to masters swim, but it's really too early - starts at 6am, if I'd had my bike out and ready I suppose I could get up as late as 5:35 but given that I haven't yet retrieved it from behind the television (its usual berth), checked tires, etc. it would have had to be more like 5:15. That is too early! Instead I tarried a little longer in bed, then headed out for a run around 6:30 (still quite early for me, but somewhat more feasible). Did 3:1 run-walk to the Ritz and back. Slow and warm, but mighty enjoyable too! Will try and get a good chunk of work done in the morning and then do hot yoga at noon.

:44, c. 3.2mi, 3:1 run-walk

Hot yoga!

I was so tired last night that I was able to get to sleep at a pretty reasonable hour. A few hours of reading in the cafe, then hot yoga - it's the one-hour truncated Bikram sequence, when I am doing a lot of hot yoga it seems much too short but given that I am not at all in hot yoga shape, it is just about right....

1hr hot yoga

Catch-up

I did Joanna's spin class on Monday, it was great as usual, but I was then out and about for a million more hours, so clearly I failed to blog it!

Yesterday was a wash. Frazzled pre-travel day, two minor doctor appointments and inadequate air-conditioning everywhere I went, overly long list of things to do. Finally just fell into bed at 10:30, leaving most packing and tidying for the morning - woke up at 4am, an hour before the alarm, but really it just made sense to get up and get going with things. Travel went very smoothly (but I miss the two funny cats!).

This afternoon I optimistically told B. that I thought we should go to Wednesday Night Run Club - by the time it actually rolled around, I was much less keen (a nap had lethargized rather than energized me), but B. fortunately did not let me off the hook. It was lovely! It is brutally warm and humid - I was huffing and puffing - but pleasantly for me there were 2 other ladies who also wanted to do 5:1 run-walk at a very similar pace, and B. joined us too as he did not want a hard workout.

(I can't be ambitious running in this climate - at 8:30pm, it's still mid-80s and 75% relative humidity - I am going to try and do quite a lot of quite short runs, though, mostly in evenings, insofar as frequency makes more sense right now and in this context than volume.)

:42 run-walk (5:1), c. 3.3mi