spinning

So, turns out that traveling on 4 planes in 5 days, two 4 a.m. workouts, temperatures ranging between 20 degrees and 75 degrees and being stuck in a conference room the size of a small closet with a very sick client will lead to illness. Who’d of thunk it. Clearly not me. When I got back to New Jersey on Monday, I was 50 shades of sick. I didn’t feel good. I didn’t want to move. I was just exhausted. Did I mention with all of those variables, I also ran a half marathon that Sunday? Immune system was at an all time low. I ended up taking Monday off from working out and focused on hydrating and trying not to die.

By Tuesday, I was feeling a little bit better, so I headed to the gym for an easy run and kept it casual. The run actually felt very very good. It was nice to get my legs pumping and on the move after basically sitting all day on Monday. I did teach spin too, but I am working (semi-successfully, but I’m a glutton for sweaty punishment) on toning down the intensity in my teaching so that I don’t expend energy I could use on these harder runs on my cross-training. But this little lady loves to teach, so I’m not giving it up haha.

Wednesday was a doozy. I was ill, but my workout needed me to not be because we were doing 800 repeats y’all. Somehow, some crazy way I laced up my shoes and got 4×800 in a 6:57 pace. I was sweating like crazy, but for some odd reason was sold on doing this. Crazy person table of one. I spent the rest of the day being sick and pretending that I wasn’t. Next.

Thursday was two spin classes, both that were extremely fun to teach but left me so. tired. at the end of the day. I am very happy to report that Thursday I slept in and it made all the difference I think I felt a little more refreshed and I actually lasted to the end of the day, another win! By Friday, I decided that after I finished my workout I was calling it. I woke up early, got my miles in, crawled back home and vegged and it was GLORIOUS. That evening was probably the best I’ve felt all week.

Now I know a lot of people say that you shouldn’t workout when you’re sick and I generally believe them, but I think a lot of time “being sick” is more of a mental thing than a physical thing. I try to follow the rule that if anything is bothering my from the neck down, I’m taking the day off. Since my illness was primarily only in my sinuses and a sore throat, I said game on and got my runs in as best I could.

I wrapped up the weekend with a crazy run. I had 10 miles on my agenda, but 10 seemed like a lot to do at one time having just run 13 the week before. I decided that I was going to split it up into two. 4 miles in the early morning and then 6 with the local run club I had just joined. The first 4 were painful. Not painful like “ow that hurt, make it stop” painful like they slogged on and there was seemingly no end in sight. I started wondering how possible and feasible the other 6 were actually going to be. When I got to run club, it was about 40 degrees and sunny, so pretty optimal running outside weather. I had forgone gloves (ugh, why, I love gloves, why did I do this to my hands?) and almost wore a tanktop because the humidity was making it feel just a little bit warmer than what was the case. The run started and we were off. When I had joined last time, we stuck to a pretty even and consistent 8:40 pace, which would have been perfect for the recovery run I was aiming for. Today apparently the group was feeling ambitious because we took off at an 8 flat pace. I kept repeating in my head “the way to get faster is to run with faster runners”. It was a challenging run, much less flat than some I’m used to, but it flew by. I had great company the entire time and was reminded that talking with other runners about running is just fun. By the time we finished up our loop of Rutgers campus, my Garmin beeped 6.8 miles. Because I’m a crazy person/stickler for even mileage, I jogged my sorry, freezing butt to my car to finish the .2 remaining.

My ankle felt good after the run, but weirdly my knee on my opposite leg felt tight. Like achey right above it, almost in my quad area. I iced and elevated for the rest of the day and reveled in the fact that my dreaded 10 miler turned into 11. My knee has been slightly bothering my since on and off, but I don’t think it’s anything too serious yet, so I’m just going to watch it and see what happens. I have an appointment to see a chiropractor about Active Release Therapy on Wednesday, so I will have an update then. I did 5 easy miles this morning with no problemos, so let’s just hop it’s an ache and pain because this broad is aging.

Week 3 Marathon Mileage:

Monday-Rest

Tuesday-4 Easy Miles, Spinz

Wednesday-5 Miles (1 mile w/u, 4X800 @ 6:57 pace, 1 mile c/d)

Thursday-Double Spin Action

Friday-5 Mile tempo (1 mile w/u, 3 miles @ 7:39 pace, 1 mile c/d)

Saturday-11 miles (4 @ 8:57 on treadmill, 7 @ 8:12 with run club.)

Total: 25 miles and miles of smiles.

More travel later this week and an impending 13 miler on Saturday is going to make for some oh such fun times.

-sj

Have you guys ever seen that SNL sketch about back home ballers? If not, I will leave you with this, come back when you’re done. Right now Leslie Jones going “Bowls, bowls, all types of bowls” is stuck in my head except I have rearranged the lyrics to be “Goals, goals, all types of goals”. I am aware I’m a lunatic.

I’ve been doing a heck of a lot of self-reflection lately and one of the weirdest realizations I’ve come to is that I am extremely goal oriented. Someone at work asked me the other day, “What are the top three things on your bucket list?”. I stopped and thought about it for awhile. To be honest, I don’t have a bucket list. I set a goal and then I work to get it done. I wanted to run a half marathon, so I did it. I wanted to become a certified personal trainer, so I did it. I wanted to teach spin classes, so I did it. This is what motivates me in the morning. It’s the reason once I stop working, I start in on a long list of other projects I’ve got going on. I’m never happy with where I am, but I know where I want to be. In the middle of all of that madness is where I find the inspiration to keep going.

I heard this quote the other day “the space between where you are and where you want to be is inspiring”. I have goals and dreams bigger than I can imagine at this point. I don’t have a crystal clear picture, but I know the type of person I want to be and everyday I do something to work towards that goal. While I’m working towards my goal, I’m crushing small goal after small goal and each one is inspiring me and fueling me even more.

I don’t crush all my goals though. In fact, for every step I’ve taken forward I feel like I’ve taken four giant leaps back. But it’s that tenacity and that feeling of knowing there’s more good to come that makes me work a little bit harder.

In my spin classes recently, I have regularly reminding my riders to not get complacent. That minute that we feel comfortable and secure is the minute that you should realize you could be doing more. It’s hit your butt on the seat and coast after a hard climb, but that’s not the type of thing that changes you. We did a class the other day that cycled between a run, a climb, and an interval set over and over again with very minimal rest. It was so difficult, but everyone was happy with how they had performed in class. They had set a goal of completing the challenging workout and as they worked to get there, they realized the power of what they were doing to reach that goal. Something we can all take away, that’s for sure.

-sj

Love & Lunge

working out through illness and marathon training week 3 y’all.

the space between where you are and where you want to be is inspiring.