After spewing all sorts of grim reality on our recent coffee date, I had a come-to-Jesus moment. I need to calm down, get my head out of future uncertainties/worries and into the present. Presently my workouts continue to be a bright spot.
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Trail Run 3 miles + Zoom Yoga Class
Wednesday: Run 7 miles
Thursday: Strength, Balance, Mobility
Friday: Run 2 miles + Zoom Yoga class
Saturday: Run 6 miles
Sunday: Heavy strength
Aaaannd my mileage is creeping up ever so slightly. My 2 and 3 milers are turning into 6 and 7’s and the ole bod is totally onboard. An 18 mile week for this old girl on hiatus from racing is not too shabby!
Did you notice not one but TWO yoga sessions in my week? This was my first foray into Zoom fitness classes. I’d used Zoom before for work meetings but the yoga was COOL! The class I’m going to is by an instructor who specializes in Trauma Yoga, which is especially perfect at a stressful time like this. Some of you have asked for the link so here it is. I’ll be in class this Thursday for sure so join me!
Here’s the mindfulness checklist I put together. It calms me down, helps with focus, brings me into the present moment and reminds me what is and is not within my control.
Get plenty of sleep
Start each day with slow deep breaths and set intentions
Notice when you’re complaining to someone
Notice negative self-talk
Practice self-care (hello workouts)
Do a quick assessment: How do you feel right now? Is everyone healthy? Do you have food? A place to live?
Notice when you’re trying to take care of too many people
Set boundaries and say no
Practice gratitude
Not Loving
The mask mandate. It’s not that I disagree with wearing one as much as I resent the fact that we were apparently lied to at the beginning when we were advised it was safer to NOT wear one. For the record I do not wear a face covering when I run, because I rarely ever see another human being in close proximity when I’m out. I do wear it when I head to the grocery store, but I runfess it’s hot and slides down my face. First world problems.
I’m really, really, REALLY tired of cooking. The Caveman stepped up Saturday night and made pizza with a cauliflower crust I’d procured at Trader Joe’s. His toppings were great but the crust was fair at best. He enjoyed it less than I did.
Shopping remains a crapshoot. I don’t yet need any toilet paper, cleaning supplies or paper goods and it’s a good thing because there still aren’t any. This week I waited in line longer to enter both Costco and Trader Joe’s although with the exception of butter, I found everything I came for. I went early to the grocery store hoping it’d be emptier (it was) but it wasn’t restocked yet either so boo.
Loving
My house is 47% cleaner. Chalk it up to stress cleaning but our digs are looking better than ever.
I’m so grateful for amazing teachers. The kids are managing their remote studies well so far, with zero nagging from me. I know having her college semester upended by Coronavirus wasn’t Thing 1’s idea of fun but she’s been a real trooper. The other day she showed me her Math professor playing a Taylor Swift song on guitar, except he’d changed the words to teach about Eigenvectors. Gotta love that kind of creativity. The middle school teaching staff is killing it as well. I am so impressed with the assignments, Youtube videos and everything else they are busting their tails on under these very difficult circumstances.
Porch Concert. Organized by our school district, we’re having a community-wide porch concert this Tuesday at 2pm. The school bands/orchestras will be performing Bill Withers’ (may he rest in peace) Lean On Me. I fear Thing 2 will be too shy to take part but who knows? One can hope.
Blogger Zoom Chat. This was so good for my soul! Cannot wait to do it again!
All the glory to New Balance and Spibelt for switching their production over to making masks and to Brooks for donating 10,000 pairs of shoes to medical workers, and to everyone else who is stepping up in a big way.
How was your week? How are you staying safe and calm as we navigate uncertain times?
I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down. Join us!
I like your mindfulness check list and I know that I could benefit from doing some more of that. It’s really hard for me to accept that I cannot control everything. It does help to pause and take a minute to appreciate all that is good. Zoom chat was amazing it was great to see and hear you all. Made my week!
I agree with you about the masks – I’m more upset that now after weeks of not doing so, we’ve been advised to do it. Of course I’ll comply but I just wish they had said this sooner! It seems like the stores here are similar. I haven’t seen any toilet paper or paper towels restocked but I have seen cleaning supplies. I’m trying to only go to the store every 10 days or so.
It was so nice to see you on the Zoom chat yesterday!
Ha! I’m really, really, really tired of cooking too! I am going to tell Bill he’s in charge of one dinner next week. I don’t care if it’s scrambled eggs, I just want to eat food I haven’t cooked myself! 🙂
Good for you for allowing your mileage to increase naturally. I think I push it too often and wind up burning myself out.
I don’t think we were lied to about the masks–I can tell you from the medical perspective, we rarely wear masks unless it’s a serious situation or we are doing a procedure. I have been seeing flu patients en masse all winter–it was a bad flu season–and I never mask. The mask is meant to prevent the spread of infections, which is why the sick person wears the mask. Unfortunately we are still learning a lot about COVID-19 and the mask recommendation was more out of an ‘abundance of caution’–who knows if it will help us stay healthy? I’m more upset at our great leader who is refusing to accept the recommendation of the experts and wear one because he is afraid of looking foolish. He’s botched this thing from the get-go. And we know who to blame for the US having the highest number of cases…
Yeah the whole mask flip flop has not been not the finest moment of the pandemic. Unless it becomes mandatory I don’t see the need to wear one while running, and hopefully it won’t b/c that’s going to be uncomfortable.
