Spin!

This one deserves a real post, though I've mostly abandoned blogging - I log exercise in my coach's spreadsheet (we are on day 2384 of working together, isn't that amazing?) and also in a Facebook PT accountability group, this is surplus to requirements.  I've also always had qualms about it (same with Light Reading) that when I am having a hard time staying on top of work, I don't want students and colleagues to be thinking "how come she hasn't graded our papers, she had time to read two novels yesterday and have an hour run and an hour yoga!"

I haven't been riding since I did the Princeton 70.3 in 2015 or so, and when my back got really bad over winter 2016-2017 it turned out that spinning was really painful - the sciatica through glute and along back of leg was acutely triggered by it.  And I ended up giving up my Chelsea Piers membership because if I couldn't ride my bike comfortably down to spin/lift/do yoga there, it was too much of a pain getting there on public transit during a teaching semester.  (An hour each way basically if things went smoothly, sometimes longer.)

So in fall 2019 I was chugging away with very painful running with walk intervals (it wasn't till February 2020 that I realized I needed a lift in the left shoe as well as orthotics in both) and swimming a couple times a week when I could.  Swim logistics for me as for many are always much much tougher than other things, and when NYC pools all shut down in March, that was it for a while.

So my back was really getting better from February or so, still problems and still needs walk intervals or tension builds up painfully, and I started doing minimum of about four yoga classes/week once I realized I could stream sessions with Susanne (I met Susanne during my time at Oxford in 2016, she taught at YogaVenue Oxford.  And yoga is a good substitute for swimming, it stretches you out rather than compressing everything.  And in the summer I really did finally get the 2x week upper body lifting going - got the adjustable dumbbells and am really enjoying it, sharing a Monday 7am Zoom with Lauren and a Thursday 8am Zoom with Brent.  So I've got 5x run, 4-5x yoga (mix of flow and yin) and 2 strength.

But it's dawning on me that I really probably am not going to be able to run a lot more than I am now - I mean, I wouldn't rule out a tactical build for some event, and when the pandemic recedes I hope my Saturday long run will be longer than it is now, but for the medium and long term I need the other forms of aerobic exercise to supplement.  And who knows when the Columbia pool is going to open again.  (Chelsea Piers pool is calling to me again - they have 30 minute individual slots and it's also an extremely well-ventilated space, whereas the Columbia pool is in the basement of an underground gym that is probably the single worst-ventilated university building I have ever set foot in).

I took the plunge on ordering the bike in September, my only pair of spin shoes are in Cayman and I had to get shoes and cleats and literally the shoes and cleats have sat there waiting for me to deal with them for 2 months.

But my old original favorite spin teacher, the person who got me to really like spin classes at Chelsea Piers c. 2010, is starting a winter training session! Joanna did the first session this morning at 9:30 as a trial to see if there's interest, I think it will be regular and I am really excited about that.  And it turns out our Cayman friend Jerome is streaming classes at Revolutions.

BACK ON THE BIKE!

(I need to take my road bike for a tuneup and to have clipless pedals replaced with double-platform ones, flat on one side and clip on the other.  I'm never going to be riding a lot as I think riding in traffic in NYC is unacceptably dangerous, I don't have the nerve for it, but it's a good option for riding down the west side path to meet up perhaps with friends outside.)

2020 has been a very rough year for me as for almost everybody else, but it has been a strangely good year of exercise.  I should write a yoga post soon too - I have extraordinarily enjoyed doing yoga very very consistently over a sustained period and do not intend to let that go when the pandemic is no longer affecting us in such extreme ways.

Wednesday update

70 with 20 as 1:1 to warm up and cool down, work set at 6 x 3min faster, 2min walking recovery.

I've been gradually figuring out my yoga schedule, adding more as I get acclimated (but lot of yin so that I don't overdo it with muscle work).  This week's schedule looks like this:

Monday: 7am Modo flow class; walk
Tuesday: 7am core strength flow with Susanne; 40 as 1:1
Wednesday: 70 as noted above; 2pm Bliss flow + nidra (Rachel)
Thursday: walk; 8:30 private session with Susanne (flow); 4pm Modo yin
Friday: 40 as 1:1; 8:30 private session with Susanne (yin)
Saturday: 80 as 3:1 with 40 as 4:1 in the middle; 3pm Bliss yin (Iliana)
Sunday: 40 as 1:1: 3pm Bliss flow (Chantelle); 6pm Modo yin

Streak!

