Seeking New Gym

When you move, there are lots of things that you have to find again. Hairdressers, dentists, car repair guys....and your gym! And truth be told, I'm not having much luck with finding many of these, most specifically a gym. I had told myself that until I knew where I'd be working, I wouldn't spend the money to join a gym because I could just run and do some machine-free exercising at home. Well, while that's true, our schedule has been so all over the place that my discipline has been slipping and I haven't been making the time like I should. It's easier to convince myself to take time to work out if there's a dollar figure attached to it.

So I started my foray into searching for a gym in Williamsburg, online last night. I can always join the W&M gym at an alumni rate and get a Fitwell pass once the semester starts, which would be nice because I could take classes again AND my yoga practice would be included. But despite being a slightly better deal than a non-W&M gym, something about returning to my undergrad gym and taking classes with freshmen, seems weird to me. Granted, it's a fantastic gym with lots of offerings, but for some reason I'm just not feeling it. I feel the need to explore other options before just settling on what's familiar.

However, the problem is, all the gyms I've found in Williamsburg have high monthly rates. Granted, it's because they all include unlimited classes, but $45/month is steep! But one gym offers spin, bootcamp, yoga, pilates, and some other classes I'm interested in, so part of me wants to give that gym a shot because it's set to a "real persons" schedule as opposed to a student schedule. They have a "free" trial week that I'm tempted to partake in next week, just to see what it's like. They have super early classes that I want to summon up the discipline to attend, but again, $45/month is steep! Especially when I know similar things will be offered at W&M, but I'm afraid their Fitwell class times won't mesh with my schedule.

I guess my question with this is, how much do you invest in your fitness each month? In Tallahassee, we paid $20/month for the gym (that got me in all the time and Will could come with me an unlimited amount as a "guest"-Gold's didn't do family rates) and another $120/20 classes of yoga, which usually covered us both for 2-2 1/2 months. So I guess paying $45/month for everything included is less than $20/month for gym + ~$60/month for yoga. But it just SEEMS so much more expensive! If you don't mind, please share with me what you invest on a monthly basis for your fitness and what that includes-I'm curious to know so I can have some sort of price comparison!

Fitness Funnies

Folks, yesterday the internet provided lots of funnies related to fitness. I'm sure many of you saw The Oatmeal's running contribution, but I also wanted to make sure you saw Buzzfeed's Ludicrous Things Yoga Teachers Say. That's all I've got, so enjoy!

Excerpt from The Oatmeal

Excerpt from Buzzfeed

New Products!

It's always fun to get new toys. I don't care how old you are, it's always exciting to get something new, especially if it's stuff you haven't gotten before. I felt that way when I came home to two packages sitting in my mailbox--my first Runnerbox and Bondi Bands! I had already received a new outfit that I ordered from Lucy last week, that I plan to use for the half-marathon, so to get the rest of my new running gear made it even better. The reason I had ordered these products is because Mitzi had recently blogged about a bunch of fun new stuff she had snagged at an expo of a race she ran. She raved about these Bondi Bands, so I wanted to give them a shot--with my short haircut, it's hard to find products that hold my hair back without looking atrocious, so I'm always game for something new.

Well, I took some of my new gear out for a test this past Sunday when I tackled my furthest running distance yet--7 miles! I wore my new Lucy outfit, a Bondi Band, and took some Pro Bar Bolt Organic Energy Chews to help keep my energy up on the long distance. The result was great! I loved my new outfit, which has a lot of pockets in the top, equipped for stashing things over the course of a long run. And the Bondi Band worked great-I'm definitely going to keep using them (I ordered two) because they hold the hair back, don't shift while you're working out, and soak up the sweat really well. Plus, they have cute sayings on them :) And I LOVED the Pro Bar organic energy chews. I had asked in a previous blogpost about energy gels and received pretty negative reviews of them, so I feel like these little energy chews might be a good alternative. However, I got lots of fun goodies/snacks/energy supplements in my Runnerbox, so I might find something I like even more!

If you have any favorite products that you like to use, let me know! Clothing, sunglasses, shoes, food, water boosters, supplements, etc.--I want to know it all!

