Sterre Starts Anew

[sterre]

Here's today's stuff:

 

Walking: I did the usual walking to and from work for 50 minutes. I'm wussing out of running for tonight because it's super hot tonight, I realized that I can't see my stopwatch in the dark and I'm super tired from work yesterday and inadequate sleep. I'll try getting up early tomorrow before it starts getting hot. Then I'll get the awesome post-run feeling all day long.

 

Yoga: Week 3, Day 1 is another daily stretch routine.

This time my free poses were as follows:

• Shoulder stand (90s)
• Boat (35s full, 25s half)
• Plank (70s)
• Chaturanga (10s)
• Child's pose

I'm excited to get 10 seconds on Chaturanga, this is something that's super hard for me (my upper body strength is pretty lacking). I'm not sure why I've been having so much trouble increasing my plank time. Maybe if I did it before boat, that would help, but boat always feels so much harder so I like seeing improvement there. Also a minute and a half on shoulder stand (my form seemed especially good today too).

 

Poi: Practiced poi today! I finally got the split time reverse crosses going. At least I did early on, then my arms started getting tired and I started hitting myself in the head when I tried. I'm still counting that as a success though. The next lesson is about playing around with where I can cross the poi around my body (with just one poi), so maybe I'll try that for a bit before jumping into unit 2 in the series.

 

Coding: Got some stuff done on Free Code Camp today while I was at work. Still feeling okay about it, though I know there's a lot to learn still.

 

Knitting: It's been a while, but I knit two rows on my sweater today!

[Wolf]

Woot! congrats on your Chaturanga! Seems like your first challenge days went great!

[sterre]

Another challenge day, another set of exercises. This time since I didn't have to work all day, I managed to get some reasonable progress (in between doing housework because my partner and I have been a bit lazy about that lately). Here goes:

 

Yoga (Week 3, Day 2): This was the first of the long yoga workouts of the challenge and I did pretty well. My abs were a bit sore today, so I skipped holding planks and boat in my free poses and added a bridge because that seemed like a good plan. Anyway, here goes.

Daily Stretch Routine with free poses:

• Shoulder stand (100s)
• Bridge (5 breaths)
• Child's pose

I held all the main poses for seven seconds.

 

3x Surya Namaskara B

• Begin in tadasana
• Inhale to awkward chair
• Exhale to standing forward fold
• Inhale to flat back
• Exhale to chaturanga
• Inhale to up dog
• Exhale to down dog
• Inhale to warrior I
• Exhale to chaturanga
• Inhale to up dog
• Exhale to down dog
• Inhale to warrior I
• Exhale to chaturanga
• Inhale to up dog
• Exhale to down dog (hold for 5 breaths)
• Exhale to forward fold
• Inhale to awkward chair
• Exhale to tadasana

Standing Poses

• all held for 7 breaths

Seated Stretches

• all held for 7 breaths

I'm still pretty bad at balancing on my right leg for half-moon pose and my right shoulder still has some flexibility issues in cow face pose. I might try to incorporate the latter into my DSR and maybe I'll see more of an improvement that way.

 

Running: I did the first day of the couch to 5k! I felt pretty good about it, even if it was harder than I feel it should have been.

 

Walking: I walked about an hour and a half running errands.

 

Poi: Played with poi again. I tried out some different circle positions with a single poi at once and hit myself with them a lot. Then went into playing with the other moves I know how to do. Maybe I'll move on to the next lesson next time since it seems likely to be more fun.

 

Coding: Did some more work at Free Code Camp. I got less done than I usually do at work... I think the mess of the apartment was distracting me somehow.

 

All in all, it was a good day.

[sterre]

Okay, two challenge days in one update and go!

 

Day 4

 

Yoga:

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand (110s)
• boat (40s full, 30s half)
• cow face (held for 8 breaths)
• plank (80s)
• chaturanga (10s)
• child's pose
• bridge (30s)

Walking: Walked for an hour or so.

 

Poi: Played around for 12 minutes, basically got the butterfly move working. It's much easier than it looks.

 

Coding: Five items done on FCC! I struggled with a few algorithms, but eventually managed to figure them out.

 

Day 5

 

Yoga:

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulderstand (120s!)
• boat (40s full, 20s half)
• plank (90s)
• child's pose

3x Surya Namaskara B (aka sun salutations with a fancy name)

Standing poses

• held for 7 breaths
• I didn't fall on half moon

Standing balances

• Mostly successful on left leg, not so much on right.

