Bird on a wire

Learning pilates is like being back in school all over again, like studying for a test, and having to come up with visual associations to remember all the terminology. Forget the proper names, when I’m on that reformer, I’m visualizing a ballerina going into a perfect plié, or a bird on a wire, or my feet in stilettos … although, while I do dream of someday owning a pair of Christian Louboutins, that visualization doesn’t quite work for me as I really don’t know how to walk in heels, thus not really wearing them all that often. But a girl can dream can’t she 😀

TONIGHT’S PILATES:

• 6:30 p.m. BG before: 5.8
• Temp basal: -50 per cent
• 1 hour pilates: mat, reformer, abs, arms
• 7:45 p.m. BG after: 2.9 (Yikes!)

I was a little concerned going into the pilates with a 5.8 reading. I had to wolf my dinner down at my parents literally a half an hour before my session and it just wasn’t enough time to gauge how my blood sugars were going to react to the rotini meal that I had to guess the carbs for. Turns out, I guessed wrong. Good thing I carry juice boxes in my car, and good thing I pilfered a couple of mini Lindt chocolates from the studio. Yum!

So, just in case I haven’t yet mentioned it, I am loving the pilates. (Thank you dear pilates friend, I am forever in your debt) Probably helps that I love my pilates chick and I’m quite enjoying the other girls I’ve met in the group. And I’m actually feeling like I’m doing something and that it’s making a difference. I know it’s only been a few weeks, but when I was looking at my buddha belly in the mirror the other day, it looked like it had toned up a bit, and maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see, and really I don’t care if I was, because the results are both the same: A huge smile on my face! And on top of that, this session, my second group session, I felt like I was actually remembering more of the exercises and didn’t have to ask every two seconds for help – all thanks to the visualization. Now, I’ve just got to come up with more visuals.

That all being said, though, I’m really feeling like I need an extra day or two in the week. I’ve been trying to figure out a plan for the next four months and I’m struggling to beat all hell. I hope to run four or five times a week, hit the gym two or three times a week, and do pilates twice a week. Currently I’m scheduled in pilates for Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. (although I’m really hoping to switch over to Mondays, which are currently full, but my fingers are crossed) and I know I’ll be running Wednesdays and Sundays for sure, and I’ll probably have to do the gym on my lunch breaks, but where do I fit in my other two or three runs? I can’t run on Mondays because my long slow distance runs are on Sundays, and I need a break after those ones. This is why I want pilates on Mondays, which would be a great stretch, and then I could run on Tuesdays, but currently that doesn’t work. So if I don’t get my pilates changed, I’ll theoretically be running Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday which really feels like I’m loading up in the later part of the week. See what I mean, I need an extra day!

What do your training schedules look like? How do you fit it all in?

And because we’re creeping up on Christmas, I leave you with this, my last year’s letter to Santa Claus: