Very short run

Had 8am dentist appointment to get an old filling replaced, went to it in running clothes and did manage to go directly after for 20 minutes easy (had forgotten my watch with chrono function so no walk intervals). It is disgustingly muggy, MAKE IT GET COOLER! Today's my long/demanding work day, have just eaten an egg sandwich and now intend to shower and de-squalorify my apartment (we have our teaching meeting here after evening lecture, respectability is in order...)

Short run

I'm hanging in there, but with head barely above the water - time to activate extreme conservation of energy mode! I didn't run this morning, because I really had to reserve all willpower for getting NYPL fellowship application finished and submitted, and reading and prepping my teaching for tomorrow. There was a certain amount of huddling in bed with anxiety stomach-ache after that, but I took a nap and felt better after that, just got out for 30 minutes as 2:1 easy. It was more realistic not to even think about getting downtown to lift (the heat isn't helping, it makes everything mroe taxing than it would be otherwise). Tuesday evenings at 7:30 were the best time we could find for my weekly French lesson, so I needed to save a little vim for that as well (and tomorrow is taxing too, still very hot I think and I have 8am appointment to get a minor old filling replaced - shouldn't take long - and a stressful department meeting 12-2, in addition to subsequent lectures/office hours/teaching meeting). Crazy week - but having that fellowship app in is a great relief. Only one other one after this, and I believev it's not due till the end of November - I have a short essay due the 30th of this month that will havve to be a week or so late, and one other essay to write in the next couple months, but it's not an insane load assuming other stuff quiets downn a little....

DL!

This day seems to have started a very long time ago! But I have survived. Had decided after last week that I'd take a taxi from campus to Chelsea Piers if I needed to, but in the event I was done lecturing at 3:45 (it is incredibly hot! students looked as though they were about to pass out!) and felt that on balance I could cope with the idea of subway and bus travel (not least because of notorious yellow-taxi dislike for turning on the AC). Got to the gym with a good ten or fifteen minutes to spare, that was nice, and had a very reasonable workout. Only did the 2 main work pieces (there was a circuit and some abs), and reduced reps on main set - used rest of the time to stretch, then showered and cabbed it home. (That was the other part of not cabbing it earlier - I am surely not SUCH a fragile flower that I have to take cabs in both directions, and being whisked home is so pleasant....)

Deadlift work set: 1 x 5 @ 144, 2 x 3 @ 180, 3 x 4 (should have been 8, but I could feel a lot of tightness and slight soreness in right hamstring, didn't want to strain anything) @ 180.

Hex bar: 2 x 15 @ 125

+ stretching

Hahaha, what happened to this week?!?! I did run on Wednesday and Thursday - but then minor Ottawa familial cataclysm sucked me in, Friday morning a second iteration of same actually had me stuck by the phone for about 3 hours and after that the only thing I could honestly do was go back to bed! Saturday was better, got some work done at least, but had to go to midtown in the evening (train issues almost gave me a nervous breakdown) and didn't end up being able to fit in a run (heat is making it tricky). ANYWAY no breakfast downtown today, NOT for good reasons but it meant that I could sleep till I woke up and then go out to run on a leisurely basis. It is WAY TOO HOT but I felt pretty cheery and happy throughout, which is nice, tight back and tender hamstring notwithstanding. 2hr as 3:1 jog-walk, feeling really happy about getting that one done! I have another event downtown later (LES, my least favorite, terrible transit options from UWS!) and may be able to stop by G.'s for a quick visit en route there if all is well....

Bench!

Funny overly long day out full of lots of nice things: definitely a good day (ending with merciless dissection with friend M. en route home from this rather dreadful Twyla Tharp evening at the Joyce!). The bench workout went really well - clearly the benefit of not forcing myself to get to the gym yesterday was that I was capable of doing a quality job today. It is possible that my load this semester means that I cannot realistically expect to lift on Monday and Tuesday evenings without penalty! Anyway:

small circuit: 3 x (25 shrugs @ 37.5, 10 lateral and front raise @ 5lb)

3 x 10 @ 60% (75)

2 x 2 @ 80% (100)

3 x 10 rope lat pulldown, 100 rope triceps pulldown

About an hour all told, and I didn't feel unduly wiped out either. Still wrestling with term-time-onset insomnia, and with some other family stuff going on that is exacerbating it (though I think mostly it's the sheer fact of the workload and the human-contact aspect of it).

Tuesday run

Busy/frazzled, almost left the house without posting here, but really I like keeping track as I go! Weather still humid and hazy. 50 easy as 4:1.

Sunday evening run

I did it, about all that can be said (and forgot to blog at the time - posted to my training spreadsheet); 2hr, first hour very hot, second hour better temperature-wise but full of sore things; 1:2 to 1:20, thereafter 1:1.

And Monday has turned into true rest day, I was so knackered by the time I finished lecturing that it was pretty clear I could not get myself downtown to lift, ugh...

Saturday evening run

Out late last night at a friend's birthday (heat and humidity = I was DRIPPING with sweat, ugh), couldn't sleep forever, slept late this morning and figured with ongoing heat and haze I'd better just leave it till evening. I was still slightly dreading it, but the dread of heat is worse than being moderately overheated (at least when you have acclimation which I still do), and it was surprisingly nice with a breeze along the water. That said, gotta strip off these soaking wet clothes and shower!

