The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Day 7

8 Jun

Hoorah! Today is my first rest day since I began this 30-day Yoga Challenge on June 1st (and first day work-out free since May 28th). My body is rejoicing!

I woke up this morning sooooooo tired. I think I muttered “coffee” to the boyfriend, but he still hasn’t brewed it yet. I will try extra hard to avoid spelling errors.

Yesterday was Day 7 of the yoga challenge and I was dragging. The rain that fell heavily while I was driving to the studio was rather telling of my mood. I wanted to drive home and lay on the couch instead. Preferably with some ice cream. Or a bag of chips. Or both. Instead I made a dash into the studio.

Yesterday’s class was an Ashtanga 1 class. Somewhere between child’s pose and shavasana I slowly forgot about my aspirations of being a couch potato. I took advantage of the slower pace to really focus on my poses. I don’t know how many times I had to remind myself to drop my shoulders, but it was up there. I could tell that I had a stressful day at work because my shoulders were so tense.

I’m going to enjoy my day off of yoga today. I almost wish I could double up either tomorrow or Sunday so that I could have a second rest day, but my weekend is just too busy. Rather than let myself feel overwhelmed by all of my plans this weekend, I’m going to try and focus on enjoying every activity and stay in the moment.

And I really hope one of those moments involves a cupcake of sorts. 🙂

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The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Days 5 and 6

7 Jun

I seriously think my lungs are sore from yoga breathing. When I decided to take on the 30-Day Yoga Challenge, I never considered this as a possible ailment. I’m also sitting and standing up taller. This new amazing posture makes me feel a little snooty so I occasionally find myself slumping over on purpose.

Here’s how I’ve been spending my free time lately.

Day 5: Yoga Basics

This was an 8 PM Tuesday night class and I was dragging. All of these days in a row of yoga were getting to me. Also, earlier in the day I had what I had been craving for over a week: delicious french fries.

Hello you yummy golden, waffle fries.

Sadly I think this is what caused my belly ache as I headed into my basics class. I made a note to avoid fried foods on yoga days (which is like… every day… so sad).

This was the first class that was relatively empty, and I think it’s because the usual teacher was out on vacation. I finally got to set up shop towards the back of the class, what I like to call “the judgement-free zone.”

I think I’m starting to get a hand on the basics because I actually found myself bored. I spent quite some time thinking about dinner.  Yes, my belly ache disappeared 20 minutes into practice again.

I also spent some time wondering where I could buy decent cheap yoga pants that aren’t see-through. You see, I’ve been using my running tights for practices. Guess what running tights do? The waist starts to roll down slowly until you have to pull your pants back up. Anyone have any suggestions?

Day 6: Rise & Shine Flow 1/2

Since I’m used to waking up and running before work, I was disappointed to find out that my studio only offers one class during the work week that I can take before work. Our studio’s website describes this class as such:

This early morning 75 minute session begins with gentle “wake up” stretches, builds to a sweaty level of vigor and ends with deep seated stretches. Modifications are provided.

If I would’ve written the description, it might read a little more like this:

This early morning 75 minute session will rock your pants off while sweating and crying out in pain, all before you’ve had a cup of coffee.

I looked forward to the challenge and headed into class. Remember how I mentioned classes have been packed since the start of the challenge? This one was the worst. Rather than our mats facing the front of the class, we all had to turn our mats to face the side of the class and scooch in nice and close to those around us. There was a lot of coordinating with your neighbors on positions. I found myself spending too much time focusing on not punching my neighbor in the face (which I’m sure my neighbors appreciated). That was when I wasn’t focused on trying to follow the flow of the moves. Or remember which leg was my right leg.

I also made a mental note to go buy a yoga towel. Yes, I sweat pretty.  And my hands and feet get slippery. My downward dogs would slowly turn into planks if I had to hold them too long.

The studio provided free coffee and bagels after the practice. This is good because coffee eases all pain.

I grabbed my coffee and bagel and jumped in my car to head home. But first, I did the oddest thing. I searched through my iPod for some John Mayer and started to blast it. Does Flow Yoga make you want to listen to John Mayer? Upon further thought, I think John Mayer was playing during practice. It might be that I was just so excited to listen to “normal” music and not “yoga” music that I had to have more. Regardless, me and John rode home together happy and sweaty.

