Winter Break

Friday the 13th I took my final exam for autumn quarter. Now I have three and a half weeks off before winter quarter, 2014. For winter and spring, my class is scheduled at mid-day four days a week, so I can ride the bus both ways and won't have to use my bike to get home, but I do want to ride semi-regularly for exercise and recreation.

I'll have to harden up again. As a commuter it was routine for me to get out on the road in the dark every morning and ride through heat or cold, wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow, etc. then ride home again in the dark after work, adding or removing layers of clothing as necessary. Now I have to talk myself in to getting my bike out for a recreational ride, and I'm getting whiny and wimpy.

Instead I've been fattening up. A little bit, not that much. I did make one interesting dietary discovery in my yoga class, though. When training for long bike rides I've often been told "eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty". Poor nutrition and hydration affects physical performance and attitude, and can cause adults to become as whiny, quarrelsome or tearful as any tired, hungry, thirsty six year old.

Yoga class really proved the value of a good diet, or rather the consequence of a bad one. A couple of times this winter, I've had buttered toast and coffee for breakfast, then spent the day running errands and doing chores, grabbing a donut and coffee along with my groceries, lunching on a bagel and cream cheese and coffee while running the laundry, returning home with less than an hour to change clothes before leaving for the yoga studio. Realizing I was hungry and should probably eat something healthy before class, I finished off a carton of yogurt and rushed out the door. In class I found my legs shaking with effort while holding lunges or warrior poses. I've had plenty of bike rides when I felt inexplicably sluggish and discouraged, but never "bonked" totally, but it was during those few moments of sustained effort in yoga that I could really feel that my muscles weren't getting enough fuel to support my weight.