March Madness -- Days 23 & 24: It Only Hurts for a Minute (or 10)

Saturday - March 23 

After my three days of hard workouts, I woke up Saturday morning barely able to move. The thing was that I'd already signed up and paid for a hot yoga bootcamp with the Amazing Adrienne, so I had no choice but to go. I spent most of my drive there trying to figure out how I would be able able to remotely do a push up or anything when I couldn't even lift my arms over my head. 

I had told my dad Friday night that I couldn't feel my arms, and he said, "If you couldn't feel them you wouldn't be complaining, I'm guessing you feel them and they hurt." Accurate. Then Saturday the World's Cutest Personal Trainer wanted to know why I was groaning even taking the trash out, and I said that my arms hurt a lot. Her response: "At least you have arms, you should be grateful you have them." Aw, sweet and surprisingly profound from my 7-year-old. Well, until she added: "And its a good thing, because if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to get me my fruit snacks or drive me places." Less sweet, but I get her point.

So I headed into Hot Yoga Bootcamp (a deadly combo of bootcamp exercises, power yoga and 90+ degree heat), with a bit of gratitude for my life... and a strong wish that I'd thought to take a healthy dose of Advil before going to class. So I went through the yoga poses at the beginning of class totally sore and stiff, but a funny thing happened, about 10 minutes in, right about the time we had to start doing insane balances on a bosu ball (seriously, those things weren't meant to be upside down!) and happy feet (which are totally misleadingly named) and Navy Seal push ups (I can't even)... I started to feel better. The heat from working out had loosened up my stiff, achy muscles enough and made it so I could survive this very demanding workout. Driving home from class in the cold when my muscles stopped working... well, that's another story. It is a very good thing that all I had to do the rest of the day was shop with my friend.

Sunday -- March 24 

Waking up on Sunday morning at 6 AM... also didn't feel so great. But I knew I had to get some running in. I have a new pair of cute Asics (that I'm pretty sure you can see from outer space since they are so obnoxiously bright) that I needed to break in for my half-marathon training. Since this was my first run with my new kicks, I didn't set a major goal, but had about an hour set aside to run. I run about 12/13 minutes a mile when I'm not killing myself, and just decided that with the new sneakers, I was going to see how it went. I ran about a mile on the track, and my arches weren't at all happy and my mile time was well over 13. So I headed off on the paved trail around the park, hoping that even if I wasn't going to get much done with speed, at least I could get some hill training in. So up one hill and down the other side and still kind of felt like my feet were lead. I even had to walk a few paces to shake my legs out a bit, which is something that I haven't had to do in a while. So I turned to go back up the hill and was mentally trying to figure out the shortest route back to the track where my car was parked, even though I'd only gone about two miles. 

Then that strange thing happened, my muscles were tight and my feet were adapting to the new shoes, but halfway up the hill a fun song came on my iPod, I leaned a little into the hill and I just felt suddenly good. I ran up the rest of the hill down the other side, and breezed around some more of the trails, and arrived back at my car 55 minutes after I'd left having clocked just over four and a half miles. Not too shabby for me! Especially considering that the first two miles were extra slow. Obviously, I'm loving my new supersonic neon shoes. My only complaint was that I stupidly forgot to put on my running playlist and just had my ipod on shuffle, so it went from Ratt to One Direction to Arcade Fire. But that's an easier fix than trying to find new running shoes.

I probably should have called the day a success, but I wanted to squeeze in a yoga class (not of the bootcamp variety) to work out some of my sore muscles. So I went to the gym for the Amazing Adrienne's Sunday morning class. It was packed, but Adrienne always gives a great class, and makes me feel special, and a bunch of my pals were there. My ability to hold a chaturanga was low and we must have done about 30 of them, but I survived the rest of the class and got the good stretch I needed. 

Best of all, when I went to see my Weight Loss Miracle Worker, I'd lost the weight I put on during my crazy binge eating phase. So physically it turned out to be an awesome weekend. Now if I could just find someone to do my laundry for me... because carrying those baskets and loading the washing machine might actually be what breaks me.

March 21 & 22: Hopping Off the Personal Training Train

So Thursday morning at the crack of dawn was my last official personal session with my trainer because of financial stuff. I'd pay her for the rest of my life if I could, but that lotto ticket still hasn't come through. I'm mostly worried that without the individual attention, I'll just stick to the same old stuff and not push myself. Or worse still, just not go to the gym in the morning. I'm driven, but I also go because I know that she's waiting for me. On my own, I might be tempted to hit snooze. I hope that's not the case, and will work hard not to make it the case, but its still a big concern. And I love my trainer. She's sweet and tough and knows exactly when to push me and when to pull back. She's really the best.

I still have some bootcamp time, but then I have to share My Kick-Ass Trainer with a few other girls. So knowing it was my last individual session, we decided to go out with a bang. She started with some normal burpees and lunges (though off a Bosu ball, just for kicks) and then took me out to the assisted pull-up machine... as she knows I need to do that for my Tough Mudder prep. Assisted sounds so nice because it takes away some of the weight, but pull-ups are damned hard, even with "help" and the fact that she had me do sets where one hand was forward and one hand was backwards only made it worse. In between pull-up sets, she had me do dips and then pushups off the little steps on the pull-up machine. I never thought I'd see a day where I was happy to do dips and pushups, as they were a relief. Then she had some fun with the resistance bands, make me do leg lifts and stuff, and then some general core work of full sit-ups to round things out. By the time I got to work, I could barely move my upper body.

But that didn't mean I was going to skip out on my Thursday night yoga class. It's my favorite night of the week, no way I'd miss that because of some sort muscles. Of course that class was heavy on the planks, which my sore forearms and shoulders didn't really care for, but had a lot of lunges and warrior 2 thrown in and held for ages, just for fun.

By the time my clock rang at 5 AM to rouse me for bootcamp, I had all I could do to roll out of bed. And I headed into bootcamp stiff as a board, but after the first 50 jumping jacks or so, I started to loosen up, and then she put us through our paces with lots of jumping, walkouts, burpee variations and planks. So many planks. It's gotten to the point where I'd kill to do crunches instead. As long as this means that someday I'll have a flat enough stomach and have the nerve to wear just a sports bra and shorts while running.... it will all have been worth it.

March Madness - Day 18, 19 & 20: ... Yoga

So my quest to exercise every day this month didn't really account for the crazy pounding headache that I had that just wouldn't go away for two days. I have no problem working out when I have a cold or cramps or general malaise. In fact, working out usually makes me feel better, but there was nothing I could do with the migraine that didn't make it worse. Jumping, jogging, sit-ups, they all either made me dizzy, increased the pounding feeling or made me want to vomit. Shoveling the few inches of snow around my car on Tuesday morning was torture. So I opted to take off until anything other than walking didn't make me feel like crying.

I realie that this terrible headache was likely attributed to my drastic change in diet (I ate everything bad for two weeks and the immediately went down to nothing), but still, even though it was my own fault, I am mad that I couldn't quite achieve my goal. Instead I did my juice cleanse from my Weight Loss Miracle Worker Danae, and ate nothing but green veggies and some lean proteins along with her vitamin-filled juice. It sounds terrible, but it really isn't as bad as it sounds, and it definitely detoxed my body from all the sugar and salt I'd been eating.

So since the headache had largely subsided, I decided to join my friend Kathy for her private class at her house again (she's really just so generous letting me come). Her husband, who is new to yoga, joined us and The Amazing Adrienne ran us through our paces, as usual. It was a great class, especially since I finally landed a pose I've been working on. I have zero idea what it is called, and I'm terrible at describing things, but here's my lame attempt. You start in one legged down dog then bring your left leg in, while putting your arms in a chaturanga pose, then put your bent left knee on your left leg and your other arm goes into your hip. I've gotten to this point quite a few times, but the trick is that you have to tip yourself forward so that your back leg goes up in the air and you are balancing on your arms. It looks impossible when Adrienne does it and her feet gracefully fly up in the air, but while my foot only made it a few inches up, it was still up in the air. I definitely appreciated Kathy's nice squishy floor though when I crash landed a few seconds later. Something I'll keep practicing, and then I'll get Isabel to take a picture of me doing it.

Adrienne also showed us the start of kurmasana, a pose I'd seen on tumblr and was fascinated by. While I've got a ways to go to get my arms completely tucked behind me and my legs straight ahead, at least I can see how to get there... sorta. Even if I never quite make it, its an amazing stretch even in the beginner stage.

And now I feel like I'm back on track. A nice workout. Another scheduled for the morning and a body that is free from sugar and most processed foods. And while I didn't meet my March Madness goal, I'm still determined to squeeze as many days of good fitness in this month as possible. There's still 11 more days and I'm going to make the most of them.

March Madness - Day 14, 15, 16, 17: Training, Walking, MagiQuest and Nothing At All

The continued challenges of my "March Madness" quest to exercise every single day in the month.