I have that same Marathon Tours gaitor 🙂 It is interesting how much the messaging has changed about masks. Feels fishy….
Glad your running is feeling so good! Congrats on the bump in mileage!
It is crappy about the mask situation. I feel the same way especially when people were getting beat up for wearing one at the beginning. Although, in all honesty, the experts are learning something new about this virus everyday. It is only 3 months old after all. Sigh. I’m sure things will change again.
Nice to see that running is agreeing with you. If it feels good, go for it!
I am so conflicted about the masks, especially while running. I haven’t worn one yet but now I’m starting to wonder….so stressful.
I have been trying to get back to yoga because I really think it’s what I need right now to help with mindfulness. Hopefully it is helping you too!
The porch concert sounds so cool! And I didn’t realize that New Balance is making masks now, that’s awesome. It’s so important to embrace the good news when we get it!
I feel the same way about the whole mask fisasco…sadly just one of many in the management of this crisis. And, I’m so frustrated with the state of cleaning supplies and paper goods. Luckily, we’ve had no problem finding other goods.
I love the idea of the porch concert!
So happy to see you on the Zoom chat – can’t wait for the next one!
It’s great to see so many companies rising to the challenge and extending their services for the cause. I didn’t mention this yesterday, but my place of work (deemed essential, due to it’s manufacturing role) has been manufacturing/assembling face shields for the past couple weeks and distributing them to several of our medical clients (we do LOTS of signage for hospitals and universities/colleges). It’s nice to know my “little company” is contributing to the greater good through this ordeal. The ZOOM chat was great, so glad to see you 😉 I love your mindfulness mentions. That is totally what gets me through tough times; that and g.r.a.t.i.t.u.d.e. Take care <3
Thanks for this post! I’ve been feeling so scattered lately – your mindfulness checklist was a great reminder, especially starting the day with deep breaths and setting intentions. I think the kids are adjusting better than I am to all the uses of technology for school. Our teachers are also going above and beyond. I can’t bring myself to do Zoom workouts yet…maybe in another month….
Yes, I think we all needed that zoom chat.
I won’t wear it while running, it’s barely manageable while walking, and is a good incentive to keep the outings short, which I think is the goal
*HUGS*
That porch concert is such a great idea!! I hope Thing 2 will participate – she is so talented and it would make so many people happy.
So nice that your kids have great teachers! It makes such a difference.
I didn’t know about New Balance and Brooke – nice to know that so many companies are rising to the occasion.
I haven’t been wearing a mask because I don’t really go anywhere where I see a lot of people. I’ve been doing grocery pick up via Instacart so I just sit in my car and wait for them to load everything in the trunk. I also deliver food for Door Dash and Uber Eats but primarily the deliveries are no contact so I don’t even see the people I deliver to most of the time. And like you, when I run it’s just too annoying and I stay 6 feet apart from others if I see them so I don’t wear it then either.
I get it and I think it’s important to honor and acknowledge our feelings of anger, resentment, bitterness and sadness. We can’t get consumed with them, but this is a collective trauma, and ignoring it isn’t going to improve anyone’s wellbeing.
Most days, I’m fine. This weekend, I struggled. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. But one foot in front of the other and hopefully, each step brings us closer to the end of this nightmare.
<3 It was good getting to chat. Can't wait for the next one!
Love your list! I try not to listen to the news much. I make Mr. Judy wear headphones (basically because he just has it too loud), but I always don’t want to watch 3 hours of the news in the morning. Some days I don’t watch any. It makes me happier.
I don’t wear anything when I run either. There was a poll on one of our local running groups, and almost no one said that they did. I am dodging people in my neighborhood, but most of the time we don’t come that close.
The concert sounds cool!
I have a project I’ve been working on for months that I’m really passionate about. No one may ever bother to look at it, but it keeps me fulfilled & busy. When I can get on our shared desktop.
Your mindfulness checklist is great! Grocery shopping is so crazy. We used to order online but now its really hard to find anything. Rob goes to the store since he goes to work still and I dont have any reason to leave the house. Glad your running is going well!
Be careful with that mask, Lou! Ryan’s doctor said it can be more dangerous than safe because people fidget with it and slide it up and down and thus touching their face MORE. Awesome.
No cleaning supplies here, no pasta sauce or noodles (things you don’t eat, I’m sure) and a slew of other things. I did find toilet paper the other day and though I didn’t need it, I got it anyway because who knows if I’ll ever find it again. It makes me crazy…the world is not in shortage of these items so why are people over-stocking on them?
Have you heard of Houseparty app? I run “with” Melissa on Sundays on the trails and she was telling me about it. I thnk we need a PB and Jilly houseparty chat….what do you think?
Miss you oodles. (I still have to get your birthday present and it’s flipping APRIL)
Thank you for sharing those tips! We are going to be in this situation for a while so I need to learn to cope with it. Hasn’t been easy for sure but I am grateful for a house and food. I’ve been struggling with sleep and I don’t nap during the day anymore. Must be stress related.
I can’t imagine wearing a mask while running. Honestly, I just hold my breath when I run past people! I’m sure there is no medical proof that it would work, but it seems like the same concept. I have fashioned a mask out of a t-shirt though and will wear it if I go grocery shopping. My daughter, who works at a grocery store, may need to start wearing one. We’ll find out on Saturday. As a 16 year old, she is not thrilled about it (ewww, not fashionable), but I really hope they make the employees wear them!