Seated stretches

• my right shoulder seems better, I could actually hold hands behind my back both directions on cow face

Coding: I did six items on FCC, despite taking a really long time on the first one. I was thinking about it the wrong way though, basically (or making it more complicated than it had to be at least).

 

Day five was definitely a bit of a lazy day, except for the intense yoga routine.

[oldnews]

Good job on the boat pose! That's not one I've done very often. Maybe I should add it near the Pilates portion on my workout.

[sterre]

Good job on the boat pose! That's not one I've done very often. Maybe I should add it near the Pilates portion on my workout.

 

Thanks! It's one of these things I don't really like to do because it's really hard, but I think it's worth doing, so I'll do it a lot until it becomes easy. 

[sterre]

Here's yesterday:

 

Yoga:

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand (120s)
• boat (40s full, 20s half)
• head to knee
• cobbler's pose
• plank (80s)
• chaturanga (10s)
• child's pose

 

I added head to knee and cobbler's as part of my post-run stretching.

 

Run: I did the second of the c25k runs! I woke up super early and got it in first thing. I should aim for that most days, I think since it was hardly hot out.

 

Walk: I probably walked about an hour throughout the day, but it's hard to say. I got some dancing in too, while I was at it.

 

Poi: I worked on learning a 3 beat wave... or prelude to the 3 beat wave anyway.

 

Coding: I got some more stuff done on FCC!

[sterre]

Yesterday, I had a bit of a lazy day. I didn't do yoga until late and I only did three more things on Free Code Camp. I walked around during the middle of the afternoon to a few shops with my partner (we had to run some errands and it was nice to enjoy the air conditioning outside). But here's a summary:

 

Yoga (week 3, day 6 of the yoga challenge):

Daily stretch routine with free poses

• shoulder stand (120s)
• bridge (30s)
• child's pose

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing poses

Yoga for Abs

• side plank (30s)
• plank (90s)
• boat (45s full, 15s half)

I feel like I should maybe do side planks more often than once a week. I'm still improving on them somehow, but I could probably do better if I did them more.

 

Walking: I walked around for the better part of an hour, at least.

 

Coding: I went to Free Code Camp.

[sterre]

Okay, I have a bit of a backlog, but no worries, I've been keeping reasonably good notes. I also don't seem to be falling much more than two days behind on these updates, which is probably good.

 

August 3rd (Challenge Week 2, Day 1)

 

Yoga (Week 3, Day 7)

Daily Stretch Routine with free poses:

• boat (50s full, 10s half)
• cow face (10 breaths)
• plank (100s)
• chaturanga (12s)
• child's pose

Walk: Walked half an hour.

 

Poi: Practiced the three beat weave and eventually got it. I hit myself with the poi a lot in the process and I didn't really understand how this was going to work until eventually it just clicked. It was awesome!

 

Coding: Got a few algorithms. I'm possibly getting better at this.

 

August 4th (Challenge Week 2, Day 2)

 

Yoga (Week 4, Day 1)

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• boat (60s full!)
• cow face (10 breaths)
• bridge (40s)
• plank (110s)
• side planks (30s each)
• chaturanga (10s)
• child's pose

I finally got a full boat for 60 seconds! My right shoulder on cow face also seems to be getting better.

 

Running: I did the first run in the second week of c25k. It was great to go out again, even if doing the two minute walking parts got a bit boring.

 

Walking: Lots of errands, I probably walked about 40 minutes.

 

Poi: Worked on stalls and continued practicing my three beat weave.

 

Coding: I mostly read articles... I was a bit lazy.

[sterre]

Okay! I got some catching up to do. One thing to note right off the bat is that I completed the 30 day yoga challenge! I still have to do another week to have done 28 consecutive days since I repeated week two a few times. Anyway, I'll try to recap the last couple of days in some more detail as far as the yoga goes. The other stuff would be repeating what's in my challenge thread for the most part.... so... I'll try to do better coming up, but for now it's time for a yoga recap!

 

Week 4, Day 2

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• boat (60 s full)

3x Surya Namaskara

Standing Poses

Yoga for Arms

1. downward dog
2. plank (119 s... so close to two minutes!)
3. side plank (20 s)
4. full side plank (5 s then collapse because these are hard)
5. plank
6. chaturanga (back to plank in step 5, repeat 10 times)
7. up dog
8. down dog
9. three-legged dog
10. wild thing (repeat other side)

One thing that was great here is that despite not trying to do push ups for a really long time and usually being bad at them, I basically did 10 of them! I guess just doing yoga has paid off.

