Not making goal pace and dancing into the Age of Aquarius

I had a walk date on Wednesday.

I met up with some friends for an active date. Not running, or yoga, or skiing. A walk.

A walk-and-stretch workout date, to be exact. (Make sure your volume is turned up for these videos. You’ll thank me, I promise.) 

Sometimes you just need a walk… Last week was a blur of feeling weird, sore, emotional, tired, and lethargic. Maybe it’s because we’re in the Age of Aquarius – the time of the space cadet.

via GIPHY

Normally I try to shake off the fog with a run, but I’ve had to really go easy with my running lately. So I’ve struggled with finding an outlet for the stress and a way to get amped for the day. I’ve gotten a couple of rounds of acupuncture as treatment for my hip recently. And it’s worked wonders! One thing I’m trying to hold on to is something my acupuncturist told me. She’s a friend of mine, and a student, so she knows how I operate. Rather than tell me to back off, she just said I need to recover in equal amounts to how active I am.

I need to remember this especially on the days I’m not running or skiing or handstanding. That recovery doesn’t mean just sitting on the couch. It means walking and stretching, massage and the sauna, meditation.

Nic invited me to join her for a Funk Walk + Stretch session last Wednesday. Having incentive to get out and walk was perfect.

Except we didn’t really walk.

I mean we did. We did walk. But we were at the park with Abbie.

So not only were we keeping an eye on a pup, but the tunes were just too good not to bust a move pretty much the whole time!

You might notice the app telling me that we’re behind our “goal pace.” For the Gixo run and walk workouts, you will often set a pace during the first round that serves as your base. Then you’ll have intervals of keeping that pace or increasing it. Getting into “the green” means you’re on track to make that goal.

Normally getting into the green is a great, if arbitrary, incentive. You don’t “get” anything, but you’re kind of in competition with yourself. And you can see your workout buddies, the other participants’ positions in relation to your own on the app. So if you wanted to get competitive with it or use it for training, it’s a great tool.

For this walk however, I couldn’t care less that we weren’t in the green, that we were behind our goal pace. The reason we were behind our goal pace is because we were dancing so damn hard. Our heart rate was definitely up! There just wasn’t a way to account for that in the walking pace goal.

Even our cool down stretching included some smooth dance moves…

Sometimes I want to get in the zone and go hard. Sometimes it’s more about the enjoyment of it. Yes I enjoy working out and running and all the things. But having a good time with my friends while being active definitely takes the cake.

Another prime example? Our indoor cardio class the next day… This ridiculousness makes me so happy!

Want to try out Gixo? You can get 30% off your membership when you sign up TODAY!  (Sale ends tonight 2.5.18 at 11:59pm PST.)

Now after walking and dancing it out, I think it’s time for a good nap with the pupster. Happy Monday, friends!

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Gixo. All opinions expressed are my own. I truly appreciate all the brands that support the Sweat Pink community.