Hot 'n' Sweaty Yoga

Today I got it in my head that I was going to try taking some classes at the yoga studio where I'd like to take teacher training. They offer the first week free, so you can try it out. Since this was a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, I went directly from work to the 5:30 level 2 class uptown. Boy, am I glad I live on the East side and don't have to make THAT commute every day!

There were tons of people out walking around and smoking outside restaurants and generally hanging out enjoying the 45 degree weather. I forgot how much life Uptown has compared to Longfellow.

So I get to the yoga class and the studio is swanky and hipster cool, as expected. I unroll my mat and notice that I'm the only one in a class of about 25 people who does not have at least one towel. Now, I usually grab a towel to wipe off my sweaty hands at the yoga classes at my work fitness center, where the room is barely 65 degrees, so I know it will be somewhat uncomfortable for me here, where the temp. seems to be around 80. But then what do I know? I keep my house at 67 at the highest. I have heard these classes are warm, but this wasn't the "hot yoga" so I wasn't terribly concerned. At least not until they turned on the humidifier. And yes, I made the rookie mistake of placing my mat directly in front of the heating vent AND right below the apparatus that was hissing steam. By the time I realized it, it was too late, the place was packed and I didn't have anywhere else to go.

Knowing my capacity for perspiration, I thought about going out into the boutique and buying whatever absorbent piece of cloth they may have for sale. But I talked myself out of it. I can endure anything for an hour, right?

I think the mirror here makes me look about 20 pounds heavier than the one at the fitness center at work. It couldn't have anything to do with the girl in front of me who is 5'10" and has calves that are smaller than my wrist.

It starts off fine, I'm able to follow along and the poses are all familiar to me. Then I start to sweat. It was inevitable. I'm a sweat-er. This is why I like winter sports, because I can got into a sauna afterwards and it actually feels good in contrast.

These people are all really fit. Plus, there's no talking in the yoga room, so they all seem very serious as well. None of them look at me and go "you don't have a towel? here, you can use mine."

We go through a series of poses that other instructors like to describe as "heat generating."

And here's where I'm like the Billy Idol song "and I sweat, and I sweat, and I sweat, sweat , sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat." Only I wasn't with myself. I was with 25 other people who all had towels and I didn't. Their sweat was easily absorbed and wiped away, while mine pooled up under me and trickled into my eyes. Good thing I can use verbal cues so I can keep my eyes shut.

It gets harder and harder to stay in downward dog, when my hands and feet start to slide in opposite directions. I look down and see the drip, drip, drip, drip, drip of sweat coming off my head and landing on my mat, making it even more slippery, as if I need that.

I look around to see if anyone has witnessed my travail in keeping myself upright, and perhaps is contemplating offering me the use of their towel, but everyone is focused on their inner selves.

For a nanosecond I contemplate leaving class early. I don't know how much longer I can endure the profuse wetness. Now my hair is completely soaked. I look at the woman next to me, whose back muscles are bulging under her tank top, and her hair is completely dry. And she has a towel that she apparently doesn't even need.

By the time the instructor tells us to do crow pose, I almost collapse in laughter at the impossibility of keeping my legs from sliding immediately down my upper arms as I try to balance on my hands. Yeah, right. I do child's pose instead. I can't slip anywhere when I'm curled up in a ball on the ground.

Toward the end of the session, we do half pigeon, which I actually like and I'm glad that it's a pose I can do without having to balance on sweaty hands. So I bring my right leg in front of me and I'm transported immediately to the backyard slip and slide we had when I was 8. My leg slides in front of me and keeps going, almost into the splits. Wow, I didn't know I could go that deep into the pose.

Finally it's corpse pose time and I'm thrilled that I actually survived.

Now that I'm done, and totally soaked in sweat, all I want is a shower. But it's hard to dry off after a shower when you don't have a towel. So I wait long enough for some of it to evaporate off me before climbing back into my work clothes (ech) and finally getting a drink from the sink.

I remember seeing, in the boutique area, one of those thirsty towel thingies you put on top of your mat.

I look at it again on the way out. The price tag says $75.

If, in the middle of class, a peddler would have pushed in a cart of those things, I probably would have forked it over.

So I get a whole week free of hot sweaty yoga. I can't wait for tomorrow!

Namaste :)

How much of a dork am I that I don't even have my own blog bookmarked and I sometimes forget how to find it?

Lucky Day

Today I had that excited feeling in my stomach for most of the day. I don't know why. It was a rather dreary day, but I still felt exhilirated. I heard from a couple friends whom I'd been sending non-physical messages to contact me. The Law of Attraction works. That's all I'm going to say about it right now.

Later I went to the gas station to get a car wash, and just as I was leaving, had the urge to buy a powerball ticket, so I looked in my wallet and had two dollars, and I bought two. When I walked out the door I found a penny on the ground right in front of my car.

I came home, rode the trainer for what I expected would be another uncomfortable interminable 30-45 min. of butt torture, and after about 20 min. I started to feel GOOD. I rode longer than I originally had planned and discovered during my ride that Icicle Works' Whipser to a Scream is an excellent song to listen to while trying to ride very high cadence. I got off the bike and felt even better than I had when I started.

I announced to Michael that I was going to Target and did he want anything. He tasked me with picking up hair gel and mouth wash and then, out of the blue, wrote me a check for 200 bucks, to pay me for groceries.

Then I went to Target to get my medication, for the second time this week because my primary care Dr. takes her sweet time refilling my rx and I found $20 on the floor.

