All I could have hoped for in 2018 was to learn from last year. That I would recognise my failings when it came to my training, and address the procrastination and lack of consistency that held me back in 2017.
This has not happened. In fact I think it’s got worse.
In my last blog I set myself SMART goals to help me run and practice yoga more consistently. I made a daily plan including self-care rituals to help me achieve my fitness and self-improvement goals.
Let’s see how that measured up….
Monday: An easy 4Km run before travelling to Ireland. Before bed I will have a nice relaxing Epsom salt bath.
I didn’t run as I had too much to sort out before I travelled. I also forgot to take Epsom salts with me so I couldn’t have a salt bath, and my hotel room only had a shower anyway! I did read some of my book which was good.
Tuesday: 45min Vinyasa home practice before work and a 6Km interval run in the evening followed by reading my book.
I managed to do 20 minutes yoga practice before work. No running as my hotel hadn’t got a gym and I didn’t feel like the area I was in was appropriate for road running. I don’t remember reading my book.
Wednesday: XT60 before work and a 60 minute home practice Bikram in the evening. Meditation before bed.
I was too tired to exercise before work and really needed to lie in as much as possible, then after work I moved to a different hotel where there was a gym. I went with the intention of running but the 2 treadmills were in use the whole time so I did 30 minutes on the static bike and 15 minutes of flow yoga back in my room before dinner. I didn’t meditate.
Thursday: 5Km LISS before work. Taking time to blog.
I completed 20 minutes of Hatha yoga before work. Clearly no blogging.
Friday: 75min Bikram in the studio (Can’t wait to get back in the hot room!) and some drawing.
Hot yoga yes, drawing….not so much.
Saturday: 10Km race! Then Yin yoga in the late afternoon. Planning next weeks exercise.
10Km race done. 1 hour 8 minutes and 17 seconds which isn’t good, but better than some last year! Also, no training what so ever, in fact this was my first run since Christmas Day so in some respects that time was pretty reasonable. I went to Yin later which was a good post-run stretch. No planning was done.
Sunday: 75 minute warm flow yoga followed by 75 minute Yin. Vipassana meditation.
No, yes, no respectively.
Sigh.
On reflection; I didn’t write down my self-care intentions anywhere other than on here, and as such I didn’t refer to them at all which meant I totally forgot.
The exercise was, quite surprisingly, not too far from the 3 runs and 3 yoga intentions (3&3 from here on in), as I did 6 yoga (3 classes and 3 short home practices) and the 1 run. So really not totally shit which I only realise now.
Then it went to complete shit. On 29th I didn’t do anything. I did a 60 minute hot yoga class on 30th, and then went away to France from 31st to 2nd with work. There was some walking, cycling and dancing involved but not really enough to warrant celebration. There was lots of booze involved but I do feel like I held back a bit in that regard than in previous years. So that was good to an extent.
I was visiting friends on Saturday and was due to run the London Winter Run today but since I got back from France feeling run down with a sore throat and my voice was going, and I have a really important presentation to give tomorrow. I woke up early for the race but felt a bit under the weather and snoozed for a while, but I forgot to reset the alarm and woke up just before I was due to meet my colleagues at Trafalgar Square. I decided to bail on it and to be honest I think it was the right decision. I spent all day working on my presentation and it’s still not finished!
Now I’m on my way to Copenhagen and so I’ve used the flight to plan the forthcoming week. It looks as follows:
- Monday: Room yoga (30 minutes)
- Tuesday: Room yoga (15 mins) and 5Km run & stretching
- Wednesday: Room yoga (20 minutes)
- Thursday: 5Km run and hot yoga class
- Friday: XT 60 and hot yoga class
- Saturday: Parkrun 5Km & stretching
- Sunday: Yin 75
That equals 3&3 + 3 room yoga and 1x XT. All the other goals of pre-work running and self-care plans etc. I am going to hold on the back burner as just getting the exercise done alone would be a positive step in the right direction.
From Thursday my life begins to go back to normality again, with far less work related travel and the opportunity to get back to a routine.
I really had high aspirations for 2018 and it feels like it isn’t going to plan at all, but now I am feeling more optimistic for writing out what I have done and what I aim to achieve.
