Exercise Diary: Yoga and Life

Yoga Tuesday again.  This will be the last Tuesday of this term that I will be going to yoga classes.  Starting next week I will have lab sessions to TA every Tuesday night.  We've agreed to move our yoga day to Thursday, but we'll see how that goes.  I foresee a lot of missed classes ahead.

And for once in a long time I actually skipped running yesterday.  I even planned to go run.  The gym  is now in full spring term hours, which means that it opens until 10 pm.  And because of that I had planned to be in lab until after 7 so I would have time for everything.

Time I did have, energy I did not.  I was exhausted by the time I left lab, I just could muster the energy to run.  Plus my calves and ankles were sore ( much better now, it really was just muscle soreness), and my plantar fasciitis is getting quite bad ( my foot is hurting right now).  I considered it very wise to have skipped gym yesterday.  But it also means that my schedule is again completely screwed up and I will probably postpone the training plan by another week.

Not that it matters anymore.  Yesterday my friend had confirmed that she will not be running the half marathon we had planned to do.  Although she said she would be happy to go with me, I quickly called off the plan too.  It's a week before I had to leave for a conference, and right in the middle of the last third of my TA.  And I just don't think I could have the time and energy to worry about it.  I thought that the cancellation of my running goal would not affect my routine, but apparently it has.

I don't think it's the only reason though.  Although I had anticipated that I will all of a sudden become very busy because I'm TAing again this term, I had not factored in how mentally and physically exhausted I would be.  And this is ridiculous: it's only the second day of the term and I had not taught any students, graded any papers, or dealt with any problems.  So far all I did was attend a TA meeting, a lecture, and a lab prep training session, and I'm already constantly exhausted and overwhelmed.  I think part of it was that because time is all of a sudden a commodity I was also trying to squeeze more experiments into certain days as others are increasing becoming unavailable.  That combined with the fact that I just don't do well if I have to get up early in the morning, is making me a very unhappy person.

And because of it I fear that my workout routine also has to change to accommodate my new (but temporary) life.  I will have to come to terms with not running as much or work out as much.  I will also have to be more efficient.  If it takes me an hour to run a certain distance, I will just have to shave off time for before and after I go so working out doesn't take up 3 hours of my life that I don't have.  And I also need to be careful of my diet since I tend to over eat and eat unhealthily when I'm tired or stressed, and to moderate my fluid intake so I will still drink a lot of water every day but will not have to go pee every 5 minutes when I'm supposed to be doing TA stuff.  The peeing part worked pretty well today, but the fluid intake part did not.  I couldn't have drunk more than 1.5 liter today, and I already feel dry.

Before I started this week I was already overwhelmed with all the things I will have to do this term, and my response to myself was to just "suck it up."  There is just simply no other way.  And the motto remains, but I have to figure our how to suck it up smartly or I will completely fall apart in probably every way of my life.  I haven't worked out how to do it yet, but I will definitely keeping trying.

Exercise Diary: what a day

Spring is finally here!  Need proof? Mud.  I actually stole the last bit off of a board somewhere on campus.  But it's true.  It's been raining all day today and we've moved on to snowy to muddy.  Not my favorite part of spring but I did go to the gym today with no heavy jacket or outer pants so...

So much happened today in terms of everything fitness.  So far today I've drunk about 3 liters of fluids (coffee and water) and still counting (I'll try to get down 3 14-oz mugs of tea before bedtime), which I've been doing all week but today I actually rigorously counted and timed my fluid intake.  My diet, however, fell short by about a mile since I ate nothing but spaghettios  all day (breakfast and lunch).  They are homemade and they were make this morning so at least there was no preservatives and they are fresh, but in terms of nutrition... well, telling yourself it's got protein from milk and cheese and veggie from the tomato sauce can only go so far.  Plus I way over ate and basically spent the whole working day today doing everything I could, short of self-induced vomiting, to get all this carb and fat out.  This included standing all day, walking around as much as possible, drinking a lot of water afterwards, and even doing squats while I was in the dark room developing some film for my experiments.

The good news is, I did manage to get some of it out before going to the gym.  I wasn't worried about feeling bloated or full while I run, but I just don't want to carry any extra weight if I can.

I also found these fat burning pills I bought way back when, that if you take them about an hour before your workout, they help increasing the amount of fat you burn.  They got good reviews when I bought them who-knows-when, and I figured that since I had some left I might as well take them before I go running.

