Yoga!

Oh, that was so good - being back at daily yoga is making me extremely happy. Another really good class - the teachers at Bliss are so great, they all keep learning and developing (and learning from each other), truly a pleasure....

1hr flow yoga

Warm brief run!

Alarm went off 5:45, waking me up in the middle of an extremely vivid and fantastical narrative melatonin dream that I was thoroughly enjoying - I turned it off with firm words (THIS IS TOO EARLY) and reset for 6:15, but really I was awake and transferred myself to the other room for a last bit of lounging. Turned alarm off just before it was due to go off and was out the door I suppose 6:30 - noticeably cooler than 45 minutes later would be, the sun is just up but not full in the sky and you're a little more protected from heat. Hamstring not right, back OK at first but getting sore by the end - will continue with these short ones until both of those are significantly better.

:25 warm and easy

Happy yoga!

My favorite class (or one of my favorites, anyway - lots of great stuff here), Keri's para-yoga-inspired session. So good! MUST DO MORE YOGA!

1.25hr

Short warm Cayman run!

Got here smoothly yesterday but it's a tiring day of travel, didn't quite make it out the door to mid-afternoon yoga (also I was finishing the new Jo Nesbo novel). Could have got up earlier when alarm initially went off (forgot to reset phone time from eastern daylight to eastern standard, so it was a whole hour earlier than I even had intended), didn't, but did finally get out the door just after 7am. It's warm by then, sun's fully up, but these short runs are more forgiving. Keri is teaching para yoga at 10:15, I am excited! Really just in a good mood to be here with B....

:25 warm and easy

Wednesday stretch-run

Everything seemed achey all day, ugh, but certainly even :25 easy jog is much preferable to NONE! :15 stretch, :25 jog. Early flight to Cayman tomorrow, looking forward to mega-yoga and mega-Gibbon once I'm there....

Tuesday PT

A good session. By the time I got home, I was pretty much too tired to run - gotta get a proper schedule/life reset when I get back Cayman! (Flying there on Thursday for 10 days.) Allergies still very strong, eyes feel like sandpaper, worst season for it I can remember in a long time. Annoyed with myself for forgetting to make more PT appointments while I was there in person - will have to pick up the phone tomorrow to fix that (NOOOooooooooooooooo!)....

Monday stretch-run

Had to take a zero Sunday, was downtown at G.'s all day and was just completely DONE by the time I got home early evening. Also everything seemed "lit up" Saturday (to use Brent's appealing expression) and I thought I'd take my day off from running on Sunday instead of Monday.

I also think that at least for now I should do the PT stretches before the run, in that it remains hard to make myself do them post-run. Did that today and it worked well I think.

c. 15:00 stretches
30:00 easy run (very nice too, back much better than Saturday, hamstring not right but not painful as such)

Run/PT

:25 jog, :17 PT. Gonna start timing it and logging it here in the hope that it will act as an incentive to get it done. The hamstring stuff is honestly feeling worse than it has all year, I think working on it stirred things up - that plus seasonal allergies are making me unduly grumpy.

Catch-up

Thursday: an intentional no-run day (though really I think I should do a short run every day, resting hamstring doesn't make it any better given that it's nerve pain, and back is just tight for the duration I think!). Good PT session, not quite as painful as Tuesday's I would say!

Today: horrible rainy day, I was grumpy and didn't do much that was useful, but it did finally stop raining and I got out just now to return recalled overdue library books and have 30 minutes easy jog in the park. Which is FULL of water, air and grass alike...

(Need to eat first but WILL THEN DO PT EXERCISES - still haven't acquired stickers for a chart, but I think I must, surely it would help....)

Catch-up

Sunday: notionally intended to do 9am yoga class before checking out of hotel and going to airport, but Brent's alarm was for 4:30am (he was on a much earlier flight) and neither of us slept much in the hours leading up to that, so already weak willpower failed me! My flight was then quite a bit delayed, and I didn't get home till 2am...

Monday: A wash. Extreme fatigue!

