I’m a big fan of doing lots of active things and fitting it all in is often a challenge.
The physical activities I love aren’t tasks I need to complete. They don’t feel like work or something awful I need to do to lose weight or get fit. Instead, for me, physical activity is my fun. It really is a great source of joy and pleasure in my life.
During the course of a normal week this winter I am doing Crossfit three times, Aikido three times, and Masters indoor rowing three times. I also play indoor soccer on the weekends and take my dog hiking or dog jogging a couple of times.
Less often I do hot yoga.
And soon I hope to get the cross country skis out.
And I hope to swim once or twice a week to get ready for a triathlon this summer.
And I plan to ride my bike lots, once the weather permits. In the meantime, I’ll take it for a spin once in awhile on the rollers inside.
Other people watch TV or do jigsaw puzzles, I suppose. Often the people who ask, ‘How on earth do you do all that?’ have regular commitments to non active past times I don’t share. No doubt they do more housework and have beautiful gardens. They might even iron shirts and send birthday cards.
But some weeks recovering between all of my different workouts is a challenge. Each one has its own internal rhythm that makes sense. Crossfit work outs are hard and varied but since club members do them together they tend not to trip over one another too much. A hard leg day isn’t followed by another demanding leg workout unless that’s part of some larger evil plan. But the point is, there’s a plan and a structure.
Ditto rowing which has its own rhythm. Ditto Aikido.
But the challenge comes with clashes between them. Monday at Crossfit we got out the rowing machines for a wee bit of competitive erging. Fine, fun. But Tuesday was our monthly 2 km time trial at masters rowing. Advice on doing well says to rest for the two days prior. Hah.
Wednesday morning at Crossfit, still tanked from the 2 km erg test the night before, I did the hardest Crossfit work out I’ve done so far- 100 thrusters and an equally unhappy number of burpees, box jumps, and push ups.
Wednesday’s Aikido class was a lot of fun. New shiny techniques that weren’t part of test review. Yay. But I was in a bit of pain and getting sleepy by the end.
Thursday morning I got my new one rep max weight in dead lifting at Crossfit and Thursday night was lactate threshold stuff at rowing.
I’m kind of amazed I made it through this week. Lots of clashes and conflicts and not enough recovery time in between. I’m glad this only happens once in a awhile. But I’m still smiling.
Today is rest day. Like the koala in the tree, I’ll be resting. Yawn.
Wow. That is alot! And alot of different activities. It reminds me of when I grew up and played hockey, baseball and football, and at one point in late summer/early fall, they all overlapped. I remember once how my brother and I literally crawled out of the car after our first intense day of hockey camp, as our thighs had completely cramped up. We then got our legs back somehow, ate some quick dinner and then went to our resepective baseball games. Later that same week, we played football. I definitely am no longer up for that! But congrats to you for making it all work somehow!