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

Jumping Through Hoops

Actually, not jumping, but that might have actually been easier and far less embarrassing. In the spring of 2010 (shortly after I started on my diet journey in earnest) got a groupon deal for a hula hooping fitness class... in Central Park. It was a great deal and since I had decided to take on new challenges, this one sounded like a great idea. On paper. In my brain I could just magically start hula hooping even though I'd never displayed any aptitude for the hobby before. And in my head I didn't take into account doing it in public, where people could watch. Perhaps I should have invested seven bucks and bought a hoop from Target to try at home before making an idiot out of myself.

But I'm not exactly one to think these things through all that well, so I happily signed up and before you know it I was in the middle of Central Park (right near a very well-trafficked running loop) and given a weighted hoop (taped up with brightly colored electrical tape) and being taught to hula hoop. To say that everyone else caught on more quickly would be an understatement. By 10 minutes into the class most people could do a hoop for at least a few spins around their hips. I couldn't. I spent all of my time spinning it wildly fast and then gyrating like a lunatic until the hoop fell and I had to pick it up.

By the time the very patient instructor started trying to teach the others how to walk and hula at the same time I was out of breath and fairly well exhausted. For a girl who was about 250 lbs. at the time, bending over repeatedly was quite an effort. But, because I'm insanely stubborn like the rest of my family, I stuck with it and then finally he started teaching a skill that didn't involve getting the hoop around my hips. Instead, it involved taking the hoop up and over your head, whipping it around your hand and then taking it behind your back and then back over your head, in one big loop. Now this? This I had a handle on.

All of a sudden, everyone else was struggling and I was a pro. Thank goodness for all that time in high school doing Winter Color Guard, learning how to take a flag and wooden gun up over my head. And the hula hoop was far less of a potential concussion than those metal poles.


The instructor was visibly confused at my ability to somehow do this task, which was tripping everyone else up, and baffled that after 60 minutes I still couldn't manage to hoop for more than six times. But everyone's talented in different ways... and at least being good at some portion of it made me feel slightly less self-concious about looking foolish in front of thousands of people (my friend Jennie, among them). And because I could do the hoop overhead, at least it kept me from passing out from bending over to retrieve my hoop for the entire length of the class.

For the record, though I bought a hoop and occasionally pick it up to give it a whirl.. I'm still awful at it. I've watched youtube videos, practiced and tried changing spinning directions, but to no avail. At least my six-year-old kid is an expert hooper and she gets a lot of use out of all the hoops we have in our house. But I swear, every time she tells me, "Mommy, its so easy!" I start screaming on the inside. But, I tried. And that's the important part... or at least I tell myself that when I see how ridiculous I look in these pictures.