Yoga Challenge, Day 4

Today was a very busy and active day; fortunately I made sure to eat lots of cookies to prevent any weight loss from it. I started by walking to elderly parkour in the park. I was going to run, that was the plan, but my body was like "nope, not going to happen." It's only about 1.25 miles to get there, but I just couldn't do it. And, of course I left late, so I had to run for part way, but I just couldn't for the entire time. I probably ran a third of the way, and I was about 2 minutes late, so not bad. I wish parkour had a shorter warm up and more jumping on rocks - I guess the warm up and back and forth practice is good for you, but it's just not as much fun as jumping around on things. After class I climbed the rock wall 10 times, and it seemed easier than the last time. There were a couple times I got a little stuck and nervous, but not really - I think they're mostly V0's, but the wall is probably 12 -15 feet tall, you could definitely hit rocks on the way down, and you don't want to be in the emergency room right now! After, I walked back the long way. Because of the bridge being out, it wound up being 3.2 miles of walking. Plus, all the exercise at parkour.

I got home, had a really delicious bagel, cream cheese, egg thing, and then realized I had to leave to meet my socially distant friends up in Ipswich. My friend up there is fostering a new puppy, and so we go to meet her - she's so cute! The puppy likes to take things and bring them to her lair, she kept trying to steal everything, mittens, hats, backpacks. We went for a walk and then sat on the porch drinking wine and chatting for about an hour. It started getting freezing though - it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. On the way home I filled my gas tank - gas was $1.99 a gallon!

Tonight's yoga was all floor. It was pretty chill and stretchy, which was perfect after all my walking. My calfs are so tight. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day, and I'm thinking that I may not leave home, I'll so some virtual exercise, some work, write this paper I'm working on, cook, and read. Already, that sounds exhausting!

Yoga Challenge, Day 3

This is also quarantine day 12 - the end of the second week of working from home and practicing social distancing. Today, during my lunch time I went to the Fells and did the rock circuit trail to the mit observatory and back. It was definitely more than a 60 minute lunch because it included 90 minutes of walking, but it was a beautiful day and I wanted to get some nature time before everyone was out (don't worry, I still put in my full days work!) It was so nice outside, I got to the observatory and lay out in the sun, just enjoying for about 5 minutes. I saw about a dozen people on the trail, almost all practicing social distancing (though a couple millennials who thought the path was a good place to sit and chat. Oh millennials).

It was so nice out that I wanted to do my yoga outside, but parking lot yoga wasn't really inspiring. I decided to try the garden and it was perfect! I set my mat in the back on a sunny path an enjoyed the birds and trees. One nice thing about this class is it's super short - todays was about 25 minutes, which is less of a commitment than going to a studio. I think my left foot balance is getting back to normal, even if my toe doesn't really bend that well.

When I left the garden, there was a guy sitting in the park stuffing his face with nutter butter cookies like there was no tomorrow. I hear you guy. I made banana oatmeal cookies, and did the same thing.

Yoga Challenge, Day 2

Today was beautiful outside, and so I made sure to get out as much as possible including a run attempt at lunch and skateboarding in the park after work. Since I didn't have tons of time for running, I decided I would try to do my old 5K. I forgot two very important things. #1, there is still a bridge on the route out and #2 I ate legumes last night. I got to the 1.2 mile mark and my stomach started cramping up like crazy. To be fair, aerobically I was struggling a bit too, I was trying to go a bit faster than I'd been running, and so I was huffing and puffing. Also, keeping social distance from the few people who were out was tough. According to my fitbit and mapmyrun, I did a 10 minute, 40 second mile for the 13 minutes that I was running. That includes warm-up, so I'm feeling a little better about my pacing. Just not the lentils. In the end I went about 2.6 miles, but I only ran about half of it.

After work, I took my skateboard out in the playground across the street. I hadn't used it since I wiped out (ouch) a few years ago, but they have since repaved, and I thought it would give it another try. Needs work, but fun. I also tried a few of my parkour moves that didn't require touching anything.

Last night I started recovering my sofa cushions. They really need it. One in particular was in really sad shape. Yesterday I cut, today I sewed and put the cushions in the new covers. Now I just need to hand sew the bottom shut. They don't exactly match the rest of my living room, but honestly, nothing matches, and I am quite fond of it all. Once that's done, I'm going to have to come up with another project - the governor announced that we are to be home until at least May 4, that's another 5 weeks. I'm so grateful I don't have small children!

PS. I did day 2 of yoga with Adriene. She has a large and very well behaved dog that sleeps while she  does yoga. I felt very zen when finished, though my toe still isn't super bendy.

Yoga 30 Day Challenge, Day 1

The day after my Charles River run I woke up with a sore throat, headache and stuffed sinuses/sniffles. These are not signs of the virus, but nonetheless I was a little freaked out because I imagined having to tell people who I've been around that I'm not feeling well. I called my doctor and talked to one of the NP's, who said it sounds like a little cold, and these aren't symptoms. I feel completely fine, just a little scratchy in the throat. But, it really brought the isolation thing home (pun intended). So, I'm self-isolating with new vigor.

I did go for a walk yesterday. I wore gloves so I didn't need to touch any doorknobs, and stayed away from everyone else. There weren't too many people out, so it wasn't hard.

I decided today that I would do yoga with adriene to keep in shape, and then saw that she has a 30 day challenge, which sounds like exactly what I need. Today I did the first day, it was a nice way to ease into it. The session was about 34 minutes, a lot of stretching for the shoulders, which I really need right now. I thought I would try to blog to keep myself honest.

