So I finished the Toughmudder! And then I stopped exercising for a week and I was ill! I was really ill.
I had a mouth full of blisters, sore throat, I had a temperature and was achy all over. I knew I shouldn’t have just hard stopped all the training but when you have achieved something like that it’s hard not to just think sod it!
After 4 days of feeling pretty rotten I dragged my butt to a Hatha yoga class at my gym. I thought it would be nice and relaxing and help me recover. Little did I know there was a replacement teacher and she decided to do some kind of Hatha flow and I ended up sweating through an hour and a half of yoga, I almost collapsed at the end! I did however feel wonderful afterwards and that was the end of my illness.
I’m back at the gym now and I have decided or should I say my trainer has decided that I will be doing a mixture of abs, strength and cardio work. He is determined that I will be able to do a pull up at some point. I can do one at the moment maybe two, that said this time 3 months ago I couldn’t do one so that’s progress.
The thing with me is I need a goal, I always need to be training for something. I am now doing an Urbanathalon (Like toughmuder only shorter) in November and might do a 10k run in December. This will keep me going till Xmas when I’m sure I will be able to find something else.
With yoga I try not to be too goal focused, I am having to learn to approach yoga differently. Its about the experience and each time I step on to the yoga mat I don’t know what my body is going to do. Sometimes I am flexible, sometimes not so much. Sometimes I am focused, other times my mind runs away without me.
I have noticed that the strength training has helped me keep poses longer and hold myself better. Although it also makes me stiffer so there’s swings and roundabouts.
Tonight I am off to Iyengar yoga, the first class of this type I have been to so looking forward to it. As I was at the gym this morning doing stupid amounts of sits ups and push ups I am hoping it might help release my muscles a bit! We will see.