So I have been doing at least 3 yoga classes a week since the beginning of April, but it took 2 things (Bliss starting to livestream classes - it's just not the same doing a recorded class - and my semester coming to more or less of a close) to go to the daily mode. Now I am very excited as I think that there is NO REASON I shouldn't be able to build the longest yoga streak in my life! First day was Monday, May 11. So today is day 13. Got my week's template down.

Run is five days and I walk the other two (I have missed a couple of those walks since we started sheltering place - maybe 2 or 3? not sure exactly - but in general I have been very faithful to it.

My COFFEEWRITING group starts on Tuesday so at that point I really am in a good routine: one that recognizes the fact that currently my good hours are between 6am and noon or so, and that if I use them wisely, it doesn't matter if I flop for the rest of the day!

Popping in

to say that my week's template is suiting me really well; I continue to do 5 run-walk and 2 walk each week, and this past week was the first week I was able to do yoga every day as well! The yoga rota is looking like this (Bliss is now streaming live classes, which was the last piece of the puzzle):

Monday: 7am grounding flow class with Susanne (in Sweden!) + brisk exercise walk immediately afterwards (30-50 mins)
Tuesday: 40 as 1:1 early and Heidi's therapeutic yoga at 9am (Cayman)
Wednesday: harder run intervals of some description four 75-85 mins total and Rachel's 2pm flow-restorative class (Cayman)
Thursday: 30-50 mins brisk exercise walk + 9am private session with Susanne
Friday: 40 as 1:1 + 8:30am private session (yin) with Susanne
Saturday: 80 min longer run intervals (lots of 3:1 recently) + 3pm yin class with Iliana (Cayman)
Sunday: 40 as 1:1 and 3pm flow with Chantelle (Cayman)

Current week's template

Clearly I don't have the vim to log here right now! I am exercising daily just as I usually do, it's going well. Here's the current week's template (I will probably add a couple more things in May once I'm done teaching for the semester).

Monday: 50 minutes exercise walk, 1hr Susanne's grounding flow yoga class
Tuesday: 40 as 1:1 jog-walk
Wednesday: 75 with some longer faster intervals
Thursday: 50 minutes exercise walk, 1hr private session yoga
Friday: 40 as 1:1 jog-walk, 1hr private yoga
Saturday: 70-80 as something like 3:1 or 4:1
Sunday: 1hr as 1:1

Keeping me sane and reasonably happy!

Catch-up!

Yeah, the other two places I log just feel like a higher priority right now....

good week of exercise. Just now: 70 as 3:1 easy, felt great. This week was totally as usual (on lighter side): 5 run, 2 walk (I'm making sure to get outdoor exercise every morning before my day really gets going, I know how important it is for mood and mental health). And 2 yoga! The exciting innovation as of Thursday is private Zoom yoga sessions with Susanne (my Oxford yoga teacher, now in Sweden) on Thursdays and Fridays and her class on Monday morning first thing. This is going to be really good!

Friday

Day started very early, I had a nice hour as 1:1 once it was light, and proceeded to have a really good and stimulating work day in which I was thoroughly immersed.

Wednesday-Thursday

Wednesday: a really great run (beautiful cold sunny weather too), 1:10 total with work as 6 x 3min faster, 2min walking recovery.
Today: 50 mins exercise walk.

Monday-Tuesday

Both seminars have now been taught online, both went well, breathing a sigh of relief!

Monday: non-run day, 50 mins brisk exercise walk.
Tuesday: 30 as 1:1 (didn't get out till afternoon).

Sunday run!

1hr as 1:1, misty and mild, very nice.

Saturday run!

90 as 3:1, really very good.

Friday run

1hr as 1:1, really lovely. Looking forward to the longer one tomorrow.