It's the middle of the month and my energy is clearly waning. Not only for blogging, but also for doing actual workouts. It didn't help matters that I had my Sunday weigh-in with my nutritionist and it didn't go well. The great stuffing of my face of 2012 (see the last post's food confession) didn't help. But Monday starts a new week and a juice cleanse… so hopefully that'll get me back on track.

Thursday - March 14th

I didn't do my normal double trouble Thursday workout of Training with Tara at the crack of dawn and yoga at night, because yoga got cancelled. But I still did a pretty tough training session that ended with these cruel leg raises where you laid on your back and then lift your legs, and then make a diamond shape in the air with them. I am terrible at describing this stuff, but let's just say they were pretty painful and they worked out some lower ab muscles I wasn't sure existed.

I ended my day trying out a few yoga poses I saw on Tumblr… this was as bad of an idea as it sounds. Thankfully I stopped before I dislocated something.

Friday - March 15th

Early morning bootcamp, which was really funny for some reason. Everyone was joking around and I had gotten a full night's sleep (almost 6 whole hours!) so I was up and at 'em. It was burpee heavy, and that was great. But then she had us doing these hopping things where you raise a knee in front of you and then put it down and raise the same knee out to the side. Let's just say, my Lord of the Dance impression was part of the day's amusements.

After work I was going to my friend's house to see her baby and do some shopping, and they live on the upper west side. It wasn't appallingly cold out, so I decided that I'd walk from my office in midtown, and cut through Central Park. It was beautiful to meander down the Writer's Walk and by the lake. Probably only about a mile and a half and took me about 15 minutes longer than it would have if I'd gone to the subway, but it was well worth it. A nice stress-relieving way to end the week.

Saturday - March 16th

I had every intention of getting up and going for a run, but I had missed my normal bus home on Friday and ended up taking the late/drunk bus (which is no fun if you aren't drunk) and not getting home until close to 2 AM. So I got to bed about 3 and then when my alarm when off at 7, I just couldn't muster the energy. This does not bode well for my personal spring training…

I picked Isabel up at 8:30, we headed to the city because I had to go see a movie screening of The Croods for work. Well, didn't HAVE to, but I love taking my kid to free movies when I can make it work with my schedule. I told her that we could either walk there or back, it was close to 2 miles, but I knew she could do it. She opted to walk to the theater, so we trekked up to Lincoln Center. It was a chilly but sunny day, and my cute model did some posing and didn't even complain that her legs were tired.

After the movie we went back to NJ, then met quickly with her uncle for lunch and headed off to a MagiQuest birthday party. I thought that I'd just get to sit around while she played, but she wanted me to help her. This meant that I basically ran around in circles at MagiQuest for an hour. We covered some serious ground, especially as she got the hang of it and started picking up the pace.

Sunday- March 17th
We were planning to go for a run as the World's Cutest Personal Trainer and I are doing a 1 mile race next month (she picked it because it goes around the mall parking lot). But when we woke up, it was frigid outside. I don't mind subjecting myself to runs on ridiculously cold days, but I felt like asking my kid to do laps at the outdoor track in sub-freezing temps with a crazy windchill was just too much.

So we stayed in and snuggled, then went to my Weight Loss Miracle Worker and found out that the scale was up… significantly after the last two weeks. Isabel told me that according to The Biggest Loser, I should try to lose weight not gain it (yeah, thanks), and that she was going to train me and even make me dinner on Monday (we shall see how THAT goes). You'd think this would have motivated me to do something, and it might have, but then Isabel had to sell Girl Scout cookies to get her booth sale badge and we froze outside for two hours.

After I thawed out, I had a headache and just general exhaustion, so I diagnosed myself with needing a break and prescribed an afternoon and evening of resting. Even the World's Cutest Personal Trainer passed out on the couch at 7 PM, which is very early for her. Who knew selling cookies in the cold was such hard work.

I've got high hopes for the next week, and am disappointed in myself for getting off track, but trying not to get totally discouraged. Instead, I'm grabbing my Excederin (because as I write this Monday AM, that head ache hasn't gone away), my juice from Danae and a ton of veggies and hoping to turn this bus around before it goes back to chubby land.

March Madness - Day 13: Walk the Walk

The continued challenges of my "March Madness" quest to exercise every single day in the month.

So first, the exercise and then the true confession.

Yesterday I was out of my normal Wednesday night routine, which typically involves me working later to do catch up, and then a workout of some sort.  I went to a book signing/reading because my friend Kim had friends who had written the book Sexy Feminism.  I knew that I wouldn't get home until late, since the reading was downtown in New York and the buses are few and far between after 10 o'clock at night.

