Run!

Very nice one too - I got further than yesterday and was tempted to continue till the path ended, but really I have already let the run eat into my writing time.

:45 easy

Run!

Just :30 - I'm in London for 2 nights (met up with my mother who flew in from Philadelphia and we are doing massive amounts of family visiting, it's strenuous!). Had what turned out to be a cockamamie idea that I could run across town from where I'm staying right near King's Cross to Regent's Park, but it must be that I was staying blocks further west the last time I did that (can't remember exact location of hotel but it would have been for the conference at UCL). Got about 1 block in and the throngs of people on the sidewalk were so overwhelming that I was just hating humanity. So turned my way back towards canal path - mildly thwarted, neither direction seems to let you go very far without having to go back out onto roads, but I did get in my :30. Then bought delicious breakfast at Pret a Manger - English ready-made food currently doing much more for me than USian (esp. the Marks and Spencer prepared foods - edamame salad!). Smoked salmon sandwich with butter on wholemeal bread, "protein pot" (2 HB eggs on a rather pitiful bed of spinach leaves), mango with lime. Gotta shower now so that I don't lose my precious hour of work time - hahahahaha, I should really come back to London again in a few weeks to see a few dear friends but I am strongly leaning towards holing up in the Oxford bubble and hewing to my regular routine!

:30 easy

Long run!

Very nice too, though I was ready to be done before the end (could not stop thinking about the chicken and bacon sandwich I was going to assemble and eat when I got home!). Ran into my neighbor as I was leaving (she was walking to yoga) and walked with her for a bit off the clock, then started running/clock once I got to the meadow - thought I'd adjusted turnaround point appropriately, but clearly not, as I was near home at the 1:45 mark and had to overshoot to add on last bit. That always takes willpower, better to do a true out and back!

Going to London shortly for two nights with a lot of family visiting, but will have short run and production of quota tomorrow and Monday (coming back to Oxford Monday afternoon) because I will be in a better mood re: human contact if I do it that way!

2hr easy

Very nice yoga

It's taught by teachers in training, this one was extremely good (I would not have imagined she wasn't experienced). 1hr vinyasa.

Run!

:42 easy. Was saved from my worse self by the fact that when I stopped at the Alternative Tuck Shop post-run to acquire a YumYum, which I have decided can only be a Friday treat, I learned that the YumYum delivery for the day had not yet taken place!

Squats!

A really good session (I mean, I'm not good at squats, so it's important to work on them regularly). This time we got to work out in the rugby gym which is pleasantly deserted and chilly - much preferable to warm crowded powerlifting room! I'm really happy about having finally got this set up, it's going to be good - given that I can't work out with Josh, this is definitely the next best thing!

1hr lower body

Run!

Such a nice run with Liz! A good new route through Port Meadow and then back along canal through Jericho. Was avidly noting streetnames in hopes I can find my way over there again...

70 easy

Yoga!

I did write quota, but I didn't do enough other work today, after this family weekend in London and my mother's visit I'm going to buckle down. Very nice yoga anyway - 1.25hr hatha, stretchy. Was feeling fairly sore (pleasantly so, but still) after yesterday's strength session, afternoon nap plus evening yoga is a good remedy! Running with Liz in the morning too, and training again with Sy at 2pm....

Run of bliss!

I am having a ridiculously nice time exercise-wise - I feel it is slightly irresponsible, but not entirely so given that sabbatical is not just for getting new work done but for restoration and recovery. :20 easy, 10 x 1:00 faster, 2:00 easy, :25 easy: 1:15 total. A little soreness in hamstring in that post-deadlift tendonitis-type way, but nothing big. In general feeling very sound.

Lift!

Hahahaha, I am an idiot, I like too many things too much! Just running and doing yoga make me think "Oh, yeah, I could just do these 2 things all the time and it would be great" - but I did finally lift properly again today and it felt absolutely amazing, I can't give that up! (Not to mention strength-training now is probably the single thing that has the best long-term health input on carrying-groceries-up-stairs-in-your-80s type stuff). It took a bunch of emailing to find a trainer, it's a university gym rather than a commercial one so they're not set up to take your dollars so eagerly I think - but I believe that this guy is absolutely perfect, couldn't have done better! I'm signed on for twice a week, but it might be tempting to add a third session (I can't do Monday next week, so I am forced to hold off on that till I see how it reintegrates with more running).

1hr good stuff! Lot of stretching and mobility, then tested some bench and deadlifts - did I think 3 x 4 @ 105 or so on bench, pulled a couple singles at 220 or so (weights are in kilograms and don't lodge with me) - this is going to be so great!

Run!

I took a proper rest day yesterday - if I'm going to be running more, I need to be smart about it. Glorious to be running again this morning though! I love this mild overcast damp English weather so much....

:50 easy (2 laps around Christ Church Meadow)

Blissful yoga!

Ah, such a good vinyasa class - I really love this teacher. 1.5hr yoga.

Start of week 3

1:30 easy - actually it was a few minutes longer as I had a diabolical plan that involved adjusting my turnaround point and overshooting home so that the end point would be here! It's a bit chilly but I figured with light jacket and gloves I'd be fine to then walk the 1.7 or so miles home. I had rather pictured it being one of those places you walk out of with a huge box of pastries, but perhaps fortunately they were about to close (it was just before 2 on a Sunday) and there wasn't really a lot of stuff - I had a very delicious slice of apricot tart that I ate on my walk home.

I really am serious about this Rock the Ridge 50 in May! I have six weeks in Rome in February-March when I think running will be either my only form of exercise or nearly so (will hope to find some yoga I can get to easily), and sabbatical year is a good time for a project like this....

1.5hr easy

Glorious run!

A lovely sedate one, with intervals - I was slightly dreading them beforehand, only (a) if they really are horrible, you are doing them too fast and (b) if I accept that they might only be ONE gear higher than my regular sedate pace, it will go very easily. Have acquired hydration belt but also it wasn't as hot today - 50F and overcast, my absolutely ideal running weather (it is silly to talk about ancestral climate preferences but I do feel that my body does best in exactly this sort of weather!).

1:40 as :20 easy, 12 x (1:30 faster, 3:30 easy), :20 easy

Yoga!

Such a good class, and genuinely relaxing - "slow down Friday flow" - did what it said! Now I am going to eat soup (having slightly mismanaged meal content and times earlier) and read a novel, since I also produced quota/finished the draft zero of Austen chapter #1 and read my Gibbon quota for the day. Routine of bliss!

1hr slow flow yoga