I think part of its mechanism is to induce water loss right before your workout, and somehow quench your thirst during the workout, and I still haven't figured out if it does anything to you afterwards.  I don't feel that my belly or thighs getting extra warm or anything so I don't know if there are more fat being burnt, but the whole water loss at the beginning was unsettling.  I had thought I just drank too much water during the day and therefore I had to go to the bathroom more but what happened before I had to leave for the gym was unsettling.  I was afraid that I wouldn't last even a mile on the treadmill before I had to go again but thankfully somehow by the time I got on the treadmill my body went into no-i-don't-need-anymore-water-but-i-also-don't-need-to-get-rid-of-any mode.

So that was all weird, but my run today was fantastic.  I still weighed more than I did yesterday when I got on the treadmill (still lots of people today and the cardio machines were dangerously full but there was one for me and that was all it mattered), but my 4-mile run felt great.  The speed I usually run at felt easy and effortless, and I could just go on and on.  The only thing that bothered me was my right foot as I sped up, but I managed to stay at 5 mph for about 10 minutes before I forced myself to slow down as my run was approaching an end.  I really think I am getting better.

Watched an entire episode of Makers series on PBS on the women's movement.  It was the first of a two-parter (I think, there may be more than 2 parts so who knows), and it ended gloomily as the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be passed in the 70s and abortion clinics suffered severe harassment till today, but the show was narrated by Meryl Streep and ended on a promising note.  The second part advertised things like gay women's rights (featuring Ellen Degeneres) and some other exciting but now-forgotten topic I can't recall, so I think I'll actually go search for it on the PBS website and finish watching the two-parter.  But it was a remarkable show and at various points I found myself to be very emotional and almost cried, all while running of course.  It was weird.  But I guess after all the LOLs while watching various cop shows and sit-coms it's time for some opposite emotions.

After I got home I buckled down and did the Day 10 beginners pop pilates workout from Blogilates.  It consisted of some ab workout, bubble butt workout (which I also did on my own on Tuesday and was still feeling it), and a stretching video.  I also added a new arm workout that was part of new video Monday.  That video only had five moves and 1 minute each for each move, so it seemed easy (and short), but by the time I finished doing the arm circles and arm spears (which were too bad) and triangle and cobra push-ups (really really bad) I had absolutely no strength for alternating plank push-ups, as my arms started to involuntarily crashing down onto the floor.  So it was only a 4-minute workout for me.  My arms still hurt a lot and I had trouble pointing and clicking the right window on my computer screen afterwards.

Now I'm done.  Yay and it felt really good too.  Plus I'm feeling hungry as much carb-heavy lunch has finally passed through my colon.  No carbs tonight.  Okay maybe a little but definitely no spaghettios and no heavy dairy stuff mixed in.  Maybe some soba noodles.  Mmm.

This Week on the Net (6/23-6/29)

I know I skipped a week, just wasn't up to it.  Summer is here, and the blogosphere is filled with tips on running safely in the heat.  Marathon training season is also here, so there are a lot of posts on how to train for a marathon or half-marathon as well.

• Der Scott: How to Run While Injured.  Sad but true.
• Running in the heat; why you are more likely to get a heat stroke during shorter races.  Very interesting reads on how the sweat glands work and how the body takes care of over heating.  
• Training for you first half-marathon. Super appropriate~
• Mount Washington Road Race 2014.  I've heard of this race because some members of our local running club have run it in the past and were featured in their past newsletters.  But apparently it's a much bigger deal since the most recent race was featured on the Runner's World website.  It's a scary ass race of 7.3 miles going all the way up Mount Washington.  It's one big hill.  You climb for an hour or two up on one, one, 12-20% grade hill.  I need time to let that sink in.
• No difference between men and women on weight loss?  Runner's World called our attention to a recently published study that monitored the caloric intake and output of a group of overweight men and women and found that given equivalent caloric intake and exercise output the men and women lose the same percentage of body fat.  Essentially the conclusion of the article is that men and women are capable to lose the same amount of body fat given the same eating and exercise regiment.  It was an interesting study, but it was more interesting to read the comments below the article.  Many people still don't believe it given their anecdotal experiences, and others use it to prove that women have a harder time to lose "weight" than men.  I think I agree with all those who comment this way, since it does sort of prove that given the same regiment, women would lose less than men, poundage-wise.  So when they step on the scale there is still a difference.  But in terms of percent body fat it's the same, which in my opinion is more important.  I'm very frustrated by those who are obsessed by the number that appears on their scales.  I often ask people if they want to be healthy and weight more or sickly and getting to their goal weight as an example, hoping they would realize their ridiculous obsession.  Yet at the same time I step on my own scale several times a day, taking joy when the number becomes lower.  I think that's because I've not reached my goal body shape that I'm happy with.  I think once I reach a healthy weight I would no longer be obsessed.  
• Oatmeal's comic on marathon running.  Everyone seems to be sharing this excerpt of the upcoming marathon-themed book by Oatmeal comics.  Since I saw it first on the most recent Runner's World issue I was unimpressed when everyone was raving about it on the internet.  But it's still pretty funny the second time I read it.  Do go on to his website and read the multipart comic strips on how he started running.  