March 21-26 update

Really I have been exercising every day - no, really!....

Saturday: 40 easy as 1:1
Sunday: 1hr as 1:1, 1.25hr fascial flow yoga streamed with Heidi (now have access to that class again and am hoping to get it in frequent rotation)
Monday: 50 mins brisk exercise walk
Tuesday: 1hr as 1:1
Wednesday: Really great 1:10 with work as 4 x 5min faster, 2min walking recovery.
Thursday: 50 mins brisk exercise walk

Need to get back on stretching - I am spending too much time on the computer (and actually have had a lot of work stuff to wrangle this week).

Thursday-Friday update

Thursday: 40 as 1:1, very nice
Friday: 1hr lunchtime flow yoga with Lynsy, streamed from Bliss Cayman.

Monday-Wednesday update

Don't seem to have blogged here - I've been online a lot but have two other places where I log exercise (coach spreadsheet, FB ladies' PT accountability group) and this one tends to feel lower priority these days, though I like to have it as a record.

Monday: 1hr home hot yoga on balcony
Tuesday: very good run, 1:25 or so with ladder as 10/8/6/4/2 (2min walking recovery). Then a streaming yoga with Alex Auder!
Wednesday: 1hr as 1:1 easy and early

Travel plans have changed and I'll be flying back to NYC later today.

1hr

as 1:1, really really nice. And I had a really good mindfu 20 mins PT+ yesterday afternoon, will do the same today. Back on it for the duration - it's much easier to stay motivated for it when my body is working somewhat better and I can actually see the possibility of real improvement.

Long run!

The best one I've had for a long time. Tight R posterior chain likes heat and humidity. 90 as 3:1.

Wednesday-Friday update

Wednesday: travel day, did go to a 1pm flow-yoga nidra at Bliss.
Thursday: 40 as 1:1, very nice.
Friday: realized belatedly that I really shouldn't be a vector at 6am hot yoga, downloaded a hot 26 timer app and did a really excellent hour on my own on Brent's balcony.

Tuesday

1:10 with work as 4 x 5min faster, 2min walking recovery. Very good - not pain-free, but the situation is remarkably better than it was two weeks ago. The happiness that comes with this is a very good counter to anxiety about the public health situation....

Monday swim!

Sunday: very very nice 1hr as 1:1, beautiful weather.

A slew of important emails came in Sunday evening and continue to arrive, with the situation potentially changing very rapidly. All classes are fully suspended for Monday and Tuesday preparatory to going online (via Zoom, integrated into Canvas/Courseworks) from Wednesday on. Next week is spring break so we'll await further word about how things will go after the break, but I'm imagining that I'll be teaching online thenceforward unless things get shut down in an even fuller way.

Regular big meeting and seminar were both canceled, but I had a couple shorter meetings (including one interesting one that reminds me why certain things about Columbia's organizational structure are very frustrating!) and then - which I usually don't have time for on a Monday - a SWIM! Group fitness classes are shut down, including my special lap swim time, but regular rec swim is for now still open, and was relatively unpopulated.

10 x 100 easy free
150 back as kick, drill, swim by 50
100 fly drill
100 IM
50 easy swim down

1400 yards total

Friday-Saturday update

Friday: a very wet cold 40 as 1:1 mid-afternoon
Saturday: 90 with 40 as 3:1, 20 as 4:1 and 30 as 2:1. Running into wind on the homeward leg made R posterior chain very sore!

Wednesday-Thursday update

Chaotic morning multitasking did not prevent me having a great swim but I did realize as I wended my way from pool to my office to pick up the bottles of wine for this evening's book party that I had left my keys at home....

12 x 100. Flip turns feeling a lot more natural. First 10: odds free, evens misc. [kick on back, back (50 double-arm, 50 full), fly drill, breast (50 kick with board, 50 full stroke), kick with board]. 100 IM, 100 easy swim down (50 free, 50 back). 1200 yards total

(Yesterday was a great run too, about 1:05 with work as ladder 5-1-4-1-3-1-2-1-1-1. Feeling good about things, coronavirus issues notwithstanding!)

