Week in Review: Re-Setting Expectations

I started out last week with a “say it, do it” post to give myself for motivation to stick to my exercise goals for the week.  Let’s recap what I had planned vs. what I did:

– Run 5 miles – Completed Monday

– One 8 mile run – Decided not to run it, will explain later in the post

– One yoga class – Yes, but hated the class

– One 6 mile run – Completed Wednesday

– One 3-4 mile run – Decided not to run it, will explain later in the post

– One day of strength training or sporadically included after my daily workout for at least 3 days. – Done!

As you can see by the red, my week didn’t pan out quite as I had planned it. I started off Monday going strong with a 5mile run. Tuesday I was feeling tired so I just road the bike and lifted some free weights. Wednesday I had dedicated to my 6mile run so I “got ‘er done.” After that the week was downhill though.

The past week or so I’ve been in a lot of pain and I’ve been exhausted. I’m not sure if the pain is a flare up of my piriformis injury (hip/butt/back/thigh pain), or something completely separate. The pain started off about 2-3 weeks ago as a severe tightness in my hamstring. I figured a little stretching would help it go away…I was wrong. I’ve been stretching like mad and my hamstring is still pretty flexible, but once I stretch it out it immediately tightens 30min later (it’s like a rubber band!). More recently my hip/butt have re-acquired that mean jabbing pain that I had with my original injury back in May. On top of it all, my body and mind felt exhausted last week. When I realized the jabbing pain in my hip/butt was making it hard for me to sleep, I decided I needed to slow down on the exercise.

I wanted to still stick to the cross-training part of my weekly plan, so I woke up at 6:30am on Thursday morning to get to a 7am yoga class in Union Square. I use the term “woke up” lightly because I barely slept a wink that night. I was EXHAUSTED (to really over use the word), but I had promised myself I would make the class so I did. I foolishly had planned to run the 1mile from my apartment to the yoga studio, but when my feet hit the ground my legs felt like tight melt rods. Running wasn’t working. I struggled to run/walk, but made it to the class (seriously 1 mile was hard!? What happened to me!??). I don’t want to mention the name of the studio because I’m about the bad mouth the class and in all fairness, I was not in the right mindset for an exercise class that morning. That being said, I hated the yoga class. The teacher was kinda bratty and not yoga-ish at all. She was wearing cut off jean shorts and a white undershirt — I mean, come on, at least dress the part. The instructor knew there were 5 people in the class that were new (myself included), but didn’t really care to help us at all. She powered through the routine at a fast pace, not even demonstrating the moves. I’ve taken yoga in the past, but I’m not really a seasoned yogi. So when the teacher called out poses in quick succession without even a hint to how my body is supposed to move, I was lost. Honestly, looking around I didn’t feel like the only one. I had to leave early (aka on time) at 8:05am because I have a little thing called a JOB to attend to. I very quickly snuck out, but I felt like the instructor was giving me a dirty look. I had gone to yoga because I needed to stretch out, I’m going to say mission NOT accomplished. If anything it left me frustrated and mentally drained. I kept thinking to myself on my walk home, “at what point did I go to from the ballet dancer to the awkward girl in yoga class?”

After Thursday with my failed attempt to run one mile, combined with lack of sleep and no lack of pain, I decided I needed some time off from running. Taking time off from running scares me. It took me 26 years to get the up courage to run and stick to it. I’m afraid if I stop, I will lose my motivation and endurance. I still don’t really know what to do, but I took Thursday – Sunday off from running to relax. I was bummed I didn’t make it out to Central Park on Saturday morning with Shannon and many other bloggers/runners for a long run. I heard the Park was packed and I would love that energy burst you get from being around so many other runners! It was for the best, though, I guess.

Due to the impending doom of Irene, I spent most of the weekend inside watching tv, reading, catching up on blogs, riding the stationary bike in my gym and doing some strength training. Saturday night I was thrilled to discover that my favorite wine bar, Cavatappo, was open despite MTA shutting down and the hurricane nearing in on NYC. The BF and journeyed out around 7pm for wine and some yummy eats. We split a pizza and this delicious casserole of butternut squash, mushrooms and some type of cheese. It’s basically the same meal we get every time we go there. I’m a big advocate of trying new things, but sometimes you need your standard “go to’s” as well. It was barely raining and not much wind when we walked back around 9pm, but I felt the need to pose for a Hurricane Photo:

Sunday, around 2pm when it looked pretty calm outside, the BF and I took a walk out to the East River. The path was flooded with walkers and runners. Despite a few strong gusts of wind every now and then, it was actually really nice out.

I want to end this post on a positive note, so I want to share something from last weekend that I never got around to. Here are cupcakes the BF and I had made last weekend for a good friend’s Birthday. It was so much fun making them and so easy (from a box!) – for decorations we just threw in everything we had left in our cabinets (reeses, M&M, fruit chews, sprinkles). It was hysterical how everyone loved them and declared that no way could the mix be from a box — WRONG, thank you Pillsbury! Please note, the cake is confetti cake because everything is better with sprinkles!