Exercise Diary: Best Yoga Class Ever~

Recently I've been on this bad procrastinatory cycle, where I put off going to yoga class for two weeks and then go again with great trepidation for being so out of shape yoga-wise.  Today was no different.  I went back to the yoga studio for the first time in two weeks, my thighs still hurting from Sunday's run, and I was worried about how out of shape I was going to be, how hot and sweaty I was going to be after I was done, and how miserable the windowless, humid basement studio felt in my mind.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

Because of the beautiful summer weather that finally greeted the Upper Valley, and because of the summer term in this college town, today's class was only half filled.  We were able to spread out nicely.  In addition, although the studio is still heated for its class it actually feels cool and breezy at times so it's not humid and yucky.  In the two week when I was absent they managed to paint a nice pale blue and white tree on the orange wall across one side of the room so it looked less ugly, and the tree was very tastefully done.

The class was awesome as well.  We started slow, in the child's pose, did a bunch of breathing exercises to get us into the rhythm, and gradually went into downward facing dog.  I don't know what it was, but by staying in push up high plank for a bit longer than usual I was able to take better control of my pose and my downward dog was better, my arms straighter, my back more arched, and my head dropped straight down so that for the first time in my life I was able to breathe deeply and easily in this pose.  And it was a revelation.  It was so awesome that my breathing was improved overall throughout today's class.

There were some parts of the class that really reminded me of how sore my legs still are from the running two days ago, specifically the chair post, the chair twist, and the crescent lunges.  Not only were they painful, they heated up my legs so much that my sweat glands were working over time.  My legs felt like squeezed sponges after we got out of those poses and it felt like water was pouring out of every pore into my capris.  But luckily we didn't do endless crescent lunges today so while I felt accomplished that I got through the poses they didn't seem to drag on.  Instead we took it easy in between with runner's lunges, which is just the crescent lunge with the back knee dropped down, and warrior II, which holds an infinite numbers of variation on its own.  We didn't do a lot of balance related poses like the tree, the airplane, or the eagle poses, but I suspect my balance is still my weakest part that seem to regress with my infrequent class attendance.

I also felt that my running has somewhat strengthened my control of the different poses.  I now have a much easier time with all the different lunges than before, and I feel that my base is much stronger.  I really like this instructor  because she always took time to work on our core.  She is the only instructor who made us do crunches, and I'm really glad of the opportunity.  We also did a short planks when we were in between the dolphin pose, which was easy for me since I always try to do minute long planks on my own.

And most thankfully, my foot pain only acted up once during one of the crescent lunges we did and afterwards it never bothered me again.  My ankles and Archilles tendons were behaving, and my hips were more flexible than I had anticipated.  Still sucked at all forms of inversions but that's no surprise.  I felt so cleansed afterwards.  And I wasn't the only one.  My friend who went with me thought it was an excellent class as well.

When I run my body feels lighter, happier, and more effortless after about 2.5 miles.  Although my speed never goes up I always enjoy the later part of my run much more.  And for the first time, I experienced the same thing in yoga.  As we got to the end of out class the instructor was talking about the homestretch and finishing strong, but I found that I didn't need that to motivate me because I felt I could go on forever.  It was such a strange but familiar feeling, I was quite proud of myself.

I don't know what happened today that culminated into such a wonderful class, but there were a few things I think I could try again to achieve the same result.

1. Keep running.  Aerobic exercise or not, running has definitely strengthened my leg muscles.

2. Keep doing those sporadic core exercises, especially planks.  I don't know if it real but I feel my arms are getting stronger judging by the downward dog and its preceding poses.

3. Eat a light lunch on the day.  I didn't cook a lot for today so all I brought was some rice and uncooked cucumber mixed with salt, pepper, chili flakes, and sesame oil.  I had a small bag of Cheeze-its as snake about an hour before class since I was starving by then.  But the light and carb/veggie rich lunch really helped to make me feel light, maybe strong as well?

4. While I get the merit of heated yoga I also really appreciated the light breeze in the middle of the class. I sweated a lot but didn't feel too dehydrated afterwards.

5. Speaking of hydration, I drank a lot of water before going to class and maybe that also helped,  given the ample seasonal articles now coming out about running in the heat.

These things aren't hard to replicate.  Besides the light breeze in the classroom I have control over everything else I think contributed to today's awesome class.  So next time I must repeat the same things, hoping I can replicate the same result.  Doesn't always happen in lab, but I really hope it will happen for yoga.