 

Week 4, Day 3

Daily stretch routine (held for 10 breaths) with free poses:

• boat (60s)
• cow face
• cobbler's pose
• seated head to knee
• wide legged straddle
• bridge (40s)
• happy baby
• child's pose

Week 4, Day 4

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• plank (120 s!!)
• chaturanga (10 s)
• bridge (40 s)
• child's pose

3x Surya Namaskara

Standing poses

Standing balances

Seated stretches

 

Week 4, Day 5

Daily stretch routine

• boat (40 s)
• cow face (12 breaths)
• bridge (45 s)
• plank (120 s)
• child's pose

(I swapped the scheduled days 6 and 7)

Week 4, Day "6"

Daily stretch routine

• child's pose

Seated stretches

 

Week 4, Day "7"

Daily stretch routine

• bridge (50s)
• child's pose

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing poses

Yoga for Abs

• plank (120 s)
• side plank (30 s)
• boat (60 s)

Seated stretches

 

So over the course of the yoga challenge, I definitely made some improvements and I think it's fun to review them.

• plank duration went from 20 s to 120 s!
• boat went from 20 s of half-boat to 60 s of full boat
• my shoulder stand went from 30 s to 120 s
• chaturanga went from nothing to 10-12 s... it's still hard.
• side planks went from 20 s to 30 s (probably need to do these more often)
• my right shoulder is now sufficiently flexible to do cow face pose on both sides
• I can do the standing balances much better on both sides (holding for at least 5 breaths)
• Can hold daily stretch routine poses for up to 10 breaths (up from 5)

I'm still not able to get my heels down for downward dog and I still have to bend my knees for forward folds, but I feel like I'm still doing better at these. Obviously there's other room for improvement, but I feel like overall, it's been quite productive and I feel awesome about the progress.

 

My plan for the upcoming week is to repeat week 4 of the routine and then maybe I'll start to add more sets after that, maybe not.

[oldnews]

Yay for improvements! It's so hard to measure yoga improvements, it's really something you have to feel. It's awesome that you're doing so well!

[sterre]

Yay for improvements! It's so hard to measure yoga improvements, it's really something you have to feel. It's awesome that you're doing so well!

 

Yeah, with the exception of being able to do things I used to not be able to do at all, my improvements are mostly based on timing. Otherwise it's just like "well, maybe I did this a bit better, but I'm not sure".

[sterre]

Time for another catch up post!

 

Challenge Week 3, Day 2

 

Yoga (Week 4*, Day 1)

Daily stretch routine with free pose:

• child's pose

Seated stretches

 

Running: First run of week 3 in the c25k! I ran super fast and it was fun. I definitely missed this.

 

Walking: Walked around a whole bunch going to see fireworks and stuff.

 

Challenge Week 3, Day 3

 

Yoga (Week 4*, Day 2)

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand (120s)
• boat (60s)
• bridge (55s)

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing Poses

Yoga for arms

• plank (120s)
• side plank (30s)
• full side plank (8s right, 5s left)
• plank to chaturanga and back (10x)

Seated stretches

 

Walking: Got in a late night walk with my partner.

 

Coding: Just checked in for three quick items on FCC.

 

Challenge Week 3, Day 4

 

Yoga (Week 4*, Day 3):

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand
• child's pose

Seated stretches

 

Running: Another week 3 c25k run! Still speedy, still fun!

 

Waking: Walked to and from the station, wandered around a bit as well. At least half an hour of walking, but probably more.

 

Poi: Lots of poi! I was playing around with planes and I got to use the poi in the park. Fun times.

 

Coding: Three more quick items.

 

Challenge Week 3, Day 5

 

Yoga (Week 4*, Day 4):

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• chaturanga (12s)
• plank (120s)
• bridge (60s)
• shoulder stand (120s)

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing poses

Standing balances

• I hardly fell this time! There was some definite improvement here!

Seated stretches

 

Walking: I walked around for about 40 minutes.

 

Poi: I got a bit more poi done. I was trying to learn to pass the poi above my head, but doing this indoors doesn't work very well so I'll have to try again outside.

 

Coding: Three items again.

 

So things are going pretty well. I've been slacking on the knitting though, which is a bit sad, but it's also really hot so I'm not up to knitting as much as I might otherwise be (also, the sweater got to a boring spot).

 

I have been tracking my calories for the last two weeks as well. I'd like to lose a bit of pudge, but at the moment, not much has been happening on that front (though I feel like I look better, the measuring tape doesn't really lie). I feel like I'm making slightly better decisions though when it comes to eating and snacking though, so I feel like I'm at least not going to be moving in the wrong direction.