Tuesday!

In an amazingly good mood yesterday and today - great class meeting yesterday at the Avery rare book library (and similar next week for my other class at the RBML), funny evening open house event for English majors where I saw lots of current and former students and generally felt really good about the work we are all doing in the classroom.

full PT+ then 40 as 1:1.

Now need to shower and eat food, get handouts copied for class and teach at 12:10. Office hours 2:30-4 and then taking out a Fellow from the Columbia SOF for late afternoon coffee and/or drink and snacks to celebrate her having gotten an amazing academic job!

Thursday update

Hahaha, I didn't really fall off the face of the earth, but post-travel fatigue kicked me like a mule, I took zeros on Monday and Tuesday in spite of good intentions.

Wednesday: 1:10 with work set as 8 x 4 faster, 1 recovery. L foot/R LB/posterior chain connection is very evil right now.

Thursday: such a good swim! It feels like a victory to get there at all (it's really the only day when I can reasonably guarantee getting there, though I am going to think about Fridays and how to add that one too, it is the next most feasible).

What did I do? It was so nice.....

(I HAD MY OWN LANE!!!!!)

100 swim
100 kick on back
300 as 2 x 150 back as kick-drill-swim by 50
2 x 100 freestyle drill-swim by 25 (thumbs and salute, finger-drag)
100 something I've forgotten
100 free
100 fly as right-arm, left-arm, 3-3-3, full stroke
100 flutter kick with board
100 whip kick with board
100 IM

10 flip turns - I do them very badly (and when I am actually swimming laps I mostly just do an open turn), but I will only get better if I make myself do them....

1300 yards total

Sunday

Good work day and a nice 50 as 1:1 in the last hour of light to shake out the cobwebs. It has been very beneficial to have had three full days entirely to myself. Now it really is only two more Monday-Tuesday whammies before I fly to see Brent for spring break! Worried about coronavirus in general and more particularly it disrupting travel in as yet unimagined ways, but aware that there is little I can do other than stay calm and roll with it....

Saturday

80 as 3:1!

Friday run

40 as 1:1 midafternoon after a quiet day working at home (with a big nap in the morning when I realized I didn't have it in me to do real work yet). Very, very good - colder and windier than I thought, it blew out the cobwebs!

Swim!

Hahaha, have I REALLY not logged here since getting back from Brent's 10 days ago. I've hit most of the essentials anyway, will cross-check at a quieter moment and catch back up, but really for now it will be enough to log today's swim.

ANYWAY

100 swim
100 kick on back
300 as 2 x 150 as kick, drill, swim by 50
100 as fly drill-swim
100 as breast kick-swim by 50
100 easy free with flip turns
100 easy IM
100 easy free w/flip turns

1000 yards total which was very nice. Grumpy about how many meetings I have today!

Run-swim!!!!

This little visit to Brent has been PERFECT! 55 mins as 1:1 easy and early, body HUGELY benefited from what was essentially 2 hrs yesterday afternoon of highly relevant bodywork, stop at cafe for refreshments and home to change, then 30 mins SEA SWIM at Sunset House with Brent. Our first official training swim together - the only thing better than a project is a shared project, I'm really happy about this one!

Saturday

IT was a gift to be here for Heidi's next trigger point therapy workshop! And it was exactly the one I needed (the last one was too, lower back, but in face this is the most fundamental). Really, really good, and my back feels almost completely normal now, which is pretty much a miracle if you'd seen me dragging and hobbling earlier!

Friday-Saturday

Friday: 2 x 15min walk to and from 6am hot yoga (1hr)
Saturday: 75 mins as 2:1, rather hot as I finished - much better to be ending a run here at 7 than at 8, even at this time of year!

Monday-Thursday catch-up

Monday: rest day from running, need to figure out how to set up failsafe method to get to a yoga class as I ended up just doing my essentials (sleepless night, very early hours of work, morning PPC plus post-PPC chairs planning; afternoon seminar; phone interview with journalist about Margaret's novel - at that point it was 5:30 and I was just DONE).

