Running pic

Running pic
Yup, that's me!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Gotta spend money to get healthy


These physical therapy people – they are MEAN.  Sure, outwardly they seem very chipper and pleasant but just wait until they put the shackles o-doom onto your ankles.  That’s the rubber band thing with the ankle shackles that they want you to wear and then walk sideways until your hips feel like they are going to burst into flames. Nice. I look at the appointments as 30 minutes of torture that you have to endure to get the nice calf massage at the end – they make you work for it.  But, it seems to be working because the calf is hurting less and less. I’m hoping they will let me start some sort of return to run program next week or the week after.

Swimming is going swell too.  Now that my instructor has figured out that I know how to swim she’s treating the sessions like she’s a swimming personal trainer.  I know you burn more calories running but swimming is way more exhausting.  She had me doing 100’s with mixed strokes and NO HANGING OFF THE SIDES thank you very much. My flip turn is coming along nicely – thank you for asking. However for some reason last night I decided to flip to the right instead of the left – I don’t know what I was thinking – and I may have swallowed half the pool and the other half accumulated in my ears.  Bad plan.  My instructor said it’s common to only be able to go in one direction and I am living proof of that statement.

I took a spin class with a friend last night at Lincoln Square Athletic Club and compared to Galter that is one swank club.  Also, the beautiful people were definitely there.  Makes me realize that Galter is so NOT a pick-up spot - unless you have a thing for the older and infirm.  I mean I’m married anyway (but not dead – it’s nice to have good looking scenery) so it’s not like I’m trying to find a date to the prom, but if I was this would be a great place to start. The spin class was SO MUCH BETTER than the ones at Galter.  Having a dedicated spin room makes a huge difference. Plus at LSAC they have fancy lighting, a better sound system and the instructors get to pick their own music.  At Galter 99% of the spin classes use music provided by the ‘Group’ (Group Power, Group Ride, Group Centergy, etc.) people.  This means remixed pop hits – a new set every quarter.  Sometimes this is OK but there are usually one or two clunkers per class and the agreement is that they have to use the music as-is for the first 8 weeks of the quarter before they can change out tracks for ones from older releases. Consequently ever since I started running more mileage I pretty much quit going to spin classes except for the occasional CorePower Ryder class (side note: those bikes that lean to the sides are HARD to ride) and my ass has lost its resiliency.  I am a bruised woman today and I even wore the adult diaper bike shorts to try to avoid this.  And what’s with the shoulders hurting? I guess I must have had a death grip on the handlebars because I’m in need of a massage stat.  Luckily I have a 90-minute massage scheduled for Saturday.

And the last puzzle piece of this rehab came in too – my old Pilates instructor finally got ahold of me and I’m going to try to schedule some appointments with him. The ol’ core could use a little work so this seems like a good time to get back on the torture device reformer and start with the strengthening. Rehab = EXPENSIVE. 10% of the PT cost (at least I can claim this on my flex plan), swimming lessons, Pilates lessons, massages….. it’s getting spendy.  But, if it gets me back running or at least keeps me in some sort of shape other than ‘round’ during my off-time then it’s worth it in my opinion.
How about you? What do you spend your hard-earned cash on? The latest and greatest shoes (just wait for my review of the Adidas Boost shoes that will come once I start running again)? Are you a Lululemon whore? Race entries?  Tell me - I want to know!

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