Bondi Bands

Runnerbox Goodies

(Sorry for the terrible photo quality)

True Confessions of An "Athlete"

I am starting to feel so pumped for this half-marathon! I know I blab about it a lot on here (point of the blog...duh), but at the moment, it's my only real fitness "goal." I'm keeping up strength training and toning as best I can without a gym (for the moment) and am trying to be better about practicing yoga on my own. And I'm trying to be harder on myself about truly making sure I'm doing something beneficial every day because well, we're getting married in less than six months and there's a dress that I want to look good in!

But anyways, this post is not for that. This post is to share a little bit (okay, a lot bit) about my journey to becoming the "athlete" I may be considered today. I struggle with the term "athlete" because I think of true athletes as people who play sports and win medals and things. However, the more I read about fitness and running, the more I recognize that "athlete" is a much broader term for people who are part of this healthy, active way of living. In Merriam-Webster, "athlete" is defined as:

"a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina"

And while I struggle with the label of the word itself (it's the academic in me), I guess I can be considered someone who is trained in something that requires physical strength because of running. Or something like that.*

It occurred to me recently that I find this whole fitness regimen (particularly running) thing still shocking, even though I've been really good about keeping things up for the last year. I find it interesting how much easier it is for me to convince myself to go for a run, do some strength/toning exercises, go for a bike ride, or go to a yoga class, than it is for me to practice my instruments. I struggle with a little guilt because I feel like I'm replacing time I should be spending practicing, with exercising instead. And even now, when I'm unemployed and have lots of free time, I find it's so much easier to tell myself "oh, spend an hour working out" than it is to pick up my clarinet for the same amount of time. I almost feel, in a sense, that I'm making up for some sort of "lost time" over the years. And I've talked about some of this before, but I wanted to share a full recap of my "athletic" life over the years, here.

As a kid, I was fairly active, doing dance 3-4 days a week and soccer 2-3 days (two practice, one game usually). And even though I was never a star athlete (although I believe in 6th grade I finally got the coveted presidential physical fitness award...or maybe I imagined that), I was what we would consider "fit." I wasn't a skinny or muscular kid, but I was active at least five days a week and my parents fed me mostly healthy foods, which I consider pretty darn good. And then somewhere around middle school, choices had to be made to prioritize time. Soccer got cut first because most girls on my team left to join more elite travel teams, and even though I could have qualified for that, I preferred dance. So then I mainly balanced dance and music. But then dance got really competitive, and again, I could have pushed myself to become Clara in the Nutcracker, or I could focus on the whole music thing, which I was really really good at. (This is also the time I started clogging, which is where I discovered my heart for dance truly lies, so that is what I began to pursue and still continue, when possible, these days).

By the time I reached college, I had been so focused on music, that I didn't recognize that there were other "extracurriculars" or "hobbies" beyond that. So in a weird kind of way, I judged people who "worked out." Not out of jealousy, but just wondered why they would waste the time, I guess? I understood and appreciated organized sports, and would occasionally participate in IM Wind Symphony soccer, but other than that, I mostly was happy to consider walking around campus my "exercise." During college, I did discover yoga and began to practice regularly, but then the Rec changed it's schedule and I never managed to get a yoga class to work with my 5-day a week evening rehearsal schedule, so it fell by the wayside. There was one summer where I joined a gym and was pretty proactive about going--I managed to shed a few pounds and gain some muscle definition, but looking back, I'm not sure how well I was working out.

When I moved to Tallahassee, the thought never crossed my mind to pick up a fitness regimen. But I was hearing more and more in my performance classes that keeping the body healthy will make you a better player. But I looked around and didn't see many people who did that, because as musicians, we are always keeping weird hours and never have enough time to fit it all in. But after hearing my friend Julia start talking about going to the gym every day after work, and seeing her boss, Mitzi (who is a total fitness and running CHAMP), up at 4:30 AM most days to go to her bootcamps/regular workout/whatever crazy class she's doing, I started to think maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. Then I started to work for Jeff, who is a triathlete, and that's when I decided to join the Gold's up the street (talk about motivation). I took advantage of my free personal training session which turned into a few months worth of personal training sessions, and between that and the results I was seeing, I happily stuck to a workout routine. I also bought a bike and relearned how to ride, from Will.

Even though it meant early morning hours (getting up at 5 or 5:30 some weeks) to fit in practicing daily and working out a few days a week, I stuck with it because I was enjoying the results. And then sometime in December, after seeing Mitzi always bombarding my Saturday mornings with fun race photos on FB, and having several piano students who ran races, I decided it was time to give running a shot. I had always avoided it because a) really, it's no fun when you first start and you feel like a lazy ass no matter how "fit" you may think you are and b) I had previously been diagnosed with patella femoral pain syndrome (a knee problem) and was advised not to run. But I figured, why not give it a shot?