 

I think I'll start adding some BBWW today after my run and try to incorporate that into my regular routine as best I can. I was debating how to do this with my existing yoga routines since some of them are supposed to work arms and abs, but I don't really end up too sore from them afterwards so I don't think it will actually be a big deal to alternate between my long yoga routines and BBWW. Anyway, we'll see how it goes and hopefully I'm not starting up too much too soon.

[Wolf]

I am still really impressed how you manage measuring your yoga progress (note to self: will look into that sometime). Do you feel that the numbers helps motivation? Progress? Or both?

- sorry if you've answered this elsewhere already.

[sterre]

I am still really impressed how you manage measuring your yoga progress (note to self: will look into that sometime). Do you feel that the numbers helps motivation? Progress? Or both?

- sorry if you've answered this elsewhere already.

 

Well, the numbers generally motivate me to hold poses longer, usually either because I know I can since I've done it before or because I want to beat my old time. When it comes to flexibility or balance improvements, I try to keep some notes (e.g. how far I can reach or whether I can hold a pose for some number of breaths without falling) and it's definitely nice to notice improvements there, even if I'm not measuring them very strictly.

[sterre]

Challenge Week 3, Day 6

 

Yoga (Week 4*, Day 5):

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand (94 s)
• bridge (50s)
• happy baby
• child's pose

Seated stretches

 

I think I didn't hold my poses so well because I was quite tired after running and BBWW.

 

Running: Final c25k run of week 3!

 

Walking: I walked around a bunch in the evening.

 

Resistance:

Beginners Bodyweight Workout (2 sets)

• Squats: 20/20
• Push ups: 10/10
• Lunges: 20/20
• Dumbell rows (with 2L bottle of water): 10/10
• Plank: 60s/70s
• Jumping Jacks: 30/30

I only went for two sets because I noticed by the end I was getting pretty tired. I might have managed another few squats, but more lunges were definitely not going to happen.

 

Coding: Three items.

 

Challenge Week 3, Day 7

 

My ass was super sore all day and I was feeling a bit lazy, so it ended up being a rest day except for a walk in the evening. I figure that I deserved it since it's my first day off from yoga at least since the challenge started, but possibly before. I'll move the planned yoga routine to today (week 4 day 1) since it's more complicated and I'd rather skip the simple one. It can be my warm up for the next attempt at BBWW (maybe split up a bit so there can be a cool down as well, I'll sort it out).

[sterre]

I've fallen behind again on updates! I've still been doing a lot of stuff, having fun with it and keeping track in dead-tree format though (as well as on my challenge page), so I can easily fill in all the gaps now.

 

Challenge Week 4, Day 1

Yoga (Week 4, Day 6):

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• bridge (65 s)
• shoulder stand (120 s)
• child's pose

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing stretches

Yoga for abs

• plank (90 s)
• side plank (45 s)
• boat (56 s)

Seated stretches

 

Walking: Walked for half an hour, went out to walk again later.

 

Coding: Three items done!

 

Challenge Week 4, Day 2

 

Yoga (Day 1):

Daily stretch routine with free poses:

• shoulder stand
• child's pose

Seated stretches

 

Run: First run of week 4 in the c25k!

 

Walk: Walked for half an hour

 

Coding: Six items done!

 

BBWW:

• squats (20 / 20)
• push ups (10 / 10)
• lunges (20 / 20)
• dumbbell rows (10 / 10)
• plank (70 s/ 40 s)
• jumping jacks (30 / 15)

...and I stopped because I woke up my partner. :S

 

Challenge Week 4, Day 3

 

Yoga (Day 2): I took it easy and did a yoga for a good night sleep routine. It was nice and relaxing.

 

Walking: Walked for 30 minutes.

 

Coding: 10 items done!

 

Challenge Week 4, Day 4

 

Yoga (Day 3, done while pretty tired after run and BBWW):

Daily stretch routine with free poses

• shoulder stand (76 s)
• boat (30 s)
• bridge (46 s)

3x Surya Namaskara B

Standing poses (held for 10 breaths)

Yoga for arms

• plank (60 s)
• side plank (35 s)
• full side plank (5 s)
• plank to chaturanga (10x, on knees)

Seated stretches

• happy baby
• twisted side stretch

Run: Second run of week 4 in the c25k! Slower than before because of caterpillars and slippery track.

 

Coding: 13 items done!

 

BBWW:

• squats (20/20/20)
• push ups (10/10/8)
• lunges (20/20/20)
• dumbbell rows (10/10/9)
• plank (60 s/60 s/40 s)
• jumping jack (30/30/30)

Challenge Week 4, Day 5

 

Yoga (Day 4):

Daily stretch routine with free pose:

• child's pose

Walking: I walked for an hour, then I walked some more later!

