It's All About Balance

Sometimes the smallest goals are the hardest to achieve. Like losing the last 5 pounds or not being late to a meeting. It seems impossible to make it. I've been trying to increase my weekly mileage by 10%, but I just can't seem to get there. This week I only ran 20 miles. But I did some cross-training and it was a nice break from the ground pounding effort it takes to run.

Spinning, you either love it or hate it. I would say I love it. The dizzying, heart-pounding, stomach-wrenching feeling of spinning is not for everyone. After 45-minutes of intervals, I have to wonder where all the water on my face and on the gym floor is coming from. It is hard to convince people to come to the class, especially with the screams of pain that are heard throughout the gym from some class members. The great thing about spinning is learning to control your heartrate. During the last few classes our instructor has been trying (and he is very sincere about it) to teach us how to control our heartrate by breathing. I have not been able to master this ability. My heart seems to have a mind of its own once I reach 85%-90% of my maximum heartrate despite my effort to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. Another plus to spinning is that YOU are in control of how hard you want to work. The resistance on my flywheel may be 1/8th of what the person next to me has. I'm ok with that, the last thing I want to do is keel over from a heart attack. I haven't seen any defibrilators in the gym either.

So, on days when I'm not running or going nowhere on a stationary bike, I do yoga. It's an awesome feeling to surrender to the pose and give all of my body weight to gravity. What's also great about yoga is learning to focus. Many times I find my mind jumping from one thought to the next, not really focusing on the present moment. All I have to do is tell myself "I am here" and bring my attention back to where I am NOW. Not where I want to be or where I was. If I'm going to run mile after mile after mile, it's good not to think about how many more miles are left to run, but where I am at that moment.

It's all about balance. As much as I want to reach my goal of 30 miles a week, I truly enjoy the peace from yoga and the challenge from spinning.