After a few weeks of giving it a good effort, it started to get easier. So I started actually tracking this improvement on the Nike+ app. Then I got some true "running" shoes. Then I signed up for a 5K and made Will do it with me. And here I am now, about 7 1/2-8 months later, and I'm enjoying training for a half-marathon. I have a full fitness wardrobe involving clothes for all the seasons and all the activities (running, yoga, regular working out, strength training at home, biking). I subscribe to Runner's World and Self magazines. I just made my first order of RunnerBox. I actually do the workouts I pin on Pinterest. And I do some kind of workout every day. WHAT THE WHAT.

So this is where I think "making up for lost time" is coming into play. I think because for the last 10+ years I thought it was silly to do physical activity purposely, I'm now doing it every day because I feel guilty for neglecting my body all that time. And while the clarinet is really nice and deserves to be played, it's finally time for me to figure out what I enjoy doing in life, not necessarily what I'm good at. Running and workouts are a gateway to determining who I am beyond the musical talents that have defined "me" for the last 10 years. The increasingly more toned arms and race bib collection (plus some finishers medals) are just bonuses ;-)

*If you wouldn't consider me an "athlete," tell me! What is your definition of an athlete?

Feeling the Heat

Welp, it's July now. It kind of snuck up on me thanks to the move and everything. I'm 8 weeks out from my half-marathon and really struggling with training. See, it's hard to convince myself I need to wake up at 6 AM to get out and run, because I'm unemployed and usually only have a few things to accomplish each day. Plus, my cats are so darn tempting to stay in bed and cuddle with, that the idea of pushing myself to go outside, sweat, struggle, and run for an hour just don't line up. But I think I learned my lesson today. I got lucky the other morning because I waited until around 11 AM to run, but managed to sneak in 3 miles before I really started to feel the heat of the day setting in. So today, I thought that if I got up a little earlier and was out the door by 9 AM to complete my long run (6 miles on my new, mileage-based training plan), I should be just fine.

Not the case. I opened the door and immediately was swallowed up in humidity. So I stepped back inside and ran to weather.com to see what I was up against for running today. My odds were either going out the door at that moment into 80-something % humidity and lows 80s (feeling like mid-80s), or waiting around until tonight when it would drop to just below 60% humidity, but still feel like it was in the 90s. No good either way. I told myself "this is July....this is what I've got to deal with," took a huge slug of water, and out the door I went. I only made it 2 miles before I started to feel dizzy from lack of air. I find it way harder to breath in humidity than in heat, because if it's hot, at least the air is still consumable. However, with humidity, I'm hypersensitive to it thanks to living in Williamsburg and Tallahassee, so it always feels like I'm trying to cut through it with a knife when I am breathing. Not exactly the ideal situation for running.

I stopped myself at 2 miles because I was genuinely afraid I might  pass out if I kept going (and I'm typing this a half hour later, with a lot of rehydration and still feel dizzy each time I stand up). Which in a twisted way, pissed me off that I didn't feel well enough to keep going. I know that's not how you're supposed to react when your body says "no more," but it doesn't stop you from thinking it. After walking the last mile home (luckily my plan had only been to do a 3-mile loop twice, today), I was truly feeling upset at myself and ready to give up on training for this half-marathon. "You're not a runner...you're not good at this...you'll never be able to run that far...you should not have signed up for a half-marathon" were the thoughts running through my mind. Albeit, they may be true--especially the last one--in the air conditioned house, with ice water from my supportive fiance, a purring kitty, and the goal to drag myself out of bed at 6 AM tomorrow to try again, those thoughts melt away. The even weirder part about it is, I'm even looking forward to seeing if I can make tomorrow's run better. How cliched is that?!?! From things I've read and how I interact with the running experience, it seems about on par. We're all a little twisted in that we keep putting ourselves out there for more pain and struggle, but I know from experience, that the feeling you get when you cross a finish line at a race is so satisfying that it's what keeps me coming back for more. I can't wait to tackle the VA Beach Rock n' Roll Half on September 1st. Now if only I could order some perfect weather to help me get there!