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

March Madness - Day 8: Bootcamp, Shoveling and I Just Keep Rolling Along

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

Started the day at 5:20 AM with a little bit of cleaning my car off. All that threatened snow finally started sticking. Only a couple of inches, and it was wet so it cleaned off pretty easily, but it still made me about three minutes late for bootcamp.

Apparently I only missed some jumping jacks, but I hopped in just in time to do the second round of mountain climbers and jumping jacks. Then Tara threw some medicine balls at us (mine she almost literally chucked in my direction) and we learned that none of her regulars are good with balancing on those balls. I was fine with doing squats and chucking the med balls in the air, but trying to do push-ups off of the ball is harder than it may seem. So we switched to just some regular weighted squats and did a whole bunch of core exercises and other things I can't even remember at this point. 

All I do remember is that at one point my trainer came over to check on me because she thought I looked wiped out. I told her I was just tired from yesterday's double work out, but she was worried that I wouldn't make it through. Even the other regulars thought I seemed off. But I did make it through. Although when we walked out of the gym they were playing a weird version of <I>Wicked</I>'s "Defying Gravity" and I had to check with the two other girls I was walking out with to make sure I wasn't hallucinating (the gym usually gears to more standard Top 40 fare). 

After I got home from work, I had to do another round of shoveling, and was so like in the zone that I even did the spot around my sweet neighbor's car (she's older and all hunched over, but just so nice and always gives Isabel cookies). Our spots aren't particularly big, so it only took me 15 minutes or so. 

Then I picked up the World's Cutest Personal Trainer and we went out to the mall to do some shopping. We had to go all around to find the perfect gifts for some special friends who have birthday's coming up. 

When we finally got home, I realized that everything was vaguely sore. I got out my new-ish foam roller and did my back and shoulders (i'd only done my hamstrings and quads last week when I got it). Oh man, it hurts SO good. I may be vaguely obsessed with it. 

Naturally Isabel read all of the instructions and told me how to do all the exercises. Then she gave it a whirl herself, she had "work out her booty." Now I'm ready to curl up and sleep, but glad that I got the second week off to a strong start. 

Day 7
Day 6
Day 5
Day4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

March Madness -- Day 7: Double Trouble

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

Thursdays have become a double workout day and today was no exception. Since the threatened snow storm turned out to be nothing more than a flutter, I got up and went to the gym for a 6 AM training session with Tara. I only have a few more personal sessions with her. I'm going to be really sad when they are done. 

Today we returned to that lovely bench (I believe it is called a Roman Chair, as I discovered in my half-assed internet searching) where you stand up and then bend over doing sort of a reverse crunch. The purpose is to exercise your back, and boy does it. I am really starting to see some definition. My shoulders are rapidly becoming my favorite body part. 

In between doing sets of those (with a weighted plate, of course) and then curls, and then this weird thing I can't even begin to describe, she had me doing all sorts of squats with weights. It was a good workout... which she ended with some core work. Back, butt and abs. I sort of waddled out of there. 

Then after work, I rushed out in the still flurrying (but not sticking) snow to go to my Thursday night yoga class at 8 PM. It was a great power vinyasa from the always wonderful Adrienne and I love the small venue. My only complaint (and really it is more just me whining than anything) is that she's been on this Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon) kick lately and its like my least favorite pose. I'm not even sure why. I'd rather fall on my face attempting crow (which I did... three times) than do this not that terribly difficult pose. I do go through phases with poses though, so I'm sure that will turn around eventually. I used to dread doing one-legged anything, and now I'd almost rather do a one-legged chaturanga rather than a two-legged one. ALMOST. 

And even though my butt hurt from yoga last night and then my morning squat workout, I didn't even mind that there was a lot of time spent in and out of Malasana (a yoga squat). I do reserve the right to change my opinion on that tomorrow morning... during my 5:30 AM bootcamp class. Guess I should go to sleep before my alarm goes off for that one.

Day 6
Day 5
Day4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

Trial and Error: The Bar Method

A Real Life Thank You Card

In an effort to find my next exercise addiction, I'm trying out a bunch of different kinds of group classes. A couple weeks ago on a Sunday, I decided to try a Bar Method class. I'd been hearing about all these classes that involved ballet barres and how intense they were, so I finally decided to give it a shot. I found a place about 30 minutes from me. There is another location in Montclair which is closer to my home, but that entire town is vaguely intimidating and there class was full at that time, so I opted to make the trek a little further north in New Jersey.

The space was wonderful. So bright and calm. The staff was incredibly friendly and welcoming and while I was nervous about what was in store for me, and if I'd be able to hang, I was excited to try the class.

And while I was sitting in the sunny room with lots of mirrors and a soft off-cream carpet feeling out of place, two very fit, but very pregnant woman walked in to take the class. I figured if it was safe for pregnant women, how bad could it be.

And it wasn't that bad. The teacher was nice and offered suggestions to everyone in class. I needed a bunch of reminders to point my toes as yoga has sort of beaten that habit out of me. We did a lot of push ups and that sort of thing. The key though was that this was for toning so all of the arm lifts and leg lifts we did weren't hard, but involved many more reps than you'd normally have to do. Just lots of little pulsing movements.

It wasn't the impossible feat that I'd been lead to believe, and after I got over the hurdle of getting my leg up on the barre (I was concerned I wouldn't be able to), the rest of the class was fine. I did feel worked out, but not disgustingly sweaty like I do after bootcamp. My biggest complaint was that my socks were too slippery for the carpet. I needed those little kid socks with the grippy footpads on them.

As I'd told the woman at the desk I was testing things out, neither she or the teacher gave me the hard sell, but instead told me that I'd be welcome back for individual classes as my schedule permitted, and they gave me their information. And then a few days later I got a thank you card from them. A THANK YOU card. In the actual mail. It was very sweet. It made me wish that I had loved the class so much that I'd want to go back all the time. But unfortunately I just really can't afford to do a class regularly (it was 25 bucks a class) unless it is my total obsession. I appreciate all of the toning and see how it could help with sculpting (and I may try the dusty Pilates DVD that's been sitting in my closet for years) but I think I'm still seeking out something either a little more high-impact or high-energy.

March Madness - Day 6: Private Party

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

I had a workout planned for today, but this afternoon I got a wonderful invite from my friend Kathy that I couldn't refuse. Lest you think this means I skip my workout, I didn't. I just changed my exercise plan. Instead of the elliptical and more jumping jacks than one person could really stand, I got in some power yoga. Kathy was getting a private class from my beloved yoga teacher Adrienne and she graciously asked me to join them. It was such a wonderful treat. I almost don't even have the words.

The class was full of Adrienne's wonderful power yoga moves and she really pushed us both, but to be in a space with just two people with an instructor really devoted to you is just so special. Especially when that teacher knows what you can and can't do and how to push you. And Kathy had this amazing padded floor, that made my wobbly crow attempts a lot less painful when I crash landed.

Anyway, I'm sure my hamstrings and forearms aren't going to love me tomorrow morning, especially since I have to get up super early for a personal training appointment. But whatever. My trainer Tara is used to me doing something wacky and coming in all sore by now.

Day 5

Day4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1