The last week

On Saturday 23rd I was due to visit my best friend and go to a party with her and Giles in the evening, so I did an arm-focussed circuit workout at home before I left. 

I chose not to drink alcohol so that we could drive home and sleep in our own bed that night and on Sunday I had aspirations to run and go to Yin. I spent the morning spring cleaning the kitchen which was quite satisfying. Particularly as it was sunny and the dust seemed to be so bloody visible!

After lunch I ran 8Km which again I found quite tough. Is it really possible that those 10 days off exercise have impacted my fitness level this much?

Yin was at a cute little studio near my house called Revive. The interiors were lovely and it was a really nice space to practice in. Having ClassPass has allowed me to explore the yoga spaces in my neighbourhood which has been a real joy. 

Over the last week I have been travelling a fair amount. I had a trip to Birmingham on Monday returning to London on Tuesday night, so I took my gym kit for a workout only to find out my hotel didn’t have a gym. I did some yoga in my room on Monday night and some sun salutations on Tuesday morning. 

After work on Tuesday I travelled back to London before heading over to Essex for dinner and to stay the night at my oldest friends. It was so lovely to catch up for the first time in 4 months and to hear all about her life and how she’s been doing. These kind of opportunities spending time with people I love and hearing about their lives are so important, even when it may not be that frequent. It’s something I’m going to try and make more time for.

I walked to the station on Wednesday morning, a 30 minute brisk walk and then had a meeting in London all day. It was the last day of my free month on ClassPass and I had booked into a 90 minute Iyangar yoga class in a renovated church in Clapham. 

When I arrived there was a choir using the space to practice and it gave me chills! They were incredible and I learned that they were the choir that sang Stand by Me at the Royal Wedding. It reminded me how much I used to love to sing, but I never do anymore. Mainly because singing religious songs is in conflict with my beliefs. I think I should be able to find a choir that I can sing non-religious songs in. The only issue might be finding a choir I can join even if I can’t necessarily commit to weekly rehearsals due to my work travel commitments. 

The yoga class was good, it was a bit stop and start for my liking, as before each posture there was a demonstration and more postures needed a degree of set up with props. But overall I enjoyed it, but it made me realise how much I’ve been missing my Bikram practice this month. I need to get back to that ASAP.

The remainder of the week I had just been feeling shit. I’ve had a head cold and my balance has been off because of it. So exercise has been on the back-burner. I don’t feel great when I can’t exercise and after that 10 day break I had I feel like February has been a disaster.

Looking back I’ve done 2 XT sessions, 3 home workouts, 4 runs totalling 39.1Km (but one of those runs was a half marathon), 3 x sun salutations and 7 yoga classes.

It’s pretty much half of what I did in January and I don’t feel good for it, so I’m going to make some decent plans for March that will allow me to build up my fitness again.

Despite feeling shit about the lack of exercise I must remember that a lot of this rest has been due to illness. Sometimes you just need to take the break when you need it, but nows the time to turn things around.