I may have overdone it during my week in Armpit (RunKeeper confirms 45 miles in a month: a personal record). I now have niggling aches in my left hip and leg, enough to keep me awake which is not great. So I’ve firmly decided that I will do pilates sometimes as well; now you guys need to help me to stick with this resolution.
On Sunday we had some unexpected child-free time and Pete willingly agreed to go for a run with me. Being ten inches taller and ten years younger, he goes fast despite not being in the habit of running, so it was two miles of speed interval training for me, with a crazy run-like-Phoebe finish from him. Not surprised his legs hurt yesterday.
So yesterday I pilated (that’s a verb, right?) and today did the Pete’s-office-to-home 4 miler just before the thunderstorm. Thought it was stuffy.
What have you all been up to?
I’d been telling myself for years that I should take a Pilates class. The reasons I didn’t were typical and boring, and I continued to keep the NSAIDs industry thrumming.
When I messed up my knee I got to know my physiotherapist quite well. It turns out she’s a registered Pilates instructor. This is important to me, because I’d read and talked with people who’d taken up Pilates on their own, or with a video or with someone who claimed to know what they were doing and invariably they either failed to get the proper muscles engaged, or dropped it after a few weeks or worst of all injured themselves through misalignment.
I took her class this fall. It has been a godsend. I have a weak lower back. That damage is done an will never be as supple and strong as it once was, but I’ve made up for it with a strengthened abdominal core.
The class ended in October. I’m still doing the exercises. I’ll go back to her this fall when she returns from maternity leave, just for a spot tune-up to make sure I’m keeping the postures.
Do the Pilates. Do it. Your body will thank you.
My physio recommended pilates too. I haven’t been due to a combination of cowardliness and laziness. I should try and get over both those things.
I went out for a run this evening feeling physically pretty tired and with sore knees and ankles. I ran 4-and-a-bit miles and, although it wasn’t all that far or all that fast, I felt BRILLIANT. Running’s a mental game, and with those miles, I reached 253 miles for the year, well on my way to my target of 600 miles. I wanted to hit 250 before May and was on 249, so out I went regardless of how I was feeling. You don’t often get runs where everything aligns and you just feel great all round, and this wasn’t one of those, but I did feel alive, and that’s why I do it.
I can lend you my DVD, Ms G.