Motion

The raised embankment of Dike Rd, location of this week's bike ride

How good it feels to be alive.

(I have to warn you - this is a pretty didactic post, not very poetic at all.)

The theme of this month has been motion. As we've settled into this new place (house, town, region) I've nestled into some nice grooves. It was a goal of mine, once the move was finished, to get back on the bandwagon with regards to my workouts. While it took awhile to get everything aligned, I continually reminded myself not to fall prey to feelings of failure: perhaps not now, but it will align soon enough and then you will achieve your goal.

I am now three weeks in to an exercise regimen that I totally eased into, and I am quite pleased with myself. 6+ weeks in, really, if you count that I started doing yoga every morning again during the last couple weeks of December and into the present (travel days excluded). 

Falling off the exercise bandwagon in the autumn of 2020 hurt; I was so burnt out on so many levels, and exercise became one more intolerable thing that I seemed to be failing at. I wanted to try something different, but couldn't figure out what. I would try something here or there, but I let my routine go in the process and - not wanting to perform poorly - chose not to perform at all. A walk here, a hike there, the occasional bike ride or swim - all perfectly legitimate forms of motion, but nothing that I stuck to with any consistency. I at least was able to maintain my yoga practice, for the most part, but even that was on the rocks.

Moving to a new place and starting a new job was an opportunity for a reset, and I took it!

We bought a rowing machine, and I have been rowing twice a week, along with my old Viking Method workouts. First just one set, then two, then three, until I've worked my mind back up to being confident in my body's ability to complete the exercises without bursting. Svava Sigbertsdottir, the trainer who wrote The Viking Method book, spends a good amount of time talking about how much "training like a viking" needs to be paired with "thinking like a viking," and it really is true. My body probably could have blundered through all 4 sets of one of the workouts the first time. But my brain needed convincing. So I worked with it, tried to go with the flow but also to divert it, and I've tricked myself into getting back up to snuff. 

It's worth noting that I've also made some changes to what I'm doing. For one, I'm not timing my workouts anymore. That was really important to me when I did them before, always trying to see if I could beat my previous time as an emblem of my self-improvement. But I've decided that, for now at least, it's enough to know that I am doing something, without having to catalog it down to the second. Yet at the end of my second week of exercising, I decided that there had to be a happy medium between over-recording every movement and not writing anything down at all. I've heard the studies: they say you follow through more when you write stuff down. So I opened up my old Exercise Log notebook, turned to a blank page, and made a two-column chart, one side for my plan that week and one side for my reflections. Nothing too detailed. No boxes to check off. But a framework to adhere to in my brain when it's trying to get out of it, and a space to give myself a pat on the back when the week is done. And at the end of the week, after I've reflected, I'll come up with the plan for the following week.

My goal? Keep doing yoga every morning, and keep rowing/doing Viking Method workouts twice a week. That's it! Because the best way to form a habit is not to make it demand your all, but to make it so attainable that you couldn't help but do it anyway. And yes, I will sprinkle in bike rides, walks, swims, paddle boarding, roller skating, as weather and whims allow on the other days of the week, but they're not a requirement. My goal is to not beat myself up over this. I've been feeling guilty for over a year and it was a poor motivator. My goal is to set myself up for achievement rather than failure. No inflexible standards. No endless check boxes. Just keep in motion.

So enough of that. You get the picture. If you've read this far, kudos. I'm not even sure if it's that interesting, but it felt worthwhile to get it out there. 

On the topic of bicycling, my stable is getting out to pasture for the first time in awhile. I've taken my road bike on two short jaunts and it was positively scrumptious, aside from the rear shifter not wanting to go into the easy gears for some mysterious reason. I'm having a bit of a reckoning with regards to my mountain bike which is leaning towards "sell the darn beast". It was great for what I needed when I was commuting on old two-track up and down a mountain to get to and from work, but it's a lot more bike than I really want or need right now and I'm sure it would make someone else very happy. Now that I'm back in a place where road riding feels safe, I don't feel much need for a massive mountain bike anymore. That old project bike of a lady's Schwinn cruiser that Aunt Sherry let me have, though: that is enticing. I told Jack that if I do sell the mtb, I'll actually get that bike painted and rolling again this year. I love the mental image of the two of us noodling along on our cruisers around some beach town, stopping for ice cream, and pedaling off into the sunset.

Until next time!