Tuesday: very nice 1hr as 1:1, I managed my Tuesday logistics better, though it was still a bit of a scramble to get to class for 12:10 start (I'm just not mentally used to teaching in that slot). It was a mild damp day and I was still very sweaty!

Wednesday: travel day! Sleep a disaster of course (5am alarm), but slept 2:30-5:30pm while Brent was at the office and then did manage to be asleep again 10-5:30, so all was well.

Thursday: 1hr easy and early and WARM as 1:1! I think I'll go to a yoga as well, I have some work to do but if I focus it shouldn't need more than 3 hours or so....

Sunday

Couldn't sleep till forever (slept so much friday night and saturday afternoon!), therefore didn't get up till very late, had to spend some time organizing work chaos. 20 mins quality PT+ and a nice 40 as 1:1, everything seemed to be moving pretty much as it should. It's after 4 and I still have at least six hours of work to do tonight, better get a move on! (I'm not really a workaholic, it's more that my work seems to get evenly spread over all seven days rather than falling into a clear weekday-weekend division....)

Saturday

75 as 2:1, running into the wind on the way south (it makes my back sore) and then turned around and it was like running downhill on the way home!

Friday end of day run

I ran out of time to do it in the morning (reading a diss chapter and typing up comments for an 11:30 chapter conference - should have done it last night but I was out at a very nice book party for a couple of colleagues and couldn't face it when I got home), but I only had a couple of meetings today, albeit all meetings are tiring, and I got out around 3:45. Temps had dropped maybe as much as 20F since morning, rain stopped and a bit of blue sky, but CRAZY winds - on the max wind spot at the bottom of the block, I was really afraid I was going to get blown over, and the wind definitely carried me up the hill as I walked the last little bit home!

Thursday swim!

woo-hoo, finally got in a good one! Gonna have to ponder this semester's timetable, first two weeks haven't gone very well from pov of swim and yoga - I think I have to try and get in for more short swims.

800 warmup alternating 100 swim and 100 some kind of drill (RaLaCuBa, kick with board, thumbs-and-salute, kick with board)
Freestyle ladder with first 25 of each bit hard/remainder easy (5 seconds or so of rest between): 25-50-75-100-75-50-25 (300)
3 x 100 drill-swim (breast, fly, back)
100 IM
100 easy swim down (50 free, 50 back)

1600 yards total

Tues-Wed catchup

Tuesday: a dogged end-of-day 1hr as 1:1
Wednesday: an exhilarating 1:05 with ladder of faster intervals in the middle: 5-2-4-2-3-2-2-2-1-2.

Sore foot ongoing...

Sunday

Qualityy PT+ and 1hr as 1:1, extremely nice - lungs really finally back at full functioning even though there's a bit of postnasal drip bothering me still....

Saturday

75 as 2:1, very enjoyable!

(Nothing yesterday but 10 mins PT and stretch - I slept really badly on Thursday night and woke too early on Friday feeling absolutely SHATTERED and needing to be a lot of different places for various things. I got the pneumonia 23 at the doc Thursday evening, I'd forgotten that we needed to do that still, and my shoulder was incredibly sore - even walking around jarred it to an unpleasant degree, and the movement of putting arm up and back that you do to take off a jacket or a backpack was pretty close to excruciating. Really glad it's only a bit achy today!)

Monday-Thursday catch-up

I have actually been doing my regular thing, just not logging it here! So -

Sunday: beautiful 40 as 1:1 on a sunny day in the park, lungs still not great
Monday: non-run day and no wherewithal to do anything else, needed every scrap of energy for my long morning meeting and my pm seminar
Tuesday: 60 as 1:1, starting to feel better
Wednesday: 40 as 1:1, definitely getting better, resisted temptation to do more than coach had suggested!
Thursday: just a short swim, but I got my Bosphorus swim paperwork done by the coach and have medical certification appointment later today, so that counts as a Something....

It was very crowded, we are all grumpy and planning to write letters to the director of athletics, and yes I was circle-swimming for part of the time, but it felt pretty good!

