Day 290: Getting a baseline

The second of my running goals, if you remember, was to run a mile in 8 minutes.  Honestly, the last time I did such a thing was probably in 1993.  But nonetheless.  Since I have been working on the 5k time for awhile, I haven't really run one single mile to test out where I currently stand.  So today I thought I would give it a go.  I learned a few things.

1)  next time pick a route with no uphills
2)  also pick a route where there is no crossing the street wildly in front of traffic so as to not mess up your time
3)  it's too cold for me.  I'm still thawing.
4)  I'm still not as fast as I was when I was 10 or 16

But I did it.  I think I probably could have gone a smidge faster, but for a baseline run, I did ok.  8 minutes and 35 seconds.  Maybe I'll try once or twice more if the weather warms up again, but I have a feeling that we are mostly on pause with this until spring.  Now, who can tell me how to shave 35 seconds off of a mile?

Day 287: Back to the Splits

Latest update.  I decided not to run in the 5k that I had mentioned.  My goal was never to do a race.  My goal was to run a 5k in under 30 minutes.  And I have now proven that to myself multiple times.  And that's good enough for me.  I don't need the t-shirt.  Thank you anyway.  My boys had their last soccer game and we took a lovely family day trip to Cooperstown instead.

So now that the weather is beginning to turn (again- no one will get me to run in the cold...), I feel like I can get off of running for a bit and onto another goal that I still haven't accomplished.  The splits.  I have not been stretching my splits for months so I though that I would see where that left me today.  There is lots of stretching in my Piyo workouts, so I knew I wouldn't be back to square one, but I definitely have regressed and have some serious work to do.  I would like to be able to check these off by the winter, so... may the stretching re-commence!
 

Where I last left off:

And today:

right

left

center

Day 274: Balance

I was away this past weekend.  For a long 4 day, sans-kids, New England autumn expedition.  It was wonderful.  Saw a favorite old friend, didn't have to worry about feeding anyone else or driving to whatever game there might be at whatever schedule was set for me.  But what I took most away from this trip was balance.

Life is too short not to eat the fried dough.  I am a healthy eater 95% of the time.  So I think that I have set myself up for the allowance of the country fair food every once in awhile.  Today though, salad.  :)

I am a power exerciser.  Fast, sweaty, get-er-done mentality.  But I had a lovely hour and a half long slow-flow yoga session facing the white mountains which forced me to calm my body.

My normal "relaxing" Sunday would be parked in front of the tv, cuddled on the couch with a warm blanket watching football.  But there we were 7:30 am on Sunday, hiking up a mountain.  It was beautiful and relaxing in an entirely different way.

I loved having adult time with no schedules, but missed my kids terribly and was glad to get home to them even if just as I pulled in the driveway, one came around the corner with a big black eye caused by the other one.

So I say, LIVE.  Do the mountain yoga, bounce like a crazy person in your living room, eat the salad AND the fried dough.   And be happy with the balance.

 

Day 268: Maybe I'm NOT all that slow....

Apparently I run as fast as an average 25-29 year old male.  Not bad.  I'll take it.

Day 263: Aerial Yoga

Yep, you heard me.  AERIAL Yoga, people.

I used to hate yoga, because apparently the only yoga I had ever tried was slow, granola, breathe deeply and don't move for 10 minutes yoga.  And I have an exercise (and life?) attention span of about 30 seconds.  But then I found a more active type of yoga.  With lots of core, movement, balance and sweat.

In August, a friend and I took an Aerials class with the Cirque Eloise at Proctors.  And now when I grow up, I want to be a circus performer.  The one who does those high graceful poses on the silks.  Or "tissues" as the French speaking instructors called them.  I was so in my element.  I could have stayed there all day twirling away on those silks.

(excuse fuzzy iphone pics.  Also I was twirling, and therefore hard to capture)

Shortly thereafter, another dear, dear friend gave me a gift certificate for my birthday for 3 classes of Aerial Yoga at Good Karma Studio in Albany.  AERIAL YOGA.  I didn't even know that that existed.  Obviously she knows me well.  I was thrilled to tears.  For real.  And I finally got to try it out today.  

So I will try to explain.  There was a fabric hammock type deal which the owner/instructor, Jessica, calls the swing.  Which you can sit in, lay on, extend limbs into and flip upside down holding onto it with your legs.  There are pictures of what I mean on the website.  We spent the first ten minutes of the class upside down hanging from this piece of fabric and simultaneously doing yoga breathing and stretches.  If you can get past the first 2-3 minutes of the blood head rush, it actually settles down quite nicely.  Apparently they say that you can clear your head and focus, yoga-style, much more easily when you are inverted.  

Obviously I couldn't take a pic of myself.  So here are some other random ladies doing Their inverted thing.

I'm pretty sure that I stretched muscles today that haven't moved in 25 years.  It was unlike anything I have ever done, and you know I loved it.  Every stretchy, balance challenging second.  And I can't wait to go back.  It's really just a massive shame that this studio isn't much, much closer to me. I think I could become a very frequent customer.  Let me know if anyone ever wants to go give it a try.  Jessica offers drop in classes.  You can just sign up online.