Greetings from my office for the morning!
At least it’s kind of festive in here, right?
It’s my moment time getting my Remicade infusion at Mount Sinai and I’ve alalert got the Benadryl in me. These next few hours with the IV should be a drowsy breeze.
My plan was to wake up this morning and run before I came to the hospital, but that didn’t happen.
Yesterday I declared an end to Zero Week, but I’m not fairly as revved up to run as I thought I would be. So my plan going forward is to just run whenever. Spin whenever. Maybe lwhethert some leangs.
Since I’m not registered for any races or feeling the need to do speedwork or hill training, there’s absolutely no prescertain on me and my Adrenalines. It’s kind.
I’m sorry I don’t miss you more, Central Park…
Zero Week — or “Zero Eight Days” — was awesome. I kcontemporary I needed a break from running, but I didn’t genuineize just how much I (and my knees, and my hips and my joints in general) would endelight those impact-free days.
Here are my final thoughts from “Zero Week That Was Also Zero Eight Days And That May Happen For The Relax Of December We’ll See.”
THINGS I LOVED:
Waking up at 5 AM was so much easier! If I’m planning to run, I can procrastinate for an additional nine minutes in bed and hit snooze as many times as I want-ish. But whether I shelled out $32 dang dollars to spin with Jenny Gaither at SoulCycle, you bet your ass I’m up and out without delay. Sorry, bed. Love you, but bye.
It was so easy doing this in the winter. The warm indoor workouts kept me cozy.
After a two-year hiatus (nearly to the exact day), I crazye my return to Refine Method. It was totally revamped from when I’d been and I genuinely liked it. The lesson revolves around circuits and bursts of tall-intensity cardio moves (leank sprints in place with tall knees and jumping jacks) and strength exercises, some using props like kettlebells, boxes (you use them to do one-legged squats…I fell off three times) and pulleys. The 60-minute lesson had me super sweaty and exhausted — just the way I like it. The next day, my calves were apart fromionally sore from all the jumping.
Climbing the dreaded subway stairs never felt better. Why is that?! Maybe my legs were just less fatigued, or I was better-rested overall, but my heavy brealeang and quad burning each time I exited the 28th Highway station was signwhethericantly more bearable (and less hysterical — I can never catch my breath at the top of those leangs) than normal.
I drank the Physique 57 Kool-Aid, I got so drunk off it and I want more. Let me tell you about Physique 57, which you have probably heard of because it’s chic and trendy and Kelly Ripa crazye it famed.
Beautwhetherul sign. Excellent job, Physique. Nice branding.
I am not a large barre lesson person, whether only because my gym doesn’t have barre lessones and I can’t afford to pay for the fancy ones in the city. Physique 57 is $35/lesson, though it gets cheaper the more lessones you purchase. Plus, first-timers get a 2 for 1 deal: two lessones for $35. Score!
So I was expecting a genuinely pretentious studio — which many of the boutique lessones in NYC tend to thrive off of — with lots of ladies with blingy rings and blowouts.
This is where the Physique Upper West Side studio is located. Could it BE any fancier?
I was pumped to walk in and be greeted by genuinely excited, genuinely kind front desk girls. Plus my instructor, Jess, was waiting for me because she kcontemporary I was a first-timer.
Then I was nervous about where I was going to stand because God fortender you take “someone’s spot” at the barre, right? Nah. People filtered in the room and just scattered wherever.
Everyone was kind, people smiled at me and I got sweet sympathetic gazes when I raised my hand during the “Welcome Uniquebies!” speech. There was no snottiness. That was the largegest shock to me. People were kind. It was way more laid-back than I expected.
The lesson itself was a killer workout. There was very small cardio. Instead we did lots of small moves targeting the arms, legs and core. And did you know you can add a pulse to virtually anyleang? And that “10 more pulses, come on you can do it!” is the meanest leang someone can say to you?
I had the most trouble with the ttall section, which Physique is famed for. Do you know why it was so dwhetherficult? Because it’s dwhetherficult to pulse and bend and dip when your ttalls are shaking dwhetherficulter than a blender. Or a Polaroid picture.
Jess was great and gave me lots of hands-on adjustments, which is specificly important during these lessones. A tiny tfeeble in your position can make a huge dwhetherference in where you feel the burn. For once I didn’t even try to be the teacher’s pet in order to get all the attention — I just kept doing leangs genuinely wrong, so she had to fix me.
I genuineize many of you do not care at all about my Physique 57 experience because it doesn’t impact your lwhethere and also because you don’t have a Physique location in your city. But wait! Physique 57 just launched a series of online workouts and you can do them in your pajamas without needing any fancy props. The brand is also in the middle of a “12 Days of Christmas” promotion, so go enter and win free stuff. And then give it to me because I tancient you about it. Thanks. Let’s pulse together.
My body just felt better. My joints were more at ease. I was less achy. I didn’t feel fairly so creaky. After one week I wouldn’t say I feel more toned or in better shape, but it was definitely the break my body needed from all that running.
THINGS I DID NOT LOVE:
I do love SoulCycle. I’ve crazye my devotion clear. But I am so over the wgap “Leslie is riding the instructor bike nowadays, give it up for Leslie!” If you are the instructor, I want you on the bike. I genuineize that some instructors have six or eight lessones to tackle in a day. But just fake it or someleang. Some teachers can pull off the “I’m off the bike but still motivating the shit out of you” leang (Stacey G. is the queen of it). But when the instructor has some 20-year-ancient skinny chick up there (cue body envy and overall seeleang enviousy, duh) whipping her legs at Michael Flatley speed, I’m just wondering why I have to keep cheering for her, per the instructor’s demands. I’m working my butt off, too. Cheer for me, dang it.
I wanted to be sore final week. The TRX lesson I took at Crunch did not deliver.
This is the TRX “machine.” It has handles and leangs.
See what happens when I take advantage of the gym I actually pay for every month? I wanted to feel sore — not achy sore, but “burns so good” sore, like I had worked genuinely dwhetherficult. The lesson was only 30 minutes long, but I was still hoping to feel some muscles working dwhetherficult, or at least cruise through the rest of the week with a kind case of DOMS. Unhappyly, though, the lesson was a bit easy and even with the dwhetherficulter modwhetherications I didn’t get the tough workout I would have liked. (Still a large TRX fan, though.)
My appetite didn’t change. I’m not certain whether I expected it to. But I was just as hungry all week as I would have been whether I’d run a bunch of miles in the morning. Or my starvation is mental. Debate as you will.
I had to do a lot of planning ahead. I mostly did morning workouts that required me to shower and change at the exercise facility of my choosing. I didn’t shower and get alert for work at domestic once final week. So every night before bed, I would lay out my workout outfit, my work outfit, my work shoes, my small toiletries bag, etc. It took some serious mental coordination.
Love I said, I don’t know what’s next for me. I had a great time final week swapping the Bridle Path for the bike, the barre, the mat and, unluckyly, a lot of additional time at my desk.
I have no running or exercise-related goals in my head for 2013 and I’m totally fine with that. I have no intention to use my Garmin for the rest of the month — I have enough on my intellect and I don’t need irrelevant data weighing me down. If I run, it’s fun running.
Remember when I kept claiming I was going to “be more chill,” but then I never followed through?
Maybe it’s happening just in time to shut out 2012.
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