200 swim
200 kick with board
200 freestyle drill as Ra-La-Cu-Ba down stroke back
100 fly drill (Ra-La-fly-free)

Had a noon meeting so that was it for me anyway, I relieved lane congestion by getting out and getting on with things....

Friday-Saturday

David rightly cut everything back; Friday I did 30 as 1:1 and really felt rather ill; Saturday I left it till the very end of the day but did get out for a no-longer-quite-so-rainy 40 as 1:1. Slept 12 hours last night and lungs do finally seem like they're starting to repair themselves, and sitting or standing no longer seems like an incomparably bad idea compared to lying down. Glad I have another weekend day to let things continue to get better....

The big ugh!

That illness I had about 2 weeks ago was dragging on in minor remnants but cold NYC air really gave the lungs a blow, I was feeling unexpectedly bad over the last few days. I followed David's advice and took Tuesday as an extra non-run day (just did good PT+ at home), Wednesday really didn't feel good and just did 30 as 1:1 on the track at the gym, even that was really killing my lungs, went home and went to bed instead of going to the eighteenth-century seminar (which is a whole evening's enterprise). It felt better by a few hours later, and I had a good long sleep, but still well below par.

Today I just had a short swim, because it's crucial to lay down good habits at the start of the semester and I needed to get myself in there and back in the routine, but though I would intellectually LOVE to go to a hot yoga class as well, I think I will be better off resting. Grumpy about that!

Oh yes, swim details (I was on short time anyway, for lungs and because I had to go to a job talk at noon, but really I got out even sooner when a third person wanted to come in the lane, I just didn't have the wherewithal for that!):

100 swim
100 kick
4 x 100 free drill (2 x RaLaCuBa, thumbs-and-salute, finger-drag)
2 x 50 drill-swim (back, fly)

So just 700 but really all that mattered was to get back at it. And I will do PT etc. later on at home - my 3pm appointment was canceled so yes, I think I am going home and back to bed!

(I'm not really that sick, it's all just bad lungs, but my natural mode is to be in a horizontal position with no pants on reading a book, and there is no reason why I shouldn't spend the rest of the day that way. Will be in work overload then Monday-Tuesday if I'm not getting on top of things like visiting library to get and scan some critical readings I need for seminar, but really that stuff can happen piecemeal over the next week, and though I have Duchess publicity tasks to stay on top of, for once I am really NOT trying to finish or start writing anything - I have NO essays and NO conference talks to write this semester, the Gibbon book is off my hands and I generally feel optimstic that this semester won't feel nearly as overwhelming as last semester did.)

Hot class!

Back at Bikram Yoga Harlem for the first time in many years. Nobody was there to open the studio and we stood outside for a bit but it was all fine in the end, I paid for a month unlimited as an incentive to get in there as often as I can (3x week minimum). The room was therefore less hot than usual when we started, a gift, though did heat up to full-on HOT so that I felt rather queasy by peak standing pose and had to lie down for a couple postures. (Lungs still full of a reservoir of GLOP which was not helping.) It really is convenient, sore/tender feet mean that Bikram or similar is preferable to flow currently, I can make this a part of my regular semester exercise. My back needs it more than anything else, it needs the PT+ as well but this particular kind of yoga lets you check in on where things are on one side vs. the other to an extreme and desirable degree.

Farewell Cayman run

Travel day, just 40 as 1:1, L foot a bit sore (I have an appointment with foot doc on Friday to see if I can figure out more about what's going on and what I can do about it). Will shower momentarily and just do short stretch, body still absorbing Friday's massage!

Saturday!

Perfect start to final day here. 1hr as 1:1 easy and early (recovery week basically - my lungs were glad, they were v wheezy Thurs and Fri prob from Thurs morning intervals, back to just gloppy today which is preferable), quick stop to rehydrate and say hello to Brent at Cafe del Sol, then 75 mins fascial flow yoga. Heidi took my request and we did just feet and calves, which was excellent - I need to pay more attention to that part of the body on a regular basis, they give me more trouble than anything but my R back/glute area.

