Thirtysomething

More with the Gym

So I went to yoga on Saturday. I know! Didn't I just say that I was shelving pilates, yoga and that stretching class? I did say that. But I like the yoga class more than the other classes and if I'm doing about 6 hours a week a the gym, which equals really 6 days at the gym, then I have one "off" day. And I decided the yoga class could be my off day. Saturdays are as good as any day for an off day.

Anyway, so we go through the whole yoga routine and one of the things I love about my instructor is that she switches things up each week, which is great because I don't get bored. But this series of poses didn't seem particularly challenging. Well, one or two of the poses were, but overall, I didn't think it was one of the toughest.

Until the next day when I felt like someone had my middle back and the backs of my thighs in a vice grip. Wow. That's all I can say about that. I wound up not being able to go to the gym on Sunday at all and my legs are still suffering a bit.

I'm glad I went to the class, but very, very sad, because I found out my instructor Nora is leaving. I've documented before how much I love her. I want her to be my best friend. She's warm and beautiful and bendy and if I wasn't married and was into chicks, I'd totally want to date her. I'm so not pleased to learn of her departure. She'll be here until late October, so I'll be going to the yoga classes until at least then. Apparently, her replacement is someone who she taught. So, even though it'll still be a power yoga class, hopefully it won't involve me standing on my head.

Yesterday was the first day of the new gym experiment. Since my legs were still sore, I opted not to run. After all my bitching about it, I did the recumbent bike for 30 minutes, but at a higher intensity level and I made sure I was pedaling faster than usual. I stood up and my legs weren't screaming in pain so I did 15 minutes on the eliptical. After work, I did another half hour on the eliptical. This morning was the eliptical again for 20 minutes and then I braved the treadmill for 25 minutes. The treadmill was rough going at first; some days it's easier to run than others. Today was one of those days where I had to play games with myself: okay, I'll run just until the end of this song (on my iPod); okay, well now, let me just run until my time gets to a nice even number like 10 minutes; okay, I'm still alive, so maybe I can just do 5 more minutes; okay, I'll get off when CNN (on the gym TVs) goes to the next commercial, etc. Somehow if I break it into little goals of 3-5 minute intervals it's better than just thinking I'm committing to 20-30 minutes of running from the get-go. Anyway, I wound up getting into something of a groove after awhile. I ran 2.75 miles in 25 minutes. That's not too bad, I'm a little proud of myself.

Of course, now my legs may be screaming at me later tonight...we'll see. But the plan is to go back after work for about 30 minutes of something aerobic. I'm officially skipping pilates tonight though. Which is kind of nice because that's an hour-long class and now I'm only going to do a half hour at most.

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 7:05 AM