So far, no one I know has gotten really sick. My mom doesn't seem to understand what's going on, she's upset about the food situation, and that she has to wash her own hair. My sister, brother and I played pub quiz last night (with my brother's partner and my brother in law). We're all good, all but my brother in law work in education, so hopefully will still have jobs. I'm a little stir crazy, but actually pretty busy with work, and happy to have my cats, plenty of food, and lots of books. I hope all my readers are doing well too!

Charles River Run

It was beautiful and sunny, though slightly cold, out today. We don't really know how long we will be allowed outside, so I went for a socially distant run. On the way there, I did stop at Target, where I scored 8 roles of toilet paper! Ha! There was no one outside by the Charles and I found parking right on Memorial Drive. It made the run shorter, but not short enough.

I started out doing OK, but also thinking it was a bad idea, and that I wanted to stop. I told myself that the first 5 minutes is always the hardest, and kept going. I was going pretty slow for much of the run, though I did try to do some fartlicks. After I crossed the Charles I sped up for a bit, trying to do some faster, and I actually gained on a runner. But then I was breathing so hard I stopped and walked for about 5 minutes. I ran again, then walked up the ramp to get on the Mass Ave bridge, then I ran across the bridge, walked a little, and ran the last like 3 minutes. Not my most successful run, but in the end my knees didn't hurt or anything. I'm not completely sure what the pace was, but it seemed OK for the times I was pushing myself. If I can still be out running, I'm going to try to work on it.

It was so nice out, aside from the running. I forgot how much I like being out on the Charles, being a city person who runs around. The trees were flowering, there were some other people out (though not many considering the weather) and the sky was a perfect blue. The parks were empty and I didn't see many little kids.

I'm going to a virtual cocktail party soon, and we will be having a virtual seder. Strange times.

Two Mile Run

Coronavirus quarantine has set in. I'm on day 4 of working from home, and it's not as fun as I would have expected. It's hard not getting up in the morning and going somewhere. I still have work, but it's all weird because classes have been impacted by the virus. Students are anxious about how this will impact them going forward. It seems like this will be a new normal for a while - it seems so long ago that I was going to yoga class and worrying about how my toe would hold up to climbing. I really can't complain, though, I'm so lucky. My job can be done remotely, it seems that they still need me, I have food and water, internet and cats, plenty of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, and no one is driving me crazy. It's very cozy here with the cats.

I am making sure to do things like clean the kitchen and exercise. Yesterday I walked a mile and a half to get sushi, then walked back. Today I went for a 2 mile run. Yesterday was beautiful out, but today was rainy and gross. I wanted to get my exercise activities done as fast as possible. I looked at a bunch different routes, and decided on one that was just a little less than two miles. But then when I left my place, for some reason I turned left and went up hill, to the slightly over two mile route. No idea why I did that - it's a tough uphill to start and so I was gasping and puffing right from the beginning. I got to the top of the hill and really wanted to walk, but I didn't, I kept running. I did the entire unpleasant route. I was so slow - I did an 11 minute 21 second mile! On the bright side, my toe didn't hurt at all. I think I'm going to be running more, since everywhere to exercise is closed. Hopefully I'll bring my speed and distance up.

Shout out to my reader, Kit who's father isn't feeling well. Hope he's flipping bacon again soon!

Hot Yoga

Because of the coronavirus everything is closing. All the good yoga studios are shutting down, and I had to go to a hot yoga studio for class today. Man, I forgot just how hot hot yoga is. It was HOT. For part of the class I thought I might pass out. I could feel my heart beating, and I was sweating like a pig. Just as I was thinking I couldn't stand up anymore, we moved to the lying down part - I actually did all of the poses except for the last one :)  I thought lying down would be easier, but it seems that heat sinks there, it was so HOT on the floor. And, I just kept looking at my watch. With 20 minutes left I had to leave for 5 minutes to breathe, cool down, and get some water. Then I went back in and finished - I was so happy when it was done. After I drank a 28 oz gatorade to make sure I don't get sick. All in all, not a success.

Work announced that all students would have to leave campus by the end of the day Tuesday, unless they have some kind of waiver. They announced it yesterday, and today was so sad, especially for the seniors because they don't know if they will get back to campus. Today in our office we had a small graduation ceremony for our group of senior work/study and volunteer folks. They all get their graduation gowns at the start of the year, so they wore them, and we lined up in the hall and played pomp and circumstance and clapped for them. Then we had this small ceremony where we played a recording of the president's speech from last year, and everyone cried a lot. It was sweet and sad and happy at the same time. After, I wanted to go take a nap.

Being alive during a global pandemic is weird and surreal.

Rock Circuit and a tick

Last night we sprang forward, which makes today a short day. But it's so nice to have the sun go down later! I wish we just left it at this time. To celebrate the approach of spring, I decided to head out for my first real hike of the year. I did the full Rock Circuit trail, and I found a little part that I didn't know existed before, Pinnacle Rock. There's an area where things get a little loopy on the map and I always get a little confused - this time there was a group of hikers that was parents with two year olds that was going soo slow, and I was so glad to see a white blaze to turn, that I went in a direction that I've never gone before. Really glad I did - nice view!

The hike took 3 hours and 10 minutes, I took only a few breaks - about 3-5 minutes each at three view points, and once to pee. I think that's where I got the tick - when I went to get in the shower I thought I had a speck of dirt on my stomach, but it wouldn't brush off. And then I realized what it was. I think they have to be on you for 36-48 hours for you to get lyme, but I'm still a little freaked out. What happened was that I usually have the best pee karma - no one ever comes when I am peeing. But this time there I was, with my butt exposed, and I heard someone coming. So, I ducked low so they wouldn't see me. Fortunately is was a female trail runner, so she moved fast (and I wouldn't have been as embarrassed if she did see me.) But, I bet when I ducked down is when I got the tick. I read they will be worse this year because we didn't have enough days below freezing. I may buy some clothes treated with that bug stuff...