One of the hardest things for me during IVF was not being able to exercise so much. I was advised not to do hot yoga as the intensity and heat is not recommended, but I was also too knackered to run. I stuck to walking which I did enjoy, but it just isn’t the sort of intensity I need.
I took a week off pretty much any exercise when the cycle failed, to let my ovaries calm down from the medication. This week though I have tried to get back to my routine.
It’s likely we will do another round of IVF in the next month or so, so I am going to keep out the hot room for a while. Whilst I miss it I understand that in the run up to IVF it’s important to not take my body into extreme conditions.
I want to get back to my daily exercise regime, but I don’t want to over do it this week so I’m going to do some exercise every other day and both days on the weekend, then next week get into daily practice. For me daily practice is all about mixing up my workouts so some parts of my body are recovering whilst I train other parts.
This week I did my first run for a month. I ran a difficult 4Km on Monday. It took 26 minutes 35 seconds. On Tuesday I rested. Wednesday I did 15 minutes of yoga in the morning and ran 5Km in 30 minutes 47 seconds in the evening. Considering the lack of runs recently I was pretty pleased with that.
As motivation I have booked a 10Km race next Saturday morning! It may be a bit of a challenge but it’s good to be back to it.
I’m resting again today and tomorrow I plan on a 6Km run.
On Saturday I am going to go to the gym. I have been avoiding it for months, but as I am in London all next week I want to take the opportunity to get back to a weight training programme. I think I avoid it because I think it’s this massive undertaking, but I have to keep telling myself I don’t have to do everything, I just have to do something.
Then on Sunday I might try a 7Km run and a do bit more yoga.
Next Tuesday is my birthday so I have Monday and Tuesday off work. Ideally I will run 8Km on Tuesday and 9Km on Thursday before the 10Km on Saturday. I can also do some weight training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and some yoga at home too.
I’m going to write up a plan and try and stick with it. It shouldn’t take long to get my fitness back as it was before and I feel motivated to do so, which is normally the biggest hurdle of all.
