TL;DR I was sick last week and now Iâm back with a vengeance.Â
Last week was not the Power Week I intended to have in a burst of New Yearâs fervor. My cold was not unusual strength, but it drained my energy to the point where I felt like all I could do was work and go home to sleep. And that just made me depressed on top of tired. I had Big Plans! For example, it was Free Fitness week in the Chicago Parks system and I was going to check out a few pools (because they were free), but I only ended up going to 1 class. When I did have the energy I took advantage of some of those SELF workouts I mentioned, which surprisingly came in handy for days I didnât feel up to putting in 45+ minutes running but could handle weights and such at my own pace.
Itâs hard for me to know when Iâm being lazy and when I really, truly need a break. I think I just worry that if I start to take a break, I will tumble all the way down Slack Mountain and become sedentary overnight (impossible). I cut my run short on Wednesday because I felt overheated and suddenly tired, and in retrospect I think I probably had a fever for the next few days after that. On Saturday I skipped my long run, but I felt so guilty that I worked out anyway (and likely pushed a little too hard based on how I felt afterward).Â
Today I estimate Iâm about 90% well but I feel comparatively at 1,000%. I didnât have to take NyQuil to sleep! I cough only around twice an hour! Being well is so great. Anyway, recap:Â
MONDAY: SELFÂ Bodyweight HIIT (fun); Zumba at Chicago Parks (Maggie Daley Fieldhouse).Â
WEDNESDAY: 2.5-mile run -- really weak, no energyÂ
THURSDAY: PT sessionÂ
SATURDAY: SELFÂ strength workouts: Hustle + Sweat and Toned + Ready (I donât make up these names, I only report them).Â
SUNDAY: Breaking Down the Barre workshop (more below); SELFÂ Power Intervals w/ a little extra running (~1.8 miles)
Besides Free Fitness week, I also signed up for a free workshop at a Pure Barre studio called Breaking Down the Barre. Instead of flowing from one set to the next, we covered the major exercises in each class with specific cues and demonstrations (âyou should feel this in X muscle group, and often when people do this wrong they do Y or Zâ). I found it very helpful, especially in modifying moves so Iâm still getting the benefit of what they were intended to strengthen, but so I can do them instead of flopping out of the pose.Â
That said. Going to barre classes, while I think they could be very helpful, are a really bad body-image space for me right now. I canât point to a comment or a moment that has made me feel this way, but more often than not I leave feeling fat, inflexible and like a failure. I have tried a few different studios but invariably end up in the same place, which makes me think some of it is in my head. But usually, I am the biggest person in the room, which I notice more than if I were, say, the biggest person lining up for a running event. I think some of it is related to the branding and emphasis on leanness and toning and other words that emphasize skinniness as a goal. (Example: In the workshop, the head instructor kept talking about âteaching our abs to lay flatâ as a goal of the workout, which Iâm not sure is possible but is one way of saying âgetting a flat stomach.â)Â
Given that I donât deserve to feel bad about my body consistently, it would make the most sense to look into streaming or DVD options if I went that route, or do other exercises that also emphasize flexibility and complex muscle interaction (yoga? Yoga with weights? Pilates?)Â