Any tips on yoga pants and mat towels that won’t break my bank?

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The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Day 4

4 Jun

Tonight marked day four of the 30-Day Yoga Challenge: Ashtanga Basics.

I went into class with a splitting headache. I took three Advil before I left the house and hoped that either yoga or the Advil would take away my pain. Twenty minutes into the practice, my headache was gone, and my head pain had been replaced with new pains (whatever muscle was currently being pulled and stretched at the moment).

This was a slightly shorter and slightly easier version of Saturday’s Ashtanga 1 practice and certainly passed my A.D.D. test. I’m okay with holding poses as long as it’s not anything longer than ten breathes.

Have I mentioned that all of the classes have been full lately? I think it’s because of the challenge. I was 15 minutes early today and had to set up mat at the very front of the class. Um… if I’m at the front of the class, who am I supposed to copy? Lucky for me, with all this yoga I’m actually starting to get the hang of some of these moves. I only had to do some not-so-subtle looking around a couple of times.

All this yoga has my body feeling great, but I have a confession: I miss running terribly. I miss the air in my lungs. I miss my ladies. And I miss our coffee breaks afterwards.

Speaking of running, today’s running haiku posted on runninghaiku.wordpress.com really got me giggling. Moving forward, I shall now refer to all porta-potties as “Honey Bucket.”

What’s your favorite nickname for porta-potties?

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The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Day 3

4 Jun

Sunday marked day three of my 30-Day Yoga Challenge and day seven of working out in a row.

My body is starting to feel like it used to after a day of water skiing when I was young: I am sore everywhere. Everywhere? Yes, everywhere. I don’t think there’s a muscle that yoga doesn’t work. The good news is it’s just a slight sore. It’s not the severe sore that keeps you from being able to walk properly or lift your arms to brush your teeth.

Day 3: Yoga Basics

Due to scheduling conflicts, I had to miss the morning Hatha 1 class I was aiming for and instead go to a late afternoon Yoga Basics class. Since it was a beginner-friendly class, I had a special guest join me:

This Guy (a.k.a. My Boyfriend)

It was Donnie’s first yoga class, so it made yesterday’s practice super exciting. I knew he would love it and couldn’t wait to hear his thoughts on the class as we walked out of the door.

Turns out I was right… he loved it! His favorite part was the meditation and how yoga helps you leave your worries or stresses behind. He was a big fan of the nap at the end (or the shavasana), which was briefly interrupted by a train passing by (the studio is right next to a train track). On a side note, we also realized that we were sandwiched in between two snorers during shavasana.

I was super impressed by his flexibility. There were a couple of times that I was using a block as a prop and would see him going full stretch out of the corner of my eye. Why did I never realize he was so bendy before??

I missed sweating along side my boo. It made my heart happy! Back in the days before Marathonfest we used to run together and I have missed getting to spend that time with him.

We came home and ended the weekend with some turkey chili and wine. We rode that yoga high for as long as possible.

On to start the work week. I have a week full of yoga planned ahead of me.

What are your sweat plans for the week?

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The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Days 1 and 2

2 Jun

Taking 26 yoga classes in the span of one month is going to be just like running a marathon. I have to pace myself. I can’t push too hard. And I’m going to reward myself at the end with a big, fat, juicy burger.

What I like about the challenge is that I have to try different styles of yoga because I have a limited schedule to work with. What I hate about the challenge is having to do new things. Oh silly me.

Day 1: Yin Yoga

Yesterday was the very first day of June, and so began the challenge. I was scheduled to celebrate a friend that evening for Happy Hour, so I opted to take a 4 PM class called “Yin Yoga” so I could make it to the bar on time. The studio’s website described the class as “A quiet practice, a series of long, slow postures that targets the connective tissues of the hips, pelvis and lower spine. Poses are held from 1-5 minutes long.”

I read this and thought to myself, “Oh good, I won’t sweat too much so I won’t have to take a shower.” Yes, I choose classes wisely.

It wasn’t until the class was about to start that I started to wonder exactly what kind of poses we would be holding for so long. I wondered this as I watched the human pretzel who set up shop in front of me folded up into… well… a pretzel. If this was her warm-up, what were we about to do??

