The Problem with Evening Workouts

I mentioned that I started up another month of yoga on Wednesday night.  And when I thought about it, I was thinking that I might be able to go for 3 weeks every single day.  That's a huge commitment, but when I did my last month of yoga, I had a commitment on Thursday nights (and something else Thursday mornings (running) and during the day (work)) so I had to miss one day per week.  But my Thursday night commitment won't begin this year until Jan. 19.

I was psyched to go to class last night at 6:30. 

I'd been having computer problems at work.  The IT had told me last week that he needed an hour or so to fix it, so I said, sure, Tues or Wed of this past week.  He never came to my office on Tuesday.  So I emailed Wed. and he basically said "tomorrow." 

Then yesterday he said it was going to take too long and it would be next week.  Well, I've been very frustrated not to have this particular program working on my computer, so I asked if I could start the process myself and then he could fix it in less time.

He basically said I had to remove all these programs and then reinstall them.  So at 3:30 or so yesterday, I started doing that.  I had to reboot after each program was removed.  It took a while.  At 4:20, all the programs were off and he'd said to reinstall.

He didn't say from where, and of course he'd left for the day. 

Lovely. 

Eventually, using someone else's computer, I was told to download from microsoft.com.  Well, after downloading 2 of the 4 replacements, I ran into problems that stopped the process in its tracks (something about needing to turn on or off windows features, but of course it didn't tell me whether they should be ON or OFF, which would be useful). 

As the hours crept by, I changed into yoga clothes in my office, knowing I needed to be out the door by about 6:10 to make it to the 6:30 class. 

At 6:00, I realized the computer wasn't going to be fixed (the IT guy kept emailing to my co-worker's email, but wouldn't pick up the phone to call me, so she had to keep bringing me his non-sensical messages).  I started to shut down my computer to go to yoga.

Installing update 1 of 6.  Do not power off or unplug computer.

And of course, I needed to do exactly that since it was Thursday and I work from home on Fridays. 

And then the IT guy called when it was on update 4 of 6.  And it at that point was already after 6:15. 

Finally the updates ended, the IT guy said he'd try to talk me through it this morning, and I shoved my computer into my bag and bolted for yoga.

Fortunately not much traffic on the highway since so many people are off this week.  I exited at 6:28, and figured I had about 4 more minutes to get there.

But there was an accident of course and the road was down from 3 lanes to 1.  I parked and ran in at 6:38 and it was too late to join the class. 

Argh!  I wanted to yell, scream and cry in frustration -- can you tell I really needed that yoga class??!!  I was so pissed.  I'd wasted hours at work doing the IT guy's job for him, and then after all that, I'd missed the thing I wanted to do most that day.

Sure, I'd done my morning run and gotten in a workout, but since I have morning workout plans, and I can't leave work for 2 hours during the day, the only option for yoga is at night.

And as with any evening workout plan, it's far more easily derailed than a morning workout.

For probably 2 marathon training seasons, I ran at night.  One season was almost all my weekday runs on a treadmill (which left me ill-prepared for the marathon), and the other season I at least ran outside, but it was in the evening.  And I usually was able to make most of the runs, but there were some where other things got in the way -- getting caught at work, getting caught in traffic, having another commitment that seemed more important, etc.

In the morning, I just don't have that many excuses.  No one else seems to want my time at 5 a.m.  And if the weather is completely atrocious, there is always the option of trying to wait until the evening (though that's rare, I use a weather-related excuse to delay or cancel a workout maybe once a year on average).

When I count on doing some class in the evening, if I miss it for whatever reason, the chance to do it that day is completely gone.  At least with running, if I'm a few minutes late, I can just run solo or something, but with a class, if I'm late, that's it.  No more chances until tomorrow. 

So my lovely yoga streak ends with a single day. 

I will go today.  I actually only have to work a half day, and I started very early (wanted to catch the IT guy before he got distracted), so I'm already almost done.  My plan is to eat a nice big early lunch, then go see War Horse with hubby and our neighbors in the afternoon, and then I'll let my neighbors bring hubby home and I'll go straight to yoga after the movie (I'll just wear my yoga clothes underneath or have them with me). 

I'll survive.  Missing one day of course is no big deal.  It just pissed me off.  Especially since I risked life and limb trying to get there on time, and I felt like it was things out of my control that prevented me from making it.

If only I could do it all before work -- go to boot camp, go for a run, go for 90 minutes of yoga -- but that would hardly leave me in any condition to work all day, plus trying to do too much so close together would likely mean poor performance across the board. 

Just venting today!