 

Poi: 36 minutes of poi! At last! I learned how to do the three beat weave backwards and started working on making some smooth turns and the like.

 

Coding: 14 items done!

 

Whew! I really need to avoid falling that far behind on updates.

[sterre]

I drifted off at the end of the last challenge and I think I need to regroup, so I've decided that it's back to the Battle Log for a little while before I get back into doing challenges. I might just sit out this one challenge and be back for April, but I'll take it a week at a time.

 

Looking back, I also realize that I was probably doing a lot better at fitness when I wasn't just focusing on my challenge goals, but also doing extra stuff. So my numbers are probably going to be a bit sad to start with.

 

Anyway, my goals for the remains of this week are as follows.

 

Fitness/Body

1. Yoga: Do it three times!

2. BBWW: Do it at least twice!

3. Run: Go out at least once!

4. Go out: At least half an hour a day!

5. Food: Diary for the rest of the week!

6. Feet: Take care of them because they're still a bit sad (but getting much better).

 

Life

1. Work: Apply for a job (or at least get an application mostly ready)!

2. Home: Spend 10 minutes a day tidying!

3. TCoB:

• Get a haircut
• Register with a GP (or contact and attempt to register)

[Briniel]

I wanted to drop by since there won't be a challenge thread to cheer you on on. So, have a good week! Those goals seems like a great way to get back on track I should adapt your life goal. Ugh.

[sterre]

I wanted to drop by since there won't be a challenge thread to cheer you on on. So, have a good week! Those goals seems like a great way to get back on track I should adapt your life goal. Ugh.

 

Thanks! I'm really hoping that it works to get me back on track. I might also end up stealing your morning idea (an upside of not doing a challenge is that I can pick and choose and change things whenever I want).

[sterre]

March 2nd, 2016

 

Fitness/Body

1. Yoga: Did the daily stretch routine and 3 sun salutations to warm up for BBWW and some seated stretches as a cool down.

2. BBWW: I did the following:

• squats (20/20)
• push ups (10/10, all kneeling)
• lunges (20)
• dumbbell rows (10)
• plank (60 s)
• jumping jacks (30)

I was sort of shaking after the second set of push ups so I stopped. Maybe I'll try taking a longer rest between sets. Apparently not doing this for a few months means that I suck at doing it (but I will get better if I keep at it).

4. Go out: I went out with my partner to his office and then to the store.

5. Food: Today I ate and drank:

• an onion bagel with cream cheese
• coffee, black
• a salad (6 cm cucumber, tomato, rib of celery, green onion, 1 Tbs grated cheese, 1 Tbs dressing)
• a banana
• 0.5 bowl salt and vinegar chips
• 1 bowl homemade macaroni and cheese (with onion, green pepper and mushroom)
• 1 glass apple juice
• 300 mL beer
• 4 pints of water

6. Feet: I just washed them, moisturized, inspected them and have been keeping them warm. I'm pretty sure that I had chilblains from my feet being cold (or cold-ish), but they seem to be going away for the most part and my feet are much less itchy and sore lately.

 

Life

2. Home: I washed dishes, vacuumed and cleaned off the counter tops.

 

Tomorrow, I think I'll try for a run and maybe some more yoga (also some phone calls to take care of business and all that).

[Briniel]

Nice work! Good for you to not over-do it on the workout. Don't worry, you'll get back to your former PBs soon. I could have kicked my ass for the last few months of 2015 where I didn't do any workout, my planks have suffered sooo much, but I kept at it and now two months in I'm pretty much back to where I left off (with about 3 weeks where I didn't do anything because I was sick).

[sterre]

Nice work! Good for you to not over-do it on the workout. Don't worry, you'll get back to your former PBs soon. I could have kicked my ass for the last few months of 2015 where I didn't do any workout, my planks have suffered sooo much, but I kept at it and now two months in I'm pretty much back to where I left off (with about 3 weeks where I didn't do anything because I was sick).

 

Yeah, next time, I'll try for at least a full two sets (and once I complete two, I'll attempt a third). I'm definitely already feeling that first attempt though.

[sterre]

I might have to cancel some of my plans this week. My partner has been sick all week with what's probably the flu and I assumed I was in the clear since I hadn't caught it yet... but I've had a bit of a sore throat and it only seems to be getting worse as the day goes on.

[Briniel]

Oh no!! I hope it won't catch you and you'll be feeling better soon. Sending lots of good thoughts your way!