When Good Yoga Goes Bad

Edit:  I'm submitting this post to Yeah Write this week!  It's a great weekly writing forum where you find tons of great posts.

When I was 21, I went to my very first yoga class with my mom.  When it comes to coordination, I am the Fric to her Frac.  The Tweedle-Dee to her Tweedle...uh, she can be Tweedle-Dee.

Hi Mom.

When she would go to aerobics back in the day, she would have GymSis and I in stitches as she explained how she would go left when the rest of the class would go right, how she would go forward when they would go backward, and how she was supposed to clap and step:

(I just had to add in our 90s teased bangs.) 

Then, one day I went to Zumba and knew, without a doubt, that I was not adopted. But that is a post for another time.

Anyway, I've done yoga on and off since that first class with my mom, and after this recent course of physio, I knew that starting again would be wise in order to keep me strong, limber(ish), and injury-free.

I skipped on over to my gym for an evening class. Their Biggest Loser program was meeting at the same time as yoga.  As I sat in the all-purpose exercise classroom, I was quite sure there was a bowling tournament happening outside the door.  What happened to not dropping the weights on the floor??

If you've been to yoga, you know that every instructor has her own style.  I have never been to a class, though, that just jumped right in to strengthening exercises.  No 'meditation' to start? Hello,  I need to centre myself before just jumping in.

Well, maybe not quite to that extent, but I am used to easing in to my sun salutations and I felt unprepared.

Our instructor started the calm, soothing music she was going to use for the class.

Not exactly sure how you scratch a CD.

Now that the mood was fully disrupted (wait, it was never set to begin with), it was time for the bell ringing.  This occurred at random times throughout the class. I am not sure what the goal was, but I did start to get a bit peckish.

After our warm-up, it was on to some balancing poses.  I don't know what this one was called, but here is the teacher doing it:

We were given a variation to use our straps if we couldn't reach.  I awaited further instruction.

The beginner crutch was to go stick your leg on the barre.

 I will just call this one "Posture Impossible".

One of the things I had forgotten about yoga was how tough it can be to keep your focus.  For example, sometimes you have to look up while you are bent over at the waist...hinging from the waist, if you will.  You will be looking straight ahead at the person ahead of you. And at that moment you are aware that there is someone behind you who has that same view...of you.

The horrible great! thing about the class was that there was a mirror so I could adjust my form.  So while feeling like a "princess" in Warrior Two (see what I did there? Warrior Princess...??) ,

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and noticed a few adjustments were needed.

Why look! It's the Athletic Stance!  I did everything I could to tuck my butt, but it just seems to enjoy sticking waaaaay out.

I went back to class the following week and it was hot, crowded and just horrible.  And, there was no Sivasana (a.k.a. Corpse Pose). Are you kidding me? I can actually do that one!

So I've found a new class at the Y.   So far, so good!

Oh, and I thought I would have some fun with Picnick before it goes away; in case you missed it on Facebook and Twitter, I jumped on the meme bandwagon:

Anyone have any good yoga stories to share?


Please tell me you got the bell-ringing/hunger reference.

NEXT POST: MY TRAINING GOALS FOR THIS YEAR

5k Love 'em or Leave 'em: I loved the run but I'll leave the cold!

As you may or may not remember, last week I met up with some bloggers for a run.  Stacie and Rebecca were signed up for today's Love 'em or Leave 'em 5k, and Ann Marie and I decided to join them.

We did race-day registration, so we needed to show up over an hour before the start of the race.  I left my house with my phone, license, cash, a credit card, my health card, and my virtual run bib.

I met Ann Marie and we walked a mile to the race area.  I had dressed in my fleece-lined Nike Combat Pro shirt, Lululemon compression tights and shorts, Tommie Copper compression ankle sleeves, and a pink loooong sleeve thin Nike running shirt over top, just for good measure.  You will mostly see me back in my typical garb in this post, but I wanted you all to know that I did dress for the weather.

(It's a good thing I'm not a brand ambassador, because I love them all!  For the record, my shoes are Brooks Defyance.)  The pink shirt was a last minute decision, and it took a comment from Ann Marie to realize that it was a good idea since this was, in fact, a Valentine-themed race.

We went to the registration tent to pay.  I pulled out my cash.  And saw that I had not brought enough. And they did not accept credit cards.  Luckily, it was Ann Marie to the rescue with a cheque!

This is not the first time I've been completely clueless about race details. 

It was chilly cold enough to freeze a witch's...um, do kids read this? Let's say broomstick...cold enough to freeze a witch's broomstick (wink-wink, nudge-nudge), and I wished there were someone handing out coffee.  There was some great cinnamon chip bread and some Nuun, neither of which warmed me up.  I threw on the long sleeve shirt that came with registration, but the shivering had begun and I couldn't stop it.  We happened to be in front of the First-Aid tent, so I asked if they had any hand warmers.  I was told I couldn't have any.

Oh well.

With a good 30 minutes until race time, we met up with Stacie and her husband.  At that point, Ann Marie and I made executive decisions that we would wear all our layers throughout the race.  Ann Marie had to switch out her race bibs, and I had to take off my race shirt and pink shirt, then put them back on in the reverse order.  I offered to help Ann Marie with her bibs, but then changed my mind, as I was otherwise occupied trying to free myself from my bubblegum-coloured shirt...while still shivering.

Finally, we were set.  Stacie's husband took some pictures of us.  Pulling our shirt sleeves over our hands did not make us any warmer, and I, of course, continued to shiver.

We wore our Running for Sherry bibs on our backs, and it was nice to see other runners sharing their run in her honour.

We met up briefly with Rebecca, took another picture,

then headed off to the start line.  We joined over 3,000 people (and many dogs and babies in strollers).

The race horn sounded and we were off! ...to a slow walk.  Eventually the pack thinned out and we started running straight to a bottleneck.  After that, we were finally moving.  Rebecca was off like a shot, so Ann Marie and I ran a bit with Stacie, but very quickly lost her.

The majority of my first mile was spent worrying about my Achilles and trying to get feeling back to my fingertips.

The second mile was pretty perfect.

The third mile had me straining to see the finish line and trying to keep breathing while not falling behind Ann Marie.  She stayed with me the whole time and made sure I didn't slow down; then as usual, she told me to push it at the end!  I finished in fabulous form.

We went back to the registration area for more bread, and got some Honest tea (look for us, eventually, on their Facebook page!)  

We officially finished in 31:20 (10:07 miles).  And while I finished my tri 5ks in less time last summer, I am very happy with today's race time!

Oh!  One other odd thing happened:  After I recovered from the run, we started walking again and I got shoved by an old bitty kindly, elderly lady in a puffy white coat.  I may have yelled at her a little.

Yeah, that happened...more or less.

P.S.  Anyone notice my new URL?? Sayonara 'blogspot'!  Because my blog name is a mouthful as it is.


NEXT POST: YOGA, AS PROMISED.  THIS RACE (AND POST) JUST SORTA HAPPENED).