The Change Up

There's an adage that "change is as good as a holiday" and I'm inclined to agree! I'm now coming up to my third exercise free day and I think my body is thanking me for it. I know I mentioned it yesterday, but I believe we all need periods of total rest and recovery for us to be at our best in life. Today I am tapping away at my blog whilst watching the rest of the family play on the Wii. We are all together, enjoying each other's company, with no particular agenda in mind. Meals are of the "fend for yourself variety" and are mostly comprised of fresh tropical fruit and Greek yoghurt with the odd glass of wine or mineral water with lemon thrown in.

Today we are going to Hubs' Uncles home for a get together with the extended side of his family. We have to bring a plate. I was thinking fruit, but he was thinking "American Baked Cheesecake", not only one, but two of them. He is a superb cook when he does a recipe he knows well. Perhaps my day may be yoghurt, fruit and a sliver of cheesecake for dessert.

I have no plans for the next two days except for reading good books. Then it's back to the gym and my classes. My January plan is to keep on rehabbing the shoulder with a well thought out program and to ramp up my cardiovascular fitness levels. I'm still trying to find a cycling coach to do one on one stuff with, rather than a group ride for now - but that can wait until the New Year. Perhaps the more likely scenario is that if I can't find what I'm after, I will join a swim squad once a week. Swimming is awesome as an activity that promotes hip extension and glute activation and I think the change would be really beneficial.

No plans for any events at this stage. I just want to run, ride, lift and swim happy!

rest and recovery

All has been quiet over here lately - well, to be truthful, I haven't been exactly quiet but I've been juggling quite a few balls with doing quite a lot of writing (more shall be forthcoming on that), looking after kids and generally trying to recover from what has been a pretty hectic 2008. I had plans of going to the gym and training today and yesterday, but my body has been telling me that it doesn't want to train. I've got the beginnings of a sore throat and it is not like me at all not to want to do any exercise. Plus, I've been getting cold - another sign that I've been overtraining and not getting enough recovery.

Sometimes the word "recovery" sends chills down the spines of us fitness fanatics - many get concerned that they're going to "get fat because they're not training" - however, if you are truly overtrained and requiring recovery, this is the least of your worries. In fact, in this situation, taking a recovery break is exactly what you need. After two days off and lots of sleep and good food, I am starting to feel a lot warmer and my weight is dropping again. I will teach class tomorrow, have a steam and take Sunday off as well. I may be quiet for the next few days but you know where I'll be - sleeping or slopping around watching the tennis.

Balance!

I must say that this last week has been a baptism of fire for me in the art of adaptation - balancing work and downtime has been much harder than I had ever anticipated and I'm only a week into the live one on one training!

Firstly there has been the early morning starts - most days I need to be at the gym before 6am to prepare for the day ahead - this, mixed with late nights watching the Olympics (my excuse being that it only comes around four times a year) has not been conducive to me feeling good, so I have learned the hard way and fallen into bed at 8pm the last few nights, sleeping through until 8.30am on our Public Holiday. My RPM class on Wednesday suffered and I've got uncharacteristic DOMs today - lesson learned - it's all about me - make sure you get enough sleep!

Secondly there has been the demonstration of exercises for me at what I call about 10% of my normal capacity - demonstrating any core stuff has been dicey and any sort of pushing movement is very difficult due to my shoulder - on the whole, the shoulder is much better but I'm still thinking another cortisone may be required - otherwise off to the orthopod.

Thirdly there is the actual getting back into the groove of teaching clients face to face - sometimes I feel that I communicate much better via the pen, so it's taken a bit of practice to start feeling more at home with the one on one option.

Fourthly there is that feeling of neglecting my own training - I've been pretty particular about getting my own stuff in and I'm hoping that Louise (physio) gives me more clearance for some strength training to balance out the 4 RPMs and two runs I am doing right now. Cardio queen indeedy :)

I've been really embracing a recovery protocol post RPM and yesterday enjoyed sauna, steam and Monsoon shower. I feel so much better when I take the time just to chill out by myself. I believe they call it "restoration for introverts".

Last RPM Hi Performance for a little while!

Today I taught my last RPM Hi Performance class before my big day next Friday. I felt quite emotional telling my class I'd be away for four months. I started off with a handful of participants and this class has grown considerably (full today). I think it's a combination of being a Saturday morning ritual, a good timeslot and hopefully a bit of my teaching ability that's affected the numbers in such a positive way. Anyway, I feel I have been very lucky with the class and learnt a lot from them as well as the other way around.

Had morning tea with Miss S and Andrea and then Miss S came over and we had a look at her in my comp bikini - she looks good, but the bikini top was a bit small - I will obviously have to buy a new suit when I compete again to fit the new additions.

After feeling a sad about having to leave my class, I began to feel excited about all of the things that I will be doing when I'm well again. I turn forty next year and I am having thoughts participating in a full marathon and perhaps a Figure Comp in the Masters Division to mark the occasion! Then there's a triathlon or two to squeeze in - a few of us are already talking about teaming up for Mooloolaba next year - should be awesome fun.

The prospect of recovery and rehab is one that most fitness afficiondos are too comfortable with and I am no exception. However, my goal is to be positive and to take every day one step at a time and celebrate the little achievements. When you become really fit, I think you can become a little bit immune to where you've come from and I will be celebrating climbing the stairs, rather than the great deadlifts I did in training.

Runnin' Wild and Free

I'm recovering from a big weekend of launches - 3 RPM and 1 Bodystep class. The title of my post today reflects Track 5, "Running Wild and Free" by a group called Airbourne. It's a really meaty thumper of a track and the noise that an entire room full of RPMers can make during it is really something else - did anyone say "hey,hey,hey!". My favourite track of Bodystep this round was the Party Track - "Get Me Bodied" by Stardancer2 which was great fun.

Yesterday happened to be an unscheduled rest day due to Miss G being unwell. Luckily she is firing on all cylinders this morning and so am I - lucky really as I am subbing a Hi Performance class this afternoon, so I had better have my game face on!

Appropriate recovery is just as important as good training - the down time yesterday did me good, even though genetically my recovery is superb. Gotta look after my little "ability".

Makes all the difference!

Yes, good food does make all the difference. I have been eating very healthily for about two to three years now and I have always felt like I had become used to just how much better my body runs on a) good choices and b) lots of variety. I rarely eat junk food, except for the occasional treat when I feel like it (there is such a thing as being too healthy). Except for yesterday - I was extremely busy and on the run all day. Even though my choices weren't super dreadful - I had a McDonald's Extra Lean Burger for lunch and a couple of slices of Pizza Hut Thin and Crispy veggie supreme pizza for dinner, plus my usual vegetables , it really did feel like I was not running on "premium unleaded" like I normally am. Sometimes it takes these sorts of days to realize just what a difference eating well makes.

This is why I ask my clients to aim for "consistency" and not "perfection". This way you can learn from your actual experience without beating up on yourself. Was I "perfect" yesterday? - no - but my experience helped me solidify what I know about good eating. It's just another way of "walking the walk."

Shall we say, I don't think it helped with my post workout recovery - taught a great RPM class, but exhausted this morning.

Today I have enjoyed catching up on some housework and am off to do a little food prep - pumpkin and cauliflower soup is the go :) I just cook my regular pumpkin soup, only I add in a head of cauliflower. It's a little more textured than the pumpkin soup, but it's nice and chunky which is what I like.

Tomorrow I am off to Get Active Brisbane with DH and the girls. ( www.getactivebrisbane.com.au ) and teaching RPM. Should be a busy, yet fun day!

Rest and Recovery

I've woken up this morning to super ab DOMs and have decided to take a day off. I find that I always have to take at least one day off a week to fully recover from all of the hard work I am doing and I look forward to my rest days because I find it really restorative to sleep in, slop around the house and generally pretend I am on holidays!

This morning I slept in until 7.30am and have spent the morning catching up on paperwork. Then it's off to do the housework. Nothing much going on in my universe today and that is the way I like it :)