1hr as 4:1

Th/F update

Yesterday I had canceled powerlifting because of an evening work commitment, but by the time evening came I still needed to run and I just couldn't face the idea of sociability/human contact. Set out to do the longish one for midweek but really I had NOTHING, self-assessment at 15 minutes caused me to turn around and call it quits at 30 easy as 4:1. This morning: 30 easy as 2:1, very nice, only I have some soreness on left inside lower knee (medial collateral ligament?). Will have to keep an eye on that....

T/W update

Term-time workload is overwhelming! I am really barely keeping my head above water. I did run in the morning yesterday, and it was good (40 easy as 2:1), but the day got sucked up in lunch with a colleague (very nice) and a mid-afternoon doctor's appointment in midtown (I greeted with delight the rec a few years ago that Pap smear is not an ANNUAL necessity, but one does need to get it done now and again), then to lift in Chelsea, and about halfway through the workout I was just DONE. We had a circuit first, I was fine for that but used overly heavy weights for first 2 sets of DB floor press, and then when we got to the bench set (the point is that you are doing it with some fatigue already built up) it was JUST NOT HAPPENING - failed at 7 of 10 reps at 85, lowered weight for second set to 80 and failed again after 7, threw in the towel and just did the 2 minor remaining things and fell into a cab home....

This morning had a lot of work to do still for teaching prep, I was just too out of it last night to do anything other than reread some of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, and was feeling rather dreadful. Got the more complicated class reading and prep done, got out for run midday and do indeed feel rather better now: 40 easy as 2:1. Will do the longer mid-week one tomorrow when I am less frazzled!

DL!

Ah, I overdid it today - not at the gym, but re: work/in general. I could tell I was just pushing too hard (also the weekend was tiring, I finished a big fellowship application yesterday and was also experiencing emotional distress re: death of Michael Friedman and general sense of mortality and loss as it is affecting people I care about including and especially G.); I lecture Mondays 2:40-3:55 which means I need to have all my gym stuff with me and get straight on the subway, at 23rd St. I just missed a bus and decided to walk instead, but as I reached the gym I realized that I subjectively felt so tired that I thought I was about to die! It was better once I'd warmed up and started working out, but once I was done, I was DONE - threw my stuff together and got into a cab without showering and changing as I felt only one change of clothes, into NIGHTGOWN, was in order. Felt rather queasy in cab home, was a little worried when a neighbor detained elevator about whether I might actually be sick, in fact it wasn't quite that bad but stomach only just now settled by seltzer - sure sign of emotional stress and overwork. Hahaha, it's only one week into the semester, this doesn't bode well!

Anyway it really was a good workout, I felt pretty strong - that said, when I left, we were still very gently easing back into proper work and now we're clearly in the thick of it, so I will continue to use my lowball 1-rep max numbers to calculate work....

(1) deadlift 5 x 2 @ 201 (a slightly lowballed 85%) (felt pretty good about this work set!)
(2) hex bar 2 x 20 @ 110 (for ladies - men had 135)
(3) circuit x 4: single-arm row 20 @ (can't remember - 22.5? 27.5?), 20 x 20 farmers walk (just did 12kg kettlebells, nothing heavy)
(4) hammer curls 4 x 15 @ 12.5

95/83

A triumph of the love of running over life reentry stress. Almost didn't get out the door, managed to drag myself out c. 7, didn't talk myself out of doing the whole thing: 80 minutes easy as 2:1. It got dark a lot more quickly than I expected, I need to be better illuminated if I'm running in the evening so that cyclists don't get me!

94/82

Too little and too late, should have been an hour at 4:1 and was instead only 30 minutes as 2:1 in the last bit of light before dusk. Tiring week, I got up and had small breakfast around 9am preparatory to running but instead went back to bed! And then had a bunch of pressing work, so I almost talked myself out of running at all, except that Coach sensibly observes that it is important not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It certainly clears away the cobwebs.

93/81

Just 30 as 2:1. THE WEATHER IS RIDICULOUSLY NICE!

Wed/Thurs

I did run yesterday but was caught up enough in chaos of first day of teaching that I must not have noted it here. Teaching went well, it is exhausting tho!

Wed.: 30 as 2:1, day 91, run 79
Thurs.: 40 as 2:1, day 92, run 80

Home!

The first morning back is always a little overwhelming. 30 easy as 2:1.

Hot yoga!

Decided that hot yoga (plus walk to and fro) was necessary choice rather than a run for my last day (also, I had to bring my mat home - honor system for mat storage at the studio, but they really don't have a lot of room and I probably won't be back until December, unless I can get here for a sneaky fast visit at the beginning of November around the election holiday). It was great actually, I feel like I finally got acclimation - thinking hard about whether/how I can keep hot yoga as part of weekly structure in NYC.

30 minutes walk, 1hr hot yoga

88/77

40 minutes early as 4:1. Might go back to bed now for a SHORT nap - yesterday morning I slept long and deep again from 9am to noon, it may have affected sleep quality last night....

87/76

Was up and out super-early (then slept again from 9am to noon, which I think I needed). 90 minutes as 2:1 jog-walk. Stops back from tightening up (it's a little sore now), hip has been a little sore the last couple days too, I think basically just the nature of the slightly broken middle-aged body.

86/75 + hot

Consolidated sweaty exercise into one session: did 30 minutes early run (2:1) and straight in to 6am hot yoga. Happy now to be in cozy dry clothes in air-conditioning, and no need for a second shower - it is a bit much to have two such absolute drenched-with-sweat exercise sessions within a few hours....