The great outdoors is calling to us: It wants to know why we're inside, sitting on our butts, while it's out there putting on a tremendous spectacle, a very expensive production involving grass, trees & flowers, elaborate lighting effects & a cast of thousands, all walking & running & biking.

Yes, it's really spring. And you know what's coming next, in Act II: Summer.

You know you want to be out there. You want to be a part of it all. You are not going to sit inside with the shades drawn & the computer on for three months straight. No, not this year. You want to look good sleeveless & in shorts & in skirts & God forbid, in a bathing suit. I know you do. And I'm just telling you the truth: You can't hide in sweaters & layers any longer.

So get out there and move it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyx4v1QFzhQ

As for me ...

Sunday, May 1:

15:05 rowing on the Concept 2 for 3,030 meters at 2:29 for 500 meters, 37 s/m, for a projected total of 6,033, despite a booty that's still somewhat ouchy
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class, in Tricia's House of Pain, doing ladder sprints & hill sprints, sweating like Michele in her Bikram class -- and discovering afterward that the heat was still turned on in the gym, despite the spring warmth. No wonder it felt like August on the first day of May.

Thank you for starting things up, saef. I've had a day in the car driving through England and Wales, and I can tell you that the countryside is pulsing with Spring.

My body is stiff and a bit flabby. I'll be at the gymn in the morning.

Yesterday I did a Leslie Sansone 4 Mile workout with the stretchy band.

Thanks for starting the thread Saef. I'll have to watch the video when I'm not at work.

May 1: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga. Interesting class as it was an instructor I hadn't had before. She was Asian and had a very strong accent (hard to understand). She said the words to direct us (I didn't realize how scripted Bikram Yoga is but she said it word for word with nothing personal added). The room was either too hot or too humid-- I don't know which-- but I know that I and everyone else starting sweating profusely immediately. Usually no one ever leaves, but less than half way through class people started dropping like flies. At least a third of the class left before it was over. I don't know if they were unhappy with the instructor or the room conditions but it was a weird vibe. People don't talk much after and I was in a rush to leave so I didn't overhear any comments. I wasn't about to leave after paying for class and I figured I was just burning more calories! The scale was down this morning too...

Totals:
1 Day
90 minutes

Hello aphil! I remember you from ages ago. Good to see you.

Phew. Michele!

Well, I didn't go to the gymn as the great outdoors called (May Day holiday here). I laid a gravel path in the garden which was heavy enough work and the weather was glorious. There is something about the blue of the sky in May and the green of new foliage that is quite beautiful.

However much I love working outside, I must still go to the gymn as it provides me with an environment for specific stress management. And I need that. I'll be there tomorrow.

Monday, May 2:

60 minutes arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at nine
60 minutes circuit training class

Achy knees & quads tonight, and feeling like I want to sleep right here, upright, at my laptop, so I must sign off & take myself to bed now, rather than checking work e-mail, personal e-mail & eBay one more time.

Tuesday, May 3:

60 minutes weights, after a 15-minute warmup on the arc trainer, jogging, hands-free, with light resistance. No rowing, as my booty is still healing.
60 minutes spin class, a newly created "endurance" class inspired by the famous Soul Cycle classes, with three intervals using weights while peddling, numerous squats, jumps, sprints & hill cimbs. This drove me to the edge -- I can't believe I got through it.

Tuesday today and I went to the gymn. I wrote down my aim in my workout book as 'to get back into the gymn without injuring myself'. Note: I am terribly careful but my particular cocktail of bodily weaknesses has been leading to trouble recently. I did a bit of TMing, and some rowing and a fair bit of yogustretching.

And in the car park I met one of the trainers. I was lounging in my car, wearing sunglasses, with a flask of coffee. We chatted through the open window and she told me that she's lost a lot of weight, is working too hard and that 'we' don't recover like we used to. We're both around 55.

Later, I thought that I might go to the gymn three times a week rather than five. This would allow time for other types of movement and lifting (you've read about some of these before) and extended periods for work. I find it next to impossible to cram it all in when work gets busy, you know, and that has annoyed me.

I seem to have given myself formal permission to have a varied exercise life. It's how it's been for some time now but it's clearly time to regularise matters. I think I'll find it easier to schedule things now.

May 2: 60 minutes Boot Camp class

Totals:
2 days
150 minutes

Wednesday, May 4:

45 minutes spin class, completely full at 6 AM, and a briefer version of last night's class, with the same squats, jumps, odd sprints (one hand behind our back, then sitting upright with one hand laid atop the other on the handlebars), and me embarrassingly drenched with sweat afterward.
30 minutes Pilates session on the Reformer.

The ability to sweat freely is a sign of (great) fitness, isn't it?

Wednesday. An hour's stroll in the warm sunshine with the almost divorced friend.

May 3: none

May 4: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

Totals:
3 days
240 minutes

Thursday

Gymn and TM, rower, yoga and stretching.

I'm feeling a little destressed so that's good. I'm also feeling virtuous (edited to add smug?) - something along the lines of 'I know what suits me and I make time and space to do it'. Ha ha. If only life were this simple.

Thursday, Cinco de Mayo:

60 minutes Pilates class, with the instructor throwing in some Tracy Anderson stuff since she is currently in the Anderson worship mode
60 minutes elliptical, resistance at eight, alternating backward & forward

I was the last one in the gym tonight, on the machine till 9:20 PM. (My gym closes at 10 PM on most weeknights.) I walked home, past a couple bars, from which people had spilled out into the street to smoke their cigarettes. From the general aroma surrounding them, lots of them are celebrating Cinco de Mayo tonight with a couple Coronas & tequila shots or frou-frou margaritas.