Last night, I walked over to Equinox to reserve my bike for the spin class. I had hoped to do a Vipr class, but I somehow read the schedule wrong. I had some sharp pain in my lower back as I walked over, but I really wanted to work out.
Some people say I’m good at “listening to my body,” but I say I’m just lazy at heart when it comes to working out and will seize any opportunity to not work out, if possible. I enjoy working out once I do it, but it’s still a fight to make myself work out. I reserved my bike, and then I had a little time so I walked over to Duane Reade to look at vitamins. (I’m cool like that.)
I had talked about multi-vitamins with a pharmacist a few weeks ago, then Tina told me she’d consistently taken a multi-vitamin every day for a month and she had a lot more energy. Then I read Janeetha’s post on vitamins. Okay. I need to take multivitamins–or at least give them a try. The pharmacist said with my healthy diet, I was probably okay without a multi-vitamin, but it couldn’t hurt.
She did say that as a runner and a young woman (who limits her dairy) that calcium was incredibly important. I know that I feel great when I take B-vitamins, so I looked for a vitamin that had high levels of B and calcium. I ended up buying Alive! women’s multi-vitamins. They had decent levels of B and calcium and were made of fruits and veggies. I took one this morning, and maybe it’s a placebo, but I have a decent amount of energy. It was also really easy on my sensitive tummy to digest.
But back to the spin class. I decided to give it a try, and if my back hurt, I’d stop. It didn’t, and so I finished the class and my back feels better now. It can be hard to tell when to work through soreness and when to give it a rest, but I think that in general, active recovery can be helpful, and your body will tell you when it really needs rest.
It will also tell you when it really needs a spinach feta wrap, and that’s what my body told me this morning.
Mmmmmmm spinach feta wrap. I want to get those vitamins now.
I try my best to listen to my body. Sometimes I push through.. but when I finally listen.. I am so much more energized when I do take thatday of rest. My workouts become much more meanigful!
I go back and forth about vitamins, too. I have them in my desk at work but I feel like I eat a pretty balanced diet, and don’t really notice that much of a difference when I’m taking them from when I’m not taking them. I’m going to have one right now, though. =)
re: vitamins, I hate swallowing pills, but figuring something was better than nothing, I started taking Flintstones vitamins (yes, the kids’ ones! but with extra iron!) daily about four months ago. I swear I have more energy, and I didn’t get sick all winter. My nurse friend makes fun of me for taking a kiddie vitamin, but it works for me!
@Kimra: One of my friends was an average runner and started taking iron supplements (because she was iron-deficient) and BQ-ed!!! I think there’s something to be said for iron! And a kid’s vitamin is better than nothing.
Since I started running again 3 to 4 times a week I thouht it was a good idea to take some supplemental magnesium and calcium. I hate swallowing pills too so I always get those fizzy ones that dissolve in water. Put it in some sparkling water and it tastes like lemonade 😀
Thanks for the holler and the double EEEE! Hehe.
I agree–your body WILL tell you to rest!
Love this post – I’ve been working through some soreness with CrossFit because I’m using muscles I’ve seriously maybe never used, but I don’t want to wait 4 days (how long I was sore!) before going again. I’m just paying attention to soreness vs. legitimate pain.
It depends on your capacity. I love spinach too 🙂 It was really delicious Yummy!