The yoga class essentially went like this:

Yoga Instructor: Get in this really awesomely awkward position and hold it.

Me: (in my head) Oh dear. Does my leg even bend like that? Yes, sort of. Okay. I’m doing it! I’m holding it.

Yoga Instructor: Don’t forget to breathe…

Me: (in my head) Oh, yes. Breathe. Don’t forget to breathe. Ow. How long are we holding this for?

Yoga Instructor: Relax your shoulders. Relax your neck…

Me: (in my head) Relax my what? Ow. This is not comfortable at all. Good God… how long do we have to hold this for? Does anyone have a timer?!

Yoga Instructor: Relax your face…

Me: (in my head) Yeah, right. Relax? I don’t think I can. Why does Gumby Girl in front of me look like she’s peaceful and napping?

Yoga Instructor: Relax your eyelids…

Me: (in my head) $@#&%!!!

Yoga Instructor: Okay release.

Me: (in my head) Good God!

This pretty much continued itself for over an hour. I’ve never been so happy for Shavasana to come.

In retrospect, we spent the entire class deep stretching trouble spots for me so that was good. But damn, that was HARD. I might try to avoid this class, even though I think it was good for me.

Day 2: Ashtanga 1

The studio website describes this practice as “Ashtanga Yoga offers a vigorous flow of specific classic poses that heat the body to safely stretch and strengthen with an accent on the soothing breath.”

I’ve been meaning to try out this class but it always conflicted with my running on Saturday mornings. I’m glad I finally got to try it out because I liked it!

This class catered a bit more to my A.D.D (self-diagnosed, of course) and I was able to find a natural rhythm. Yes, it was still challenging, but I didn’t seem to mind as much. And I certainly didn’t curse as much in my head.

Also, our instructor was funny, which made some of the poses a lot more bearable. I’m easily distracted by jokes. Oh… I also lose my balance when I laugh. This happened several times. 🙂

Have you tried either of these styles of yoga? Why do you love/hate them?

On a side note, I’ve worked out six days in a row. Thursday I did a 20-minute cycle ride and arms. I feel like I could wrestle a bear and win. A tiny, baby bear. But nonetheless a bear. I’m rewarding myself with something fried today. I don’t know what, but I know it has to be battered and cooked in oil. Speaking of which, I’m overdue for lunch.

Happy weekend!

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The 30-Day Yoga Challenge

2 Jun

The yoga studio that I’ve been going to issued a 30-day yoga challenge for the month of June. The goal is to take 26 yoga classes in 30 days, hopefully helping you discover the benefits of daily practice. I, however, am hoping to discover that I have the ability to be bendy, just like the girl who practiced in front of me yesterday. She was like Gumby. I’m quite sure she doesn’t have bones.

Downward Dog

(Source)

I found myself going back and forth on whether I should take the challenge, and finally decided to do it. Here’s why:

  • That damn IT band. It’s still working on Operation Heal. Since I won’t be rejoining my Marathonfest running group until it’s healed, I need something to do something in the meantime. If not, I’m going to bore on the stationary bike and at-home yoga and likely become a couch potato.
  • It’s just what the doctor ordered. Okay, so he didn’t exactly say I needed to challenge myself to 26 days of yoga in the span of one month. But he did say I need to stretch like I’ve never stretched before. And I needed to strengthen my hips, legs and core. I think yoga covers both.
  • Blogging about my home workouts is boring. Not just for me… I’m not sure how you feel, but you’re likely nodding your head in agreement.

