weekend winter wonderland

spent the weekend in the snow! headed out for a snowshoe on staurday, which quickly turned into a brisk hike instead (tho we were passed by folks who were strapped in, there weren't many spots on the trail that necessitated such equipment). the loop was just over 5k, some ups and downs but no elevation gain.

we played soccer for a friend's bday yesterday and had a blast - it had snowed all night and continued all day! a surprising amount of running (especially since g and i were on opposing teams) and we were both feeling our legs as we unwound by the fire.

today's flow class was rather challenging. and tonight, some competitive christmas shopping. babies and pre-teen girls....

ceo'ing

but first, yoga'ing to balance the mind and practice restraint ;) acala yoga today.

Found this - poignant considering my upcoming meeting.

Acala is one of the five Vidyarajas, kings of knowledge. Each of the vidyaraja is represented with a ferocious expression, to keep evil at bay. They express the will to fight hate and develop love. Their ferocious attitude is the determination to progress on the path of spirituality ans realization.

Acala in particular shows great compassion to all beings, as the flames engulfing him burn away karmic ties, severing them with the sword of wisdom, and restraining all straying thoughts from escaping dharma with the rope he holds in his left hand.

strength and stretch

ab strength to be specific. yikes. i like this yoga video, i will come back to it more often.

migration

birds by the thousands. i assume from northern europe. mesmerizing... until the rains came. before all that, i ran another 5km in another 30 mins and it felt great.

did an hour of yoga - mostly twisting poses - wrung out those organs before bed.

5 in 6

yoga classes / days (yesterday off due to breakfast AND lunch meetings + desperately wanting the evening to rest and hang with the fella)

feeling slight changes as my practice improves and my understanding of the poses grows. little things like i find i root myself into the earth when standing (keenly noticed at a concert where dancing wasn't the mood) and my posture is improving (shoulders back, belly in). my head and heart are a whole other story, one which i will spare you forum readers from.

hoping the weather holds for some running this weekend!

enjoy WC kids - perhaps daddy-o & i will have our own club tonight (not unlike last night...and the one before that...)

early morning

managed to do some qi-qong exercises, a yoga class, and 10 minutes of meditation before waking my fella from his slumber with the smell of coffee. been feeling quite energetic today to boot. good because 400m are tonight, arghh. (someday we will aspire to the even run/rest but certainly not today).

yoga yesterday. and four days last week, with a 5km run on friday (cut short by the IT band but finished with long strided speed walking which felt like stretching with raised heartrate).

not entirely MIA

quietly trying to focus on my yoga practice. found it to be the best lunchtime activity for me. so while not running (IT band hurt on my first back in canada run. have had to endure daddy-o with the rolling pin to fix it, more painful than the sprints!) I am sneaking over to the new yoga studio a couple of blocks from the office. aiming for 3x/week and hopefully a yin class on the weekend.

I'll also be back in the gym once in a while to offset the sprints.

Oh and I am also taking a class on this

Fast, heavy, stretch

That was my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Friday

5 rounds:
Run 400m (14 kmph/4:16 min km)
12 thrusters (45 lb)

V-sit ball toss with 4 kg ball - 3 x 40.

(Note to self - do heavier thrusters next time.)

Saturday

Squats - 145 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Good mornings - 62 x 10, 10, 10, 10
Bent-over rows - 35 lb db, 7, 7, 6 per arm
Bench hops - 4 x 30
(Hands on the bench, hop from side to side over the bench with feet together.)
Russion twist + hip raises on the ball (5 kg ball)

Sunday

90 minutes of Yin yoga. Aaaaah.

Squats and garudasana

Saturday: Heavy squats.
Sunday: non-Yin yoga.

The breakdown:

Squats - 135 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Chin-ups - 2, 1, 1, 1, 1
Presses - 52 x 5, 5, 2+3 pp
SumoDeadliftHighPulls - 52 x 10, 7, 8
Run - 600m, 400m, 400m (30 sec rest between) @ 13.5 kmph.
(Was aiming for a mile, but lungs and legs were inexplicably leaden.)