Friday

No hot class for me this morning, lungs feeling not so good and I needed the sleep anyway as was a bit late goiing to bed. But good long PT+ session in the am (did a good one yesterday afternoon too) and an excellent 90-minute massage with Heidi this afternoon plus 30 mins walk home.

Thursday

1:10 with 4 x 5min faster, 2min walking recovery.

Wednesday

40 early as 1:1.

Yoga!

As I was lying on my mat waiting for class to start I wanted to CRY because of how much less yoga I've done this month so far compared to what I'd hoped! Alas, no catching up, just focus on moving forward. Rachel's core class is really good - a mix of pilates and yoga, very simple but very challenging, the sweat was pouring off me! Plus 2 x 15min walk to and fro.

Tuesday

1hr as 1:1, lungs junky but definitely on the mend, contemplating 9:30 core yoga (it will be another few days before I'm better enough to go to a hot class).

Monday

Makes me sad not to start Monday and Friday with hot yoga, but I'm still too germy I think, and too much junk in lungs. That said, feeling significantly better than yesterday morning (that was a dramatic low!) and did quality 25 minutes PT+. Gotta get back on this seriously, it fell apart the week of Thanksgiving and with these two colds my Cayman stint hasn't been as conducive to getting it really back into a routine as I had hoped....

Sunday

Just about eked out 40 as 1:1. Cold descended into the lungs overnight and I am feeling now really awful!....

Spine!

Heidi's workshop was amazing! I have been looking forward to it for months, and it lived up to or even exceeded my high expectations. Highly beneficial.... (Still rather coldy but not I think strewing germs as I have been for the last two days.)

Took Friday off, can't go to hot yoga when I'm strewing so many germs, afternoon massage canceled for reasons beyond my control (we have reschedule for next week, that's better). It was just as well because I needed those afternoon hours to FINISH MY BOOK!

Saturday: 90 with 30 as 1:1, 30 as 4:1, 30 as 1:1. Lungs waterlogged, too much postnasal drip, but certainly still net enjoyable rather than not. Going to Heidi's thoracic and lumbar spine workshop later, very excited, what a treat!

AND just got the email confirming our spots in the Bosphorus swim (I had initially thought we were in already, then realized the ballot hadn't been done yet, it was a little confusing). Will have to scurry to sort out various paperwork, but I'm really excited!

Thursday

I AM GETTING ANOTHER COLD.

Workout was pretty good tho: 20 min as 1:1, 6/5/4/3/2/1 min faster with 3 min easy/walk recovery, 20 min as 1:1.

Hot!

And yes, 10:30 hot. Writing interview questions took more time and attention than I thought and I realized that really it was more a question of having a second work session on book stuff in the afternoon than hanging on and segueing directly into it after already having worked for a couple hours. R lower back rather achy, will make sure to do full mindful PT+ later.

Tuesday-Wednesday

Tuesday: 1hr as 1:1
Wednesday: 40 as 1:1

Possibly 10:30 yoga today but it partly depends on how morning work goes.

Hot!

2 x 15min walk to and from hot yoga. Yesterday's fascial flow focused on spine and psoas, this was really great, and it helped me really "feel" all the different muscles and focus on them during the standing sequence. Very hot but in the right way.

Saturday-Sunday

Saturday, 90 minutes with 20 as 1:1, 40 as 4:1, 30 as 1:1. Very good, back benefiting from yoga, more consistent stretching, slightly better mattress (yes I will replace mine when I am home) and very little seated computer time.

Sunday, 1hr as 1:1, everything felt really good. Will go to 9:30 fascial flow yoga as well.

Hot!

2 x 15min walk to and from 6am hot yoga, then incredibly stressful session wrangling Grayson into a carrier! I am terribly sorry to see him go, but he is flying tomorrow to an amazing permanent home in Colorado, it is the best possible outcome (except that I love him so much and will miss him!).

Just

40 as 1:1 in the morning, schedule/logistics ended up obliquely ruling out both yoga options, that's fine...

Jan. 1

1hr as 1:1 easy and early, a book session at Cafe del Sol and 10:30 hot yoga (SO HOT!!!!!). Now I am just going to be lazy for the rest of the day.