Hello everyone,
I realize that I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, and now I am back. Where have I been? What have I been doing? The million-dollar questions, with a few simple answers: I got sick with a quick bout of a stomach flu virus thing that knocked me off schedule, and then I traveled for a long weekend to Corpus Christie. Lost sleep en route and struggled to regain the routine. And busy, crazy busy stuff at work interfered.
These are the times when one must remember the importance of exercise. Because these also are the times when it’s so easy to forget about the big picture of health in the interest of the minutiae of the moment.
So I have had some help from the husband and the weather. After a night of stomach-flu, husband Jim allowed me to sleep until Noon, brought me oranges and warmed up noodles in veggie broth as I lounged on the couch and then insisted we bundle up for a one-mile walk. The next several days of travel and intense dates with the computer coupled with a sinus infection that wouldn’t easily quit had my plan of weights, short runs, swims, and yoga look like a joke. At the same time, however, decent weather allowed for walks outdoors in fresh air that ranged from 2 miles to 9.
All of this shifting is a sign, I think, of the need to remain flexible. Back in the day, I would sign on to ambitious training programs that I usually did not/could not finish. The problem in the past was that I didn’t understand the principle of a substitute. You either did what the workout prescribed or you did not.
After two weeks of rest and recovery (coupled with gentle outdoor walks), I think I am back on track. I returned to the weight-lifting regime, doing 5 sets of 12 reps of dead lifts two days ago, along with 60 situps and 45 pushups. After a 5.8-mile walk on Saturday, Feb. 4 and a 4.5-mile walk the next day, I returned to the treadmill on Monday, Feb. 6 with short but comfortably fast runs of 2.4-3.1 miles Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
The best sign of us? I made it up the three flights of stairs in my office building without feeling winded.
Moving Your Body 