I did have some things holding me back, but I think I came up with solutions:

  • The cost. In order to complete the challenge I would have to get an unlimited monthly class, which runs $135. This is a huge cost for me but was able to work it into my budget. Goodbye lunches and afternoon Starbucks trips with my co-workers. Hello Lean Cuisines and leftovers!
  • My hair. Yes, my hair was a part of the consideration process. Are you done snickering? No? Fine, I’ll give you a minute… Okay, I recently just got the ol’ Ombre do and it’s smokin’. Or should I say fried? See, I have very, very dark hair, so to get the my ends so light it required a lot of bleach. This bleach blonde requires special care  like avoid chlorine, ease up on the straightening iron, don’t wash hair every day. How can I sweat every day and not wash my hair and straighten?? I decided dry shampoo, curly hair and up do’s would be my solution.
  •  I hate to do laundry. My yoga clothes are really my running clothes. And I only have so many running clothes that are  yoga comfy. And I just spent $135, so I don’t have money to be buying new yoga clothes. I’m going to have to do laundry a lot. Did I mention that I hate doing laundry? I’m just going to have to suck it up.
  • There goes my social life. Wait, what social life? Yoga is my new best friend. For the month of June that is. Afterwards, we’ll probably get in a big fight and not talk to each other for a while while I go back to my old best friend, Running. And my running buddies, whom I already miss terribly.

And so, yesterday I embarked on this crazy journey of 26 yoga classes during the month of June. Also taking this challenge is Carolina from Peas in a Blog. I’m looking forward to sweating alongside her. I’m also looking forward to discovering that I too have no bones! 🙂

Have you ever done a streak, whether it be a run streak or a yoga streak or a (fill-in-an-excercise) streak? What were your biggest challenges?

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Badges of Honor

30 May

Runners tend to look like normal people. (Gasp! Say it isn’t so!) On the outside they can appear like just another barrista or bank clerk or mom or teacher or pilot or clown or … well, you get the point. But every once in a while, something will slip through that will allow you to recognize someone as a fellow runner.

For instance, the other day I wore a shirt to work that has a large scoop neck. I forgot about my most recent badge of honor, a farmer’s tan on my back courtesy of having the sun beat down on me for seven hours as I ran walked crawled my way through the Flying Pig Marathon. This became fodder for my co-workers, one of them even snapping up this photo to send to her friends so they could laugh at me behind my back:

My marathon badge of honor: a farmer’s tan.

This, my friends, is the farmer’s tan from hell. After posting this photo to Instagram, I received comments like these:

I thought you had another shirt on.

Looks like you are wearing a tie on your backside.

This severe tan is not just limited to my back. You’ll find similar markings around my ankles and around my knees where my capris ended. This past weekend I tried, rather unsuccessfully I must say, to undo my badges of honor by laying by the pool for way too long.

My other badge of honor from Flying Pig was much more visible: a pimp pirate peg-leg walk. Thankfully this finally resided after a week of shuffling around, though the stairs remained a challenge for at least another week or two.

Lucky for me, I am yet to suffer from one of the most popular badges of honor a runner will get: black toenails. Thank goodness! It is  sandal season, after all!

What runner’s badge of honor have you had?

Speaking of badges of honor, I also have a badge of shame, which I blame on all of the cupcakes I’ve been enjoying during my recovery (cupcakes make my IT band feel better). Last week I blogged about a BBQ with my besties here and mentioned that one of my friends likely had an incriminating photo of me when the zipper on my very tight jeans decided that it could no longer bear to hang on? Well, I was right. Boothe posted this picture of Kelly trying to help me get my zipper up in the bathroom. I was on the lookout to make sure no one was coming.

This looks bad.

Seeing this made me happy I got up early this AM and did squats and leg raises and planks and lunges (oh my). I can’t afford to have any more jeans quit on me.

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Taking It Easy

29 May

I’ve been doing a lot of ‘taking it easy’ since the marathon. I’ve been  sleeping in, staying up late, eating cupcakes and drinking whatever I want to drink without worrying about how much it will hydrate me.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake from Sweet Traditions in Winter Park. OMG.

It’s been nice fantastical.

But nonetheless, I’m getting restless. And there’s that issue where I recently split my pants. I took this as a direct sign from God that my ‘taking it easy’ time is over, and I need to start sweating stat.

But, of course, I need to ease in, and not push my IT band too much, or I’ll digress in my progress. By progress, I mean that I was able to go both up and down the stairs like a normal person at work today. Except for that little hop skip at the end where I decided that bending my leg was no fun. I’m going to miss my pirate peg leg.

Yesterday around noon I jumped on my stationary cycle and rode for 40 minutes. I chose to do a ‘random’ workout, which changes the level of intensity on me every couple of minutes. I almost punched the bike in the face a couple of times, coincidently when it went up to level 9.

