Prana | Fitness & Feta

Monday motivation time!

Last Week’s Workouts

Last week I only did four days of workouts instead of my usual five or six. I’m okay with it because I was able to get walks in on a couple of the other days, and every one of my four workouts left me feeling sore this week. So I’m thinking quality over quantity, right? I would rather have four stellar workout days than five or six meh ones.

Here’s the rundown:

Sunday
Active rest — walked around Rockport!

Monday
During the workday I went for a 30 minute walk with Sarah. After work I was craving some cardio time, but I just did not feel like being on a machine at the gym. After a little chat with Monique (because I know she’ll urge me to do something instead of telling me it’s ok to skip out), I ended up doing 25 minutes of random kickboxing (non-CBC style) in my dining room, followed by a 20 minute cardio and core circuit I quickly threw together.

For the circuit I did each cardio blast for 45 seconds, followed by the core strength exercise for 60 seconds. By the time I finished both parts of the workout in my sweltering dining room, I looked like this.

No joke, this is seriously how Tim found me when he got home from work.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Does anyone remember my “go to” kickboxing routine from my Thursday am class years ago? I know at least Ashley will. That’s what I did on Monday. I need to bring that back.

Tuesday
Taught outdoor bootcamp with a 5-4-3-2-1 style class (did more instructing than doing), then taught Interval Training with a supersets workout (did equal instructing as doing). For each superset I had the first move be a compound exercise, and the second an exercise that challenged stability in some way (ie pushup with leg up, cross knee plank, etc).

Wednesday
Active rest – 1.5 mile walk at lunch with Sheila and Patrice

Thursday
Taught my 6am class with another superset workout. Used the same format as Tuesday, just switched up the moves. I also did a 30 minute walking meeting with Julia.

Friday
Went to a 6am class at The Studio Empower with Jen. Holy leg burn!

Saturday
Saturday is the reason I only did 4 instead of 5 workout days last week. I woke up knowing that I wanted to work out, and mentally I needed to. But I didn’t feel like going to the gym, and my foot was flaring a bit which negated a run. I decided I was craving yoga and was set on going to a Prana 2 Music class. I drove all the way there only to have not one, but two meters eat all my quarters. Then I had to scramble for change so I wouldn’t get a ticket while in class. At this point I was running late (which is a huge anxiety/stress trigger for me – not the best way to start a yoga class), and I saw the instructor at the door waving all the late folks down and saying she was about to lock the door and start class. The others were all in front of me and did start running, as did I, but the difference is that I tripped and fell on the cement. And had my water bottle spill ALL OVER ME. Literally the entire thing all over me and I was soaked. So I started crying, turned around, and drove home like a big loser. Then I felt like I really needed the workout for mental reasons, but it just didn’t happen.

By the way, that Prana instructor just turned around and locked the door. Not good for business. Also, I should stop tripping since it’s happened twice in the past month!? So graceful.

Next Week’s Workouts

Not going to dwell, this week is a new week! Here’s my plan:

Sunday: Outdoor run + abs
Monday: Maybe I’ll actually go to yoga?!
Tuesday: Teaching outdoor bootcamp again + teaching Interval at 7:30pm
Wednesday: Active rest
Thursday: Teaching 6am Interval
Friday: Going to try to get to Studio Empower for 6am class again, otherwise something in the afternoon
Saturday: Morning workout TBD

FYI if you are interested in trying something new this month, Tuesdays in June are “Try It Tuesdays” at any of the 13 Greater Boston YMCA locations. Members are allowed and encouraged to bring friends as FREE guests on Tuesdays. If the friend joins the Y they can pay a $0 joining fee, and if they remain a member for 90 days the referring member gets a free month of membership. If you are a local reader interested in trying my Tuesday night class, come on by!

Has anyone had a day that you really needed a workout for your own sanity, but it just wasn’t going to happen? Do you shoot for quality or quantity?

Get after it this week, you guys!

Hola!

Last week at this time I was hiking up a mountain in Colorado. I wish I were still there! I guess if I can’t be there in person, recapping the trip here will have to do.

So! Tim travels a lot for work, and when we found out he was presenting at an event in Vail we were super pumped to look into personal travel. The company we work for (yes we work for the same company if you haven’t figured that out yet) is pretty flexible about letting you tag on personal travel to work trips if you want. We spent a while looking over different places in Colorado to stay. Vail was too pricy for us, and after some research we decided to spend two nights in Boulder and one night in Denver. I had been to Boulder for work before and knew that I just had to go back there for fun, so that was a no brainer. Plus, Tim and I had racked up enough Marriott points over the past year that we got all three of our stays for free! Aka, only needed to pay for my flight (his was expensed), our food and activities, and a rental car.

Last Friday Tim and his team headed back to Denver Airport from Vail, and I flew out of Logan. Met Tim in the airport (landed around 11am Colorado time), and our first stop? The grocery store.

We wanted to keep our food and booze spending to a minimum, so we loaded up on some snacks and lunches to have on hand throughout the week. In our stash:

4 Oikos yogurts
2 Clif bars
2 Kind bars
1/2 pound honey roasted turkey breast
1/4 pound American cheese
4 nectarines
Box of Triscuits
Box of Chipins
Huge case of H20
Plastic baggies
Sunscreen

Sweet. We were staying at a Marriott Residence Inn, which has suite style rooms including a full kitchen, so we didn’t have to worry about perishables. After we got to the hotel, and unpacked our things, we headed right to Pearl Street!

Pearl Street is considered downtown Boulder and is basically a huge street of shops, restaurants, bars, and more. It’s a pretty big street, with an East and West end, so there’s LOTS to do!

Our first priority? Lunch! After being on a plane ALL morning, I was STARVING. Yes, I know I said we bought deli meats and such just a second ago, but we were saving those for Sunday and Monday’s outdoor activities. After checking out a few menus, we decided to eat at a place called Riff’s. Pretty much every restaurant on Pearl Street has an outdoor patio or roof deck, but this one in particular caught my eye because of their comfy looking sidewalk seating.

Oh, and just this view of the mountains from their patio too:

We celebrated the start to our long weekend with a “cheers!”

Prosecco for me, a beer for Tim!

We’re so classy.

Lunch was DELICIOUS! What made it even more delicious was that we just happened to be there during happy hour (aka cheaper) prices.

We each got a salad – mixed greens with pickled vegetables and vinaigrette powder for me, and the arugula salad with preserved lemon, slivered apricot, pistachios, pancetta, and tarragon dressing for Tim.

We also each ordered a bowl of mussel “chowder” with gold potato, leek, thyme, wine, and cream. So good!

After lunch, we strolled around Pearl Street and went into a bunch of shops. So many stores have to do with healthy lifestyles or food — I love it!!

Peppercorn was seriously THE coolest (and biggest!) kitchen store I’ve ever been to.

Some more “touristy” pictures of our day on Pearl Street:

Eventually we got pretty thirsty from walking around so much in the sun, so we stopped for some Maiberry. Strawberry kiwi lemonade for me, mango lemonade for Tim. So refreshing!

I could NOT decide which I liked better, as you can see:

On our way back to our rental car, we saw some square dancing in the middle of the street. They had tons of street performers just out and about, of all kinds.