Yoga - HOT. First time doing active (ie: non-yin) hot yoga. Oh my god the sweat. And, the class was hard too. But I managed to hold an eagle-ish pose (among others) for the expected amount of time.

My legs were more jellied from the yoga than the squats, but maybe it was the accumulation...

Yoga may change my life.

I just got back from a hot yin yoga class. I don't think one should be allowed to drive after yoga. (Not this kind of yoga, anyway.) Zen, I guess, is the word to describe my state right now. (Helps that the first thing I did upon arriving home was drink a glass of wine.)

After years of thinking I should probably get on the yoga bandwagon, and months of postponing an actual promise to myself, I finally went to a yoga class. It was a slow-stretchy kind of thing, where we avoided using muscles and focused on just stretching, holding each pose for five (5!) minutes. It was hard. It was awesome.

I signed up a first month of unlimited classes, so I must go at least four more times...Just enough to develop a habit, methinks. But I'm pretty excited about the possibilities of this yoga thing, and the biggest barrier -- jumping into a completely unfamiliar scenario -- has been breached. I'm good to go.

I will touch my toes! I will! I will!

Yoga at Eleven Hundred Hours

Back from the cottage, straight into eight games of frisbee in three days. Nine in four if tonight's game isn't canceled. (And I'm feeling back on my game, at long last. :-))

So, a little recovery is called for, methinks.

As the broadcasters go digital, we cable-less folk are getting more channels. Overunder discovered Intimate Yoga at 11 am on the Sun channel. That time coincides nicely/usually with naptime. So today I gave it a whirl. Yoga is hard, but it IS relaxing (evidenced by me being on the verge of tears on and off throughout the half hour. In a good way.) I'll try to make this a regular thing, and let you know how it goes.

No blood but there was sweat and tears

After a brutal end to last week (sick, frustrations mounting, and much disappointment) I decided to take it to the mat - and leave it all there. Found a challenging yoga class on saturday morning, on an outdoor patio facing the ocean no less. What was particularly pleasing to me, was my noticeable improvement on poses and movements which involved arm and core strength. I even managed to hold crow pose for a good 20 seconds.


On sunday I decided to try out the brutal crossfit the lovebirds did a couple of weeks back:

-21 right handed Turkish get ups (11lbs for the first 10, but had to switch to 5.5lbs as couldn't hold the weight up anymore and i knew my wimpy left shoulder wouldn't finish the workout at that weight)
-50 DB swings (22 lbs)
-21 Left handed overhead squats (11lbs - holy hard to keep good form)
-50 DB swings
-21 right handed overhead squats
-50 DB swings
-21 left handed Turkish get ups (tried to start with 11 but I was correct - I managed 3 and I was done, even with the 5.5 i was doing sets of 3)

total time 17:32.

Today, a 5k run with determination. Done in 28:35.

oh, and 100 situps. in sets of 20.

Damned dogs

Past couple weeks have been 2-workout weeks. Boo! Renewed effort is required to get through the holiday season.

So, today:

Squat tabata (with 10 lbs)

Hang clean + push press (65 lb) - 6, 5, 5, 6

20 minutes of "beginner" yoga. Indeed. I used a DVD we gave Constance last year for Christmas. (From which I removed the shrink-wrap.)

Guess which part was the hardest? Let's just say that I didn't quit the yoga because Tim woke up. Had to start skipping the downward dogs partway through. (I assume that if you're flexible enough you can achieve a certain... balance... in that pose so that you're not holding all your weight on your arms. And that's partway through the mere 20 minutes I lasted (I assume the whole thing continued a lot longer). Also, I need a yoga mat. I ended up with white fluff EVERYWHERE. Who's the wiseguy who thought a white shag rug in the living room was a good idea? The guy who's getting me a yoga mat for Christmas, that's who.