Tuesday: A very good PT session with Jason. Much work on the unfortunate hamstring. Best theory: it's some kind of nerve impingement, emanating from lower down than spine (probably coming out of ischial tuberosity) and causing a good deal of discomfort. Two new stretches: "slump sliders" for "neural flossing" (I can't get over this phrasing!), one-leg Romanian deadlifts. In the early evening, jogged :30 and was VERY happy to be back out there, beautiful weather. Hip is fine, back is tight as usual, hamstring really felt sore after being worked on.

Wednesday: :25 easy. Again, most beautiful weather! Hamstring doesn't feel so good, hip fine, back tight by the end and I think I will stick to short runs till things are feeling better - really running short daily is the thing that's most valuable to me, shouldn't jeopardize it. Need to do stretches now - not a particularly appealing prospect.

Grumpy minor Saturday workout

I think I'm just ready to be at home and back in regimen of nutritional soundness and regular exercise - I feel like I weigh one MILLION pounds, I need to start weightlifting again. Couldn't settle in at anything - the treadmill I was on (the only vacant one out of about 30 - it's a huge fitness center!) was slightly broken in a way that meant I couldn't easily do my usual preferred run-walk intervals, and when I did first faster minute on the bike my right hamstring was twinging. Anyway, better something than nothing I suppose, but I am determined to figure out what's going on with that hamstring bit - the back problem I understand and can counter if I am responsible about it, and the hip was a local minor thing that is already much better, but this has been bugging me for a long time now. PT thinks it's possible nerve pain from some disc impingement and suggests stretching back, but I am not sure that's the only thing going on.

15 mins treadmill
15 mins back PT
15 mins bike

Friday yoga

A better class this morning, I thought. Did some PT stretching beforehand. 50-minute class.

Yoga!

Unfortunately the good teacher has gone on vacation! Today's class was a perfectly serviceable vinyasa sequence, I thoroughly enjoyed it and sweated a bit as well as getting a good stretch, but I hate seeing a teacher not really explain things properly - it was a class of mostly newbies and there was no mention of squaring the hips or many other bread-and-butter essentials that I think would have been worth spending the time on! My two cents - I think there's an 11am tomorrow taught by a different teacher, I'll give that one a go. I'm not really complaining, it's a fantastic luxury to have yoga classes offered in the hotel!

1hr yoga

Yoga!

Must have forgotten to log it earlier, but another lovely hour this morning of yin yoga. Otherwise today has been a write-off - too tired to do anything other than lie in bed!

1hr yin yoga

I'm back!

Ah, I can't even say it's been an ordeal not exercising - I haven't particularly enjoyed it, sure, and I don't like the feeling of not exercising, but I've been so busy that it was relatively OK. Medical appointment and PT Thursday gave some resolution and clearance to get started again, with caution: doctor's verdict is that I have hip bursitis, no arthritis in hips and some arthritis in spine (not great, but OTOH imaging often shows things that don't really affect day-to-day life, so I'm not too worried). Basically he says that for weightlifting longevity (you can do it till you're 90 if you're smart), less running and more yoga will pretty certainly be in order. I take that to mean short daily running being better than major endurance stuff, though I am optimistic that I should be able to have the amount of running I consider optimal without undue pain (i.e. run most days, 30-60 usually and once a week 90 - it would be hard to claim it is one's right to do more than that!). MORE YOGA!

Thereafter had a good midday session with Jason at Fusion and am determined to get back to proper PT routine, though I didn't do well in subsequent days: dawn-to-dusk conference at Columbia Friday, 5am pickup the next morning for flight to Vegas, friends picked me up and fed me and took me on wonderful trip to Zion National Park! We walked a bit early evening Saturday and did a longer hike (nothing crazy) Sunday. Monday I got to the Bellagio late afternoon and did a short version of back stretches, but had no vim to exercise. But this morning I woke up feeling very happy that it was time to get back at it!

GLORIOUSLY for me (seriously, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of what a fortunate life I'm leading) there is an 11am "yin yoga" (sort of like a deep stretch class - the yin yoga in Cayman i s more like meditation + restorative) that is PERFECTLY suited to my back/hip/hamstring needs. Did that class (will do it again tomorrow, though I don't think it's an option Thurs. or Fri., did a few more stretches after and then did 35 minutes on the treadmill.

:35 as 10:00 warmup @ 4.5, 5 x 2:00 @ 5.5, 1:00 walking recovery, 3 x :40 @ 7.5, 1:20 walking recovery