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Yoga Quest Finale

May 4, 2012
Running, Yoga
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Yup, finale. I had to pull the plug.

For the past month, I have been practicing Bikram Yoga in Pasadena and I have been loving almost all of it.  I say almost because there were some classes where I though I was gonna fain out but for the most part it was super amazing.  It had strengthened my cycling a lot and I have been doing the yoga in place of my running mostly as to heal the damage I do running the trails.  The interesting thing about approaching my running like that is that I know the strength is still in my legs and they honestly have probably improve, so when I lace up my runners today I’m sure it will be less like I haven’t run and more like I took a short break.

I need to stop because, lets be real, yoga is an expensive habit.  I got the intro month for 40$ which was a friggin steal so I took it.  Now that the price unfortunately needs to go up I need to pull out.  It’s a but rich for my blood.  My life really has improved in such a sort time because of it that It was a long internal debate trying to rewrite my budgets so I could make room for it but, alas, it’s an impossibility.  WI wish I could continue, I really do, and maybe one day I’ll pick up a cycling or running sponsor that I can convince I need to practice yoga so they can take the bill, but for now, this student / underpaid bookseller needs to bid it adieu.

On to bigger and brighter pastures.

Give me a few days, maybe a week or two and I’ll be back to my Muck Running up mountains and I’ll do my best to shoot some photos while I’m up there to share here.  I know I put a lot of bike shit here but I do love me some other sports.

Yoga Quest Day….I’ve lost track really

April 20, 2012
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I went, I saw, I was conquered.  By my self.  Not as in on my own, but as in I conquered my self.  I went way too hard at the beginning, pushing myself super deep, sometimes deeper into the stretches than I have yet, which was great, but I didn’t take into consideration what my day’s activities prior to yoga would do to my practice today.

I was in the hot sun all day at USC building the Vroman’s Bookstore booth at the LA Times Festival of Books.  Also, last night my roommate was working on his final for Art Center at the table right outside my room so it was minimal sleep, maybe 4 hours, and lifting and moving all day in the hot sun.  I was beat.  Destroyed.

This is what I didn’t take into consideration as I came into my practice today.

I did have a really good time though.  It’s wasn’t terrible in any sense.  The instructor was a man I have never had and he was super good.  I just had no focus and my breathing was way off.  So, after pushing myself way hard I ended up hitting a wall right around 15 min from the end.  I just laid there in the heat and practiced relaxation and breathing.  This even was hard for me.  I honestly thought it was the teacher, then I was talking to a gentleman in the men’s are and he said he felt the teacher is lax. When the other men agreed I realized it was just me and my gnarly day leading up to this.

This is good to look at though.  How my day affects my practices.

I also need to practice love and compassion with myself.  I stress the word need.  It’s not something I do much, if at all.  What happens to me is I lay false expectations upon myself and push so hard that I burn out and collapse.  Tonight’s class was case in point.  Honestly, I have only been practicing yoga since April 1.  I did like 6 classes in 8 days, went to Hawaii for a week where I didn’t practice at all, then this in my 2nd day back to practice after that.  Maybe I need to not push sooooo hard.  Push for sure but not push this hard, I should let the yoga come to me, let the stretches come to me instead of me racing toward the stretches.

Love and compassion with myself.  That is my search for the next while.  Everywhere in my life.

Yoga Quest Day 5 & 6

April 8, 2012
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Balance is key right?

As much as the instructors say that yogis best done every day, and I do not disagree, I seem to have ain issue doing it every day.  I’m a student, close to full time, and I work part time, I run a lot, and I bike ride a lot.  To introduce a daily 9 min yoga session into that regiment is tough.  That would mean that for the days when I run far or ride far it would be like 5 hours of exercise.  It’s super hard to find 5 hours for anything out side of school, work, and homework so for me that’s a bit much.

I need the freedom to spend a whole day on my bike riding all over LA.  That is one of the reasons I ride in the first place.  I also need to be able to spend a full day up in the mountains running and exploring, that freedom is the whole reason I run.  I don’t compete in either sport, I never have.  It’s not my thing.  One day I might but for now I just do it for fun.

I have never run or rode more than every other day, I try to alternate, and I do this so I don’t get addicted to it.  Not like I’m walking a fine line of there’s any real danger of that happening, I just have seen people that are addicted to it and that looks miserable.  Scary almost.  I just want to have fun every time I go out and if I do it every day it feels more like a job.

Yoga was starting to feel like that by the end of this week so I took today off.  I just want to have fun with that too.  What I really want is for yoga to compliment my running and cycling.  I want all 3 to strengthen each other and therefore not overpower each other.

So, I think that I decided today that yoga should be a every other day pursuit.   I like how that sounds.

 

Yoga Quest Day 4

April 5, 2012
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A day of rest.

Well needed.

I hope to one day incorporate yoga into my life 3 times a week at least.  Ideally every day would be amazing but I am also run bigger distances, go long bike rides, I go to school, and I work.  These could be excuses excluding the fact that I need time to follow my spiritual pursuits, have relationships with my friends, family, and look toward finding me a pretty lady to grow with, but a man really only has so much time in his day.

I also have a problem with filling my life with too many “good things” and convincing myself that those “good things” make my life all bueno while there are core issues I need to spend lots of energy and time dealing with.  I need not mask the true issues with other things that distract me from me.

So this is why I take days off.

And I also like days off, there’s that reason too.

Back to it tomorrow.

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