This was a moral dilemma, because I wanted to find the rightful owner, but wasn't sure which of the 200 people in the store it belonged to. I looked around for anyone who looked like they might be missing something, but everyone was minding their own business. I considered turning it in, but thought that if I'd lost $20 in Target, I wouldn't count on anyone turning it in, so I wouldn't tell anyone it was missing. I mean, it wasn't like the 50 grand that person working in a thrift store found in someone's belongings last week.

I know John is going to tell me I'm going to hell for keeping the $20, but it was meant for me, because today is my lucky day. How do I know that? Because I found a penny outside the gas station. The universe talks to us all the time, we just need to learn to listen.

If my lucky day ends with me winning the powerball, you all are invited to my writers/artist/yoga retreat on 200 acres of undeveloped land in northern WI (or the U.P.)

Goals

I was recently looking at some goals I had written down about a year ago. Out of five goals, it turns out that I have actually accomplished two of them-- skiing a sub 5 hour Birkie and racing my bike (I actually did two races last summer.)

I love that I had forgotten even writing them down, and now here I am, a year later, having accomplished some of them. I do think the writing them down helped, even if I didn't consciously remember doing it. I will continue to do that as new goals arise. Right now I just want to achieve goal number three-- finishing my novel.

And in a bit of synchronicity, as I'm writing this, I came across this website: http://www.stickk.com/

Birkie Fun!

Yes, I said fun. This year it actually was enjoyable, for the first 38 km or so at least. After that, well, let's just say that four hours of doing anything starts to hurt.

The weather was great-- between 10 and 33 degrees during the race. The snow was good, not too deep, not too icy, just right. Even the troughs on the hills were navigable. I enjoyed the splitting off of the classic skiers, so that the trail was much less crowded. This year I could actually use the glide from the downhills to get a little bit up the next hill. I never had to wait in line to go uphill (unless I wanted to, which I sometimes did, because it's a nice break) and I only had two people step on my poles. I think I was actually smiling for most of the race.

The best part was that I achieved my goal of doing it in under 5 hours. In fact, I cut a half hour off my previous time, doing it in 4:42 this year. I'll probably move up a wave, but I have to admit, I sort of liked being in the uncrowded, uncrazed wave 7.

I want to give a shout out to Mr. 9th Wave Large Man, who probably doesn't know it, but he pulled me across the endless Lake Hayward so I could finish strong.

And to Mr. 7th Wave Dude Who Kept Ending Up In Front Of Me After Each Food Stop Even Though I Passed Him Several Times-- please do yourself and your fellow skiers a favor and sew up that hole in the crotch of your lycra.

And thank you to whomever sent me the cute guy at the finish line in the Rossignol gear who helped take off my skis and gave me a hug and said "you did it!" If I'd have known he was waiting for me at the finish line, I'd have picked up the pace!

Hooray for a good snow winter and a good Birkie. Congratulations to my teammates/family, Team Sturdy Women!

Busy Time of Year

This is the time of year when I don't see many people except those on the ski trail, or at work, or in my class, or my writing group, or yoga sessions. Unfortunately, that leaves out a lot of friends. I'm sorry if you haven't seen or heard from me the past couple months. In March things will slow down a little, and then in May, I'll be off from school for the summer.

Update on a few things:
Skiing - Completed the Pre-Birkie last weekend, with a blistering pace of 5:02 min/km. which is almost a half minute faster than last season's pace, so I'm happy with that.
Next weekend is the Birkie. I think I can do it. Again. Only this time, I hope, faster.

Yoga - Taking wednesday night community ed class in addition to going twice a week to the fitness center at work. I would go more often if I could find the time. I want to take teacher training. Will look into doing that this summer.

Writing - Non-existent lately, but I did buy a book called One Year to a Writing Life, and downloaded software to help me complete my novel. Sorry writing group, for not providing you with anything to read!

Food - I'm off chocolate and all sweets and refined flour products now. It's really true that once you get over the two week mark, it's much easier to stay off the stuff. This in addition to staying away from fried food, alcohol, meat, milk, processed food and trans fats. Coffee is the hardest vice to give up. It really does help me wake up, and boy do I miss it on those days when I restrict myself. Trying to keep it to 3x a week or less. Not doing so well with that one.

School - I got a new computer and software to complete my program with up-to-date skillz. After this semester I will be halfway done with my coursework! That means only five more semesters at one class per. Oh well, what else would I be doing with the next three years of my life if I didn't have my completion of the Certificate to look forward to?

General observations:

Driving back from WI last weekend on one of the most bitterly cold days of the season (in a season filled with bitterly cold days) I asked the universe to show me an animal totem and I saw the following in this order: crow, deer, pileated woodpecker, bald eagle, grouse/pheasant (couldn't tell which it was, on the side of the road), and when I got home, a whole murder of crows flying around above my neighborhood. Nice.

I'm actually ready for spring and for cycling season to start. Even though I'm loving the snow this winter, and feel the best I've felt EVER on skis. Cycling is less work. No waxing, scraping, brushing, driving, paying trail fees, etc. But I have to focus on the task at hand right now. Birkie.

Oh, one last thing. Next Wed. is my birthday on the Mayan calendar. Feb. 20th. It also happens to be a lunar eclipse that night. Ooo.

I'm still in my Food Obsession Mode, and going with that theme, I'm recommending this book today.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle

I'm reading it right now, and while it's not helping a ton so far in knowing what to eat, it sure has a lot of good info on what NOT to eat. Let me just say that I'm very glad I've never been a consumer of margarine.

Also, a visit to her website today reveals this bit o' insight into the American diet:

According to a group that tracks this sort of thing, the leading generators of food sales are (more or less in order): soft drinks, refrigerated milk, ready-to-eat cereal, fresh bread, bottled water, cookies, chocolate candy, and potato chips. Soft drinks are #1. A sufficient explanation for America’s weight problem?