I was able to ignore how much time I would be on the bad intervals or see that I had a bad interval coming up because my screen was blocked:

Say “hello” to my little friend.

That little buddy is my Nook. I finally finished up Bringing Up Bebe (Good: I learned a lot, but sometimes that doesn’t equate to being a page turner), and moved on to Gregor the Overlander (now this is a page turner). Around this time the rain started to fall hard around me and I couldn’t help but think I would rather be curled up on the couch reading this book. And then a level 9 interval kicked in, and I cursed. I like the Nook because it rests easily on my reading ledge and even though it has a touch screen, I can also opt to press the page over buttons to the side of the screen. This comes in handy when you’re as sweaty as I was yesterday.

And just like that, I was done:

3 warm-up + 40 min of random intervals + 3 cool-down

I headed into the kitchen, had a light lunch, waited for it to digest, then headed back out to the Florida room for workout #2: yoga. I picked this 73-minute class because it focused on the hamstrings. I think it worked because I was sore this morning!

This morning I woke up early and did a 30-minute random interval ride. Things were a bit rougher because I was a little (ahem) saddle sore. I had to keep readjusting to redistribute the pain.

3 min warm-up + 30 min random intervals + 3 min cool-down

After I jumped off the bike I could tell that my IT band was a little agitated. So I did a quick core workout then spent about 20 minutes  stretching every part of my legs.

It felt good to sweat.

Here’s the rest of my work-out for the week (sadly there’s no running included):

  • WED: Strength (hips/glutes) followed by a good long stretch and some brutal rolling of the legs
  • THU: Ride for 30 minutes on the ol’ stationary bike followed by strength (arms)
  • FRI: Easy yoga or rest (depending on how Happy Hour goes Thursday night)
  • SAT/SUN: Get one good yoga sesh in

With my training schedule I didn’t really plan many workouts because I am always so wiped from all of the running. This will be a nice change to have to plan ahead. Let’s see how well I do at sticking to the plan!

Do you plan your workouts out in advance? How well do you stick to the plan?

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Post-Run (or Just Anytime) Poses

24 May

The Lululemon blog recently posted these great five post-run poses for running recovery:

Source

Check out the post for the how-to specifics. I can’t wait to do these stretches on my quest to heal my IT band. My doc suggested I work on stretching all of my leg muscles, not just my IT band. These poses seem to cover the hole gamut!

On a related note, I did my first exercise last night since the marathon that broke me I survived two and a half weeks ago. I busted out the ol’ stationary bike and did 40 minutes of easy riding while I caught up on my latest issue of Women’s Health. Then I moved on to this short 26-minute yoga practice. It felt so good to be moving! As for balancing, I couldn’t balance for the life of me. I looked like a drunk sailor trying to do yoga. I blame it on the IT band.

I miss running. I wonder if it misses me.

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Meatless Tuesday Dinner?

23 May

Since weekends tend to be a free for all for us when it comes to food, we’ve been doing Meatless Monday dinners. It’s nice because it resets our palette for the coming week.

However, this Monday was a BBQ at my best friend’s parents’ house, so we had to put it off until Tuesday.

Dinner was super easy. We headed to Publix and wandered aimlessly picking up random items.

Here’s what we bought at the store:

  • Snap peas
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Sliced mushrooms

Here’s what we had at home:

  • Quinoa
  • Lentil beans
  • Balsamic Vinegar
  • Olive Oil
  • Spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary

Donnie went to cooking the quinoa (per instructions on the package) and the mushrooms (sauteed with just a bit of olive oil) and the snap peas (same) while I prepped the tomatoes and walked around complaining how hungry I was. 🙂

For the tomatoes, I sliced them up, laid them on some parchment paper and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary. I drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, closed up the parchment paper, and baked them for 13 minutes on 375 degrees. They turned out perfect, and complimented the rest of the meal.

Sometimes when you head to the store with no idea of what you’ll make for diner, it comes out perfect. Props to Donnie for wanting to stick to the plan. I was tempted to buy a rotisserie chicken and call it a day. Instead, I got to eat this delish meal:

Quick and easy

Have you gone meatless, even if for just one day? 

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