A Lesson in Flexibility

Not flexibility like, being able to touch my forehead to my kneecap during calf stretches (which I am getting really close to being able to do again!) Today I'm talking about calendar flexibility.

It's really easy to get discouraged and the first time I miss a trip to the gym and think, "Oh well, I blew it, might as well eat fried food for dinner too because today's a total bust."

Thursday was a planned day off, and Friday was supposed to be a stationary bike workout, but a buddy we don't see often dropped in on us just before I got home from work - with the makings for Beer Brownies and Mixed Drinks. And yes, I skipped my gym workout and had a fun evening hanging out and blatantly ignoring how many calories I consumed in a single evening.

Saturday morning I met one of my friends for a long run at the local Greenway. We did a 10K easy run, but I kept the pace a little higher than maybe I would otherwise because I was trying to redeem myself from Friday night's shenanigans. By the end of our run, I spent some time with the nagging side of my brain - what I usually call "Mind Talk," and coming to terms with the fact I didn't have to "redeem" myself to anyone, including myself. And it's okay to rearrange my schedule to have an evening of fun when the opportunity presents itself! Such a simple conclusion, but it took a while to come around to that because I wanted to grill myself as being a terrible person for not sticking to my training commitments. But doing that just makes me feel even worse and makes me even more likely to skip workouts. A tad counter productive, don't ya think!?

And Sunday was raining all day long so I stayed indoors instead of the long bike ride I had planned. Where I came to the conclusion that cleaning the garage and reorganizing the library involved enough going up/down stairs and heavy lifting that my arms, legs, and backside felt like I'd done a serious weight training round at the gym anyway. So I will call that one even.

This entire weekend I just kept coming face-to-face with the fact that having a balanced, organized workout calendar printed and posted on the fridge is all fine and dandy, but if I get too focused on that little sheet of paper, The Real World makes a special point of shaking up my schedule and reminding me that I have to be flexible if I want this to be a great training season!

In summary, I got a great long run in, and some strenuous housework that counts as a workout, and the rest of the weekend involved spending quality time with friends and family. The majority of which was NOT according to plan, but it turned out to be a great weekend anyway.

And I am totally ready to get back to my schedule with my usual Monday spin class tonight :-)