The reading was at 7, and according to Google Maps (what did I do without them?) it was about a three mile walk. So I left my office at 6, figuring that a 20 minute per mile pace would allow me to comfortably walk in my boots with a slight heel and not be disgustingly sweaty when I got there. And it was fine. I got there are few minutes early, even with having to stop occasionally for traffic lights. And since it was fairly nice weather (in the 40's), I wasn't freezing the whole time. It was less stressful than taking a cab or worrying about missing a subway stop because I was really into a podcast or something. I mean, I did get really into a totally relatable episode of "You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes", where he was talking to Matt Mira about relationships, but that's besides the point.

The actual point is that I got a walk in. Even on a day when I didn't really have "time" to "workout", I managed to walk more than a lot of people do. And it was enjoyable.

So now its time for the true confession part of this blog post. I've been on a crazy eating binge lately. It's been bad. Really bad. And not just for a meal. More like on and off for two weeks. That's not to say that I've been just stuffing my face with bags of chips, but there have been birthdays and a lot of dinners out and lunches out… and just generally a lot more sugar and sodium and red meat than I'm used to eating.

To be honest, while some of the foods were delicious (I had pastrami from Katz's deli last night, for example), the side effects haven't really been worth it. My stomach is revolting, I'm getting headaches constantly and I just feel more lethargic than normal.

All this food is not going to help me get in Tough Mudder shape, or even half-marathon running shape, so I've got to get back to focusing on eating a largely healthy diet, and cooking for myself again.

My scale has been broken, so I honestly don't even have any idea what kind of damage I've done in that sense (though hopefully all the exercise will at least have helped keep it to a minimum). I'm sort of dreading seeing my Weight Loss Miracle Worker Danae on Sunday, because she's got that pesky scale for me to look at. We shall see how it goes, but I've got a feeling I've got some work to do. But the first order of business isn't losing any added pounds, but instead it is getting rid of this stupid sugar induced headache.

March Madness - Day 11 & 12: Failure, Bounce Back and Teaching the Next Generation About VHS Tapes

The continued challenges of my "March Madness" quest to exercise every single day in the month. 

So Day 11 was my breaking point of the month. I was hoping it would be closer to Day 21, but while I didn't get any proper exercise in, I am still determined to get as close to 31 workouts in the month as I can. Monday's are always really tough for me schedule wise, and physically, my muscles were just not cooperating. It was a mean old double whammy.

I got home late on Sunday and got up early to do work. I was working from home so that I could take Isabel and her friend to their Girl Scout field trip in the afternoon, so there was really no option to sleep in. It was really cute to watch them traipse around a local farm, trudge through the mud and plant marigolds in a greenhouse. Then we came back here with her friend. Then it was time for homework, dinner and bed (for her). Then I had to watch the finale of The Bachelor for work. That three-hour extravaganza took me until close to midnight to finish watching.

I was going to try and make an effort to do the elliptical after that, but my quad muscles were screaming at me. I tried to work it out with the foam roller (yes, at midnight), and then did a few sit-ups, but every time I laid down, I was fighting the urge to close my eyes and get some sleep. I keep reading that sleep is almost as important in weight-loss as diet and exercise. And so until they find a way for me to do sit-ups or walk on the elliptical in my sleep, I guess I am stuck taking a few hours to actually lay down in bed.

This morning I got up at 5:30 to work again, and then took her to school and headed to work, but I told The World's Cutest Personal Trainer that she had better give me a good workout tonight. So while she worked on her homework in my bedroom, I did a series of crunches and sit-ups. Then I asked her what kind of exercising she had planned, and she picked Pilates.

I had found in the back of my closet this beginner's Pilates kit that I've had forever and never actually used. You want to know how old this kit is? The instructional video is on VHS. VHS!?!?! Isabel was highly interested when she that I had to use the VCR side of my DVD player (it is one that transfers VHS to DVD). She was confused by me having to actually fast-forward through the commercials, instead of just chapter skipping, and couldn't quite get why the tapes were so big.

So we gave Pilates a whirl. It wasn't exactly the most physically demanding Pilates tape on the planet, but we did a few yoga poses afterwards to round things out. The World's Cutest Trainer kept checking the screen and looking at me to make sure I was using the proper form. She's good like that. She even decided to give me kisses when I did something right. Kisses from my 7-year-old? That's pretty good incentive to keep moving.

So while this particular instructional video wasn't exactly great, we agreed that we'd find a new Pilates DVD next time we went to the store (perhaps one that was made in this millennium) and give the Pilates kit another shot at a later date. I'll mostly be happy that I don't have to spend 20 minutes trying to remember how to use the dusty old VCR.

