As much as I like to think I'm a spontaneous person, I tend to crave routine more than I like to admit (perhaps some of that comes from the fact that there ISN'T much routine in my life so I create routines just to pretend I'm in control of something...). That being said, however, I do realize the importance of avoiding ruts, especially with exercise where rut = dreaded fitness plateau, so I usually try alter something every so often. With fitness you don't have to shake things up much, even doing exercises in reverse order can be enough to keep reaping the benefits (i.e. lifting weights before cardio instead of after, etc.).
Anyway, rather than harp on what's recommended as far as variation, here's what my last three days looked like:
I've been doing a strength week of P90X2 so Thursday I did the shoulders and arms workout. One of the bonuses of Thursdays is that both S and E have preschool so I have two glorious hours at home with baby B napping. Lately I've used that time to both watch Charmed reruns (one of my guilty pleasures) and workout. Then, because I have a tri coming up in May I try to run after I've done whatever else was on deck for the day (to practice running when already fatigued) so when E got home I threw her and B in the stroller and headed out for some 4x1 intervals. She jumped right into playing 'I Spy' with me (usually I initiate it as a way to stimulate her away from premature stroller napping, but today she started it while fully awake); really one of my favorite things about running with my kids is the silly conversations I end up having with them. Not much variation here, yes, except for the recent shift to running last which is more significant than you might think.
Friday things were a bit more interesting. P90X2 devotes most Fridays to yoga, however, I plan on doing the second version of strength next week so I don't want to do Tony's yoga two Fridays in a row. Plus there's a yoga class at my YMCA I've been eyeing called 'Yoga Sculpt,' which is just yoga while holding some of those squishy small medicine balls. Awesome. Anyway, I've only ever done yoga with one teacher at the Y and I love her, but I thought I'd branch out and try this new class. Turns out my regular teacher was actually subbing, which was good because she's a fantastic teacher but I still have yet to try out another one. Oh well. It wasn't as tough as I thought it'd be; I started out erring on the side of caution and used the lighter balls but quickly moved to the heavier balls, and the weight actually made some poses easier to hold. But it was nice to do something different. Then later (during blessed nap time), because I had big plans for Saturday and would be skipping the prescribed Base/Back workout I also tried out one of the bonus workouts they sent me with my P90X2 called One on One on One Leg for Legs. No joke. It's part of Tony's one on one series where he literally has a guy videotape him while working out at his house. I liked it better than the other One on One I've tried, though it wasn't quite as intense as I was hoping for. And it was way shorter than the advertised 52 minutes, especially with my fast-forward-through-the-chit-chat method, it was more like 30 (if that).
This morning was great - S woke us ALL up way too early yelling he had to go potty (what the...he's almost 5, he can totally go to the bathroom on his own...and doesn't have to yell about it) so that was fun. I tried to let Bishop get a few extra minutes of sleep while I set the children down to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and headed out to Master's Swim, though I doubt that held them for long. I haven't been to Master's in a while, mostly because it's been lovely to enjoy the pool in the day, but today I wanted to do a good brick workout. I did my classic Master's Swim Lite, only getting about 1300 yards, followed it with a couple of squat jumps to get my land legs back (yes, in my swim suit...it's a pretty sight) then ran upstairs to catch the spin class. I searched in vain for the nice Keiser bikes that were all taken (as expected...I was ten minutes late so I sulked to the clunky schwinn one closest to the door) and then enjoyed 30 minutes of cycling. Probably one of the best parts about spin class is the music, which is why I get so picky with my spin instructors. I've settled on one at the Y because she plays mostly great songs, so when one of the first songs I rode to was Muse's 'Super Massive Black Hole' I was trying to remember why I don't always exercise to music (see Thursday's paragraph as to one compelling reason I don't run with music). After my half hour limit, I bailed for the treadmill and ran some hill repeats (the only hills you can find in Houston are on the treadmill. Or over a freeway). Nothing complicated: 90 seconds at 5% incline and 8mph with 90 seconds 1% incline and 7.5 mph recovery; 8 of them kept my run less than 25 minutes so I could maintain my goal of 90 minute exercise cap. It was interesting how short 90 seconds is, as lately all my intervals have been more in the 4-5 minute range. Yay for brick training! I should do them more often.
The rest of the day? Laundry, laundry and more laundry. My dryer was broken for almost a week and I hadn't done laundry as a result (letting things air dry here takes f..o..r..e..v..e..r and takes more planning than I was capable of). Yes, a broken dryer is a huge first-world-people-problem but it still derailed my routine of daily laundry loads. It goes without saying this variation in my routine was not as appreciated as my brick workout this morning or yoga with squishy medicine balls. But it was probably still good for me. I'm still trying to figure out that sweet spot between keeping a routine and keeping things varied, regardless of whether or not things were varied by choice.
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