Today is the day!

Today I went to the tulip festival with a few girlfriends, and then we had lunch in La Conner followed by shopping at the Outlet Mall.  We were about an hour and a half north of Seattle, and we were all in one car, so I had to rally everyone in order to get back to Seattle in time for yoga.  No easy task to tear girls away from shopping :)

Luckily I made it in time for the last class of the day!  After class I was feeling a lot of energy and I decided to stay and practice my sequence.  I was SO incredibly close, but I kept touching one foot down.  I really felt like I was on the verge of finally doing it, and I wanted to make sure I had it on video.  I rushed home and told my husband that I wanted to show him how close I was and I wanted him to record it just in case I actually got it.

The first time I touched my foot down but he didn't see, so he got super excited for me.  But I wasn't satisfied because I knew I hadn't done it yet, so I fessed up and tried again.  The second time I did it!!!  Oh my gosh - I had SO much adrenaline after this that I was literally jumping up and down!!!  I couldn't sit still for hours :)

I did it! I did it! I did it!!!
Here is the video: crow to head stand, back to crow, into chaturanga

softening

 This morning I went to the 90 minute Hatha class with Diane.  She set an intention for the class of 'softening.'  I am someone who is always striving to do my best, and sometimes I feel that the harder I work, the more difficult things become.  When I focus on softening & relaxing, I'm able to accomplish more and with greater ease.

This is especially true with stretching - you can't muscle your way into being more flexible or try to force it to happen.  I stayed after class and spent some extra time on my stretching goal - seated straddle forward fold.  I tried focusing on releasing tension in my hips and letting go of anything I was holding onto.

I found that there was an ebb & flow to my challenges.  When I was holding in the stretch, after a few moments it would become very difficult and I would want to release out of the pose.  However, when I took deep breaths and focused on relaxing rather than tensing up, the difficultly would eventually pass and it was replaced with a sense of ease.

 

After several minutes, I was able to get my forehead to touch down to the ground!  I still have a long way to go before I will be able to get my whole upper body to lie flat on the ground, but I'm definitely taking baby steps to get there.

In the afternoon I went for a 6 mile run (around Green Lake twice).  As I mentioned before, I have a mental block at the 6 mile point, so I was worried about going for the run.  I decided to go to Green Lake because it's mostly flat and it's easy enough to walk if I had to.  I ran the first 5 miles with no problem, and then I could physically feel my body start to tense up.  I started feeling some pain in my knees, but I had a feeling that it was because of what was going on in my mind.  I was so worried that I was going to have pain, that my body was responding by tensing up, which then caused me to start having pain.  I noticed that the more I focused on the pain, the stronger it felt!

I stopped running and took a few deep breaths.  I thought about what we worked on in yoga this morning - softening!  I focused my thoughts on relaxing my muscles and releasing any tension I had going on in my body.  After a few moments I began running again and I was able to run the whole last mile without any more pain!  I'm so excited that I was able to work through it - I now have more confidence that I will be able to run farther.  I'm not fully convinced...there is still part of me that is hesitant, but at least I feel like I am moving in a positive direction.

the impact of yoga on running

I got a 5 mile run in and it felt really good.  I think yoga really helps my body with running!  This will be my second time running a half marathon - the first time was in June 2008.  I ran the first 6 miles with no problems, but then I started having really bad knee pain after that.  I had to do a combination of jogging/walking to finish the rest of the event.  I was SO disappointed!  Even though I finished, I felt so defeated that I wasn't able to do better...it felt like it didn't even really count.  After that, anytime I ran more than 3 miles I would start to have knee pain again. 

It was really frustrating because I'm way to young to be having knee pain!  I went to a physical therapist who helped a little bit, and then I started going to a chiropractor who helped a bit more...but I really think yoga is working wonders for me.  The increase in flexibility and lengthening of muscles really seems to make my body feel better.  I'm going to do a longer run tomorrow, so we'll see...hopefully I won't be eating my words.

Speaking of words...I'm reading a book called "What to say when you talk to yourself."  The title makes it sound a little self help-ish, but I actually like the way the book is written.  It's all about changing the internal dialogue in your head to be more positive.  Even though I consider myself to be a positive person in general, I can be pretty hard on myself in my own head.  This morning I read this:  "It makes no difference what you have thought or what you have done in the past.  From this day on, you can, if you choose, change a little to gain a lot."

I've been stuck thinking a lot about what happened the last time I ran a half marathon and it's been scaring me thinking "what if that happens again?"  It's been limiting my training because I'm afraid to run more than 6 miles because I'm worried that I will have knee pain again, and I won't be able to complete my goal.  However that was two years ago - it has nothing to do with what is happening right now.  I need to get over those thoughts and focus on what my body is capable of today, not in the past.

the half way point!!!