Day 9 & 10 

Day 8

Day 7

Day 6
Day 5
Day4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

March Madness - Day 9 & 10: Hot Yoga Bootcamp, Running & Some Massage Therapy

 The continued challenges of my "March Madness" quest to exercise every single day in the month. 

This weekend was packed full, but that doesn't mean that I skimped on my workouts. Saturday morning I got up super early, did my laundry and packed up Girl Scout cookies that needed to be mailed out to friends and family. Then I dropped off Isabel with her father and headed off to Hot Yoga Bootcamp. And my beloved Fitness Guru Adrienne kicked my ass for an hour. I know that I lament that her longer weeks (an hour and a half) are the alternate weeks that I can't go because I have Isabel, but honestly, between the heat and the workout an extra 15 minutes might actually kill me. 

And for those who hear yoga and thing "easy", let me just tell you, the very fit guy behind me who came with his wife was sitting on the ground halfway through the class dying. This class is not for the faint of heart. It's a heated yoga class for the start and then it kicks into high gear and becomes a full-on bootcamp class complete with kettlebells, bosu balls, so many push-up variations, and any other crazy things that comes into Adrienne's head. I sound like I'm complaining, but I pay extra for this because I love it.

Afterwards I took my disgustingly sweaty self (seriously gross) to the post office with six giant boxes of cookies to send off. Let me just tell you, some people are real jerks. Some woman saw me struggling to open the door and practically ran the other way instead of holding it open for me. 

Then I headed off to celebrate my friend's birthday, play with her baby and then stayed at her apartment in the city overnight. Got up pretty early in the morning and went for a lovely run in Central Park. My friend Jennie had considered coming with me, but when I told her my hill interval plan, she decided to opt out. Probably wisely. 

From her place on the Upper West Side, I headed north in the Central Park loop up to the top of the park where the nice giant hills are located. I ran up and down the big hills in one direction then turned around and ran them the other way. Got to get that training in for the Pocono marathon some how. I slogged my way up the hills and sprinted my way down. As is my norm. Good thing that my half of the Pocono marathon is almost entirely a decline. On my way back south, I happened to notice that alongside the main running loop there was a dirt path, so I hopped on that for a while and my legs were in heaven. It didn't hurt that the sun was shining and it was close to 50 degrees outside. I couldn't have asked for better weather conditions.



I was feeling so good that when I got over to the Reservoir and saw that it was a dirt path and nice and muddy from the recent snowy rain, I started smiling. I'd already clocked 5 miles per my GPS and had at least a mile back to Jennie's apartment, but I couldn't resist a loop around (my GPS says its just over a mile and a half). I was practically bounding and was grinning at everyone who ran past. I even told my dad that I had fun running. Yes, I know how insane those words sound. I usually just tolerate running, but maybe this is the elusive runner's high? Or perhaps I'm only really enjoying running when there's a chance there will be mud on my shoes. But I do know that when I'm running on dirt and trail, I pay far more attention to where I'm stepping so I don't kill myself or twist and ankle, that I forget about breathing and how much my legs hurt. 

I think that my mile and half reservoir loop was actually my fastest mile or so of the day, even though it was close to the end of my run. Too bad that most of my races are on pavement, and that most of the places near to my house are all concrete and tar. Then again, maybe if I were running on dirt all the time, it would lose its charm. 

Unfortunately, after I got off the dirt path and back on the pavement to head to home base, I was still in my bouncy mode and killed my poor hamstring. I had to walk/run the last mile back, even though I've been run/running for a while. 

Afterwards I had to get ready so that Jennie and I could go for our spa day. Her husband had gotten us a lovely package with a mani/pedi, massage and facial as a Christmas gift and we finally worked it out schedule wise. But for me relaxing is harder than doing a bootcamp workout, especially when strangers are touching me. On the plus side, I told the massage therapist about my sore little hamstring and she fixed that right up. I could get used to that. Normally I'm way to fidgety, but I told this nice woman that I'd been trying hard to meditate lately and she told me she was a Zen Buddhist Monk and then helped me relax with some guided meditation. I wasn't quite as comfortable during the facial and the rest of the pampering, but it was still fun and then Jennie and I got to have a nice girl dinner together, I snuggled her baby a little more and  headed home. 

So it was a little chaotic, but a lot of fun. Aside from the clocks jumping ahead for Daylight Savings Time and stealing an hour sleep, I'm not sure I would have changed a thing.

Day 8
Day 7
Day 6
Day 5
Day4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1