11/23/13-12/7/13: Days 147-161

Hot yoga, 31 days of running, and NO turkey trot.

So I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things and trying to train more. I’m still playing with that line of pushing myself, but not too hard. It’s tough because when I feel good, I want to go go go! But sometimes I push too hard and I don’t recover too quickly. I’m trying to avoid the one step forward, two steps back thing. I also don’t want to slip back into old habits and make myself sick again (not sure if that’s how it would work or not, but that’s my fear).

I’ve decided that I want to really focus on strength this year. I think it will help me be a better athlete, but also help with injury prevention. So I’ve been trying to do more yoga. I figure this is great for strength, flexibility, and stress reduction. One of the things I’ve learned from CFS is that I spend way too much time in “fight or flight” mode. I need to learn to chill out, activate my parasympathetic nervous system, and turn my brain off sometimes. I think yoga is a good way to do this.

So I signed up for a 10 day yoga pass at a studio down the street. They do Bikram yoga, which is hot! Like really sweaty hot. Good for detoxing too, I’m guessing? At first I was determined to go every day. I ended up going about every other day, which is OK. Don’t push too hard! My gym also offers really great yoga classes, so I’ll continue attending those.

Over the past couple of months, running has been on my mind. I kept thinking to myself, I need to start running again. I did the elliptical a few times and did a couple of walk/jogs. But for December I decided I am going to go for it! The goal: 31 days of running. Simple-run every single day in December. Now, did I pick a freakin cold month to do this? Yes. Maybe I didn’t think that part through. Although, I tend to do OK running in the cold. And a quiet, snowy, sunny run is one of my favorite things in the world. And there’s nothing like an every day challenge to motivate me to get out there on those cold, cloudy days. Even if getting out means driving to the gym J

I decided that going from almost no running (since June!) to running every day might fall into the “pushing too hard” category (see, I’m learning). So I decided to ease up on myself a bit and broaden my definition of “running.” For the purposes of my challenge, running includes actual running, jogging, walk/running, elliptical, and maybe even a long walk or hike if that’s what my body needs. So maybe it’s more of a 31 days of incessant forward motion challenge. And so far, so good. I’ve put in more miles in the last week then I have in the last six months. I believe that’s forward progress! And I got in one of those awesome sunny, snowy runs J

So why all this running and NO turkey trot? Well, because I was tired. I’ve always tried to do something on Thanksgiving. I love working out before indulging on all that food. So this year I was determined to run the turkey trot, go to hot yoga, or do both. So when I woke up exhausted and super stressed about how to fit it all in, I did something I never would have done in the past, I went back to bed. Sounds simple, but this decision took a lot of deliberation and over-thinking on my part. But one thing I’ve learned is that sometimes I need sleep more than I need to workout. And guess what, the world didn’t stop just because I missed a workout. Imagine that J Actually, I ended up having a great day, and because of the extra rest I had the energy to spend plenty of time with family and friends.

I’m trying to remember this lesson and put it into practice. I’ve had a few instances in the past month where I’ve wanted to make an early morning workout, but didn’t get enough sleep to really do it. Each time has been a battle of deciding whether to push myself or to rest. For some reason there’s a sense of pride in getting up early and pushing myself when I’m tired. But what I’m trying to remember is that I already know that I can push myself. I believe that pushing myself too hard is a big part of why I got into this whole chronic fatigue mess. So I already know that I can get up at (or before) 5am and do the workout, regardless of how tired I am. I know that I can push myself when I’m exhausted. I’ve proven that. And really, who am I proving it to? Why do I care? My new challenge, is to take some of that pressure off of myself and know that sometimes it’s OK to rest instead.