Woo hoo!  I made it to the half way point!  Yesterday was day number 30 of 60.  I'm feeling great and I'm looking forward to the next 30 days :)  I've decided to add a stretching/flexibility goal.  When I started yoga a year and a half ago, I was so inflexible that I couldn't even touch my toes.  Now I can wrap my hands around the bottom of my foot and touch my face to my shin!  Right now I can put my forearms on the ground in a seated straddle fold, and my new goal is to be able to lay my body onto the ground.

Getting to the half way point has got me thinking about this question:  Are your commitments optional?  The other day my husband asked me if I was going to go to yoga.  I laughed and asked him if he was joking.  Of course I was going to go - I go every day.  I don't debate each day whether or not I am going to go, I just do it.  I made a commitment for 60 days and that's what I am going to do - there's no optional part about it for me.

Similarly, yesterday a coworker asked me how the 60 days are going so far and she asked if I thought I was going to be able to keep it up.  Again, I haven't even really considered the option of not finishing.  It made me think about when people say they don't have the will power to do something.  For me, the problem with that kind of thinking is that you are giving yourself the option to bail out on your commitment.

There are plenty of things we do every day, that sometimes we don't want to do, but we do them anyway.  Like work for example: I have a commitment to go to work every day.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I don't feel like going, but I do it anyway.  It's not an option in my mind that I debate whether or not to do it - I just go because that's what I have committed to doing.  So why should it be different in other areas of our lives?

It takes so much more energy to debate in your mind over something.  I can come up with a million excuses why not to go to yoga:  I'm tired, I was up late, I didn't sleep well, I don't have time, something came up, it's not convenient, etc.  Those things will always be there, but they don't stop me from my other commitments.  I don't say to my boss, "I'm sorry, I'm not coming into work today because I have other things to get done and it's just that that convenient for me."  No - I prioritize my day and arrange to get other things done after I have fulfilled my commitment to go to work.  The same is true for my yoga - so yes, I am definitely going to make it through the next 30 days, no doubt about it!

squeezing in a run

I started running last week, but then I got sidetracked when my brother came to town for a few days.  I didn't have time to run & go to yoga because I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.  No worries, I'm back on track now.  Today I ran to and from yoga so that I could get both in during my lunch break (because I have someplace to go after work).  It was only 2.5 miles but it felt good.  It's a little tough running downtown because of all the stop lights.  I ended up going back and forth across the street or turning and running down different streets to keep moving.  When I did get stuck at a couple of lights, I did heel raises to work out my calves. 

I had a nice yoga class - it was Hatha with Diane.  I love the sound of Diane's voice - there's just something about it that puts me instantly at ease when I listen to her.  Before class I practiced coming out of headstand back into crow - I actually did it twice without putting my feet down!  I also did two headstands during class.  Woo hoo!!!  It's finally starting to become less scary and more fun because I'm gaining confidence each time I do it. 

snow in April?

The weather has been so crazy this week!  Just when I thought the ski season was over, Stevens Pass got a TON of snow.  It feels more like Christmas than Easter!  Marc and I went up skiing and then hurried back to town so that I could make the last yoga class for the day.  It was an hour Vinyasa class with Jo who thought it would be fun to make us do a ton of sit-ups, ha ha :)  Grueling, but I'll thank her when bikini season comes around!

Before class I practiced coming out of head stand back into crow.  That's the connecting point that I need to master before I can put my sequence together: crow to head stand, back to crow, shoot back to chaturanga.  Man, it takes a lot of strength to lift back up - my arms were exhausted!  After class I mentioned to Jo what I was working on and she said it takes a lot of core strength.  hmm...maybe I'm focused on the wrong muscles.  I was trying to force it with my arms - maybe I need to think about my core instead.  I'll try it tomorrow...for now my arms are noodles.

Restorative yoga

On Friday evenings there is a restorative yoga class that I love!  My friend, Karen, who came last week loved it too, and now she is going to come every Friday!!!  My husband, Marc, came too - he likes that class better than any of the other classes.  I wish it was offered more than once a week.  It's a softer, more relaxed class that focuses on stretching and stress reduction.  Perfect for a Friday afternoon before the weekend.

I love the teacher - Jennifer.  Throughout the year she does yoga retreats at Whidbey Island and down in Mexico.  Sometime I would love to go to one of them!  This fall she's doing a retreat in Bali for the first time.  That would be SO incredible!!!  If anyone wants to sponsor me, I would love to go :)