Wandering Mind

Lovely weekend, coming to a close. Picked L up from the train station Friday and skipped my yoga class. We decided to eat instead, I was tired and hot and grouchy so it would have done me a lot of good but I would have probably been less than thrilled most of the class. The cats were insane Friday night and one of the local cats was hanging out outside the window, which made them that much worse. L and I had to switch spots on the bed as the cats were using her as a launch pad to the window (I’m a heavier sleeper so they don’t bother me as much). Saturday we made sure the cats didn’t sleep during the day so they would at night. Much better. We also slept heavier Saturday night as we did the Primary class in the morning and then hiked 8 miles in the afternoon. Topped off with a wonderfully heavy make your own pasta dish for dinner.

Practice itself was great. I felt more present than I often do and the poses came easier. Michael gave some great adjustments (as usual). I’m a little confused by one that he gives me. In vinyasas I’m going into handstand about eighty percent of the time now, and he occasionally will catch my legs to keep me up. I should ask him but I’m not sure if at that one moment he wants me to work on handstand or if he’s saying I should hold them longer in the vinyasas. I suppose I should just ask. I usually get a good revolve adjustment from him and I also got a great push on the hamstring in Supta Padangustasana. Walked out feeling open and light and wonderful. I really love classes like that.

I really like the Sunday class as well. It’s usually a vinyasa class heavy in the second series poses, which I really need to work on. Today’s class was good because I’m getting better at not having expectations of myself in the classes. I think in the past it would have been a very ho-hum class because I am less than proficient in many of the second series poses and I would have expected too much… strike that… I would have expected something of myself that was not where I am and where I need to be, and that can be frustrating. But I’m getting a lot out of all my classes. I realized I’ve been missing a great hamstring stretch in down dog because I would use it as too much of a rest pose. I’m already starting to see some results from just working the heals down and pulling the thighs back. We did a lot of back bending today which was nice but my back was a little tender from the hike yesterday. Note to self: I really need to work on keeping the abs tighter when I walk for a long time. I think I let them relax too much and then my back doesn’t have any support.

After class met L at Starbucks where she was reading the times and eating her scone. I think we may be developing a routine. She practices with me on Saturday and Sunday she reads the paper and I practice without her. It seems to work quite nicely. It’s nice to for us to realize that I don’t expect her to come to every class I attend and she’s ok with me doing something else. It’s slow going turning a long distance relationship into a normal one. After Starbucks we went to the farmers market that wasn’t a farmers market and looked at all 6 stalls/booths/tents/whatever. There are better farmers markets around here that are open daily; I’m not sure what this was. Then headed back to the apartment and went for a dip in the pond. Neither of us lost any toes to the snapping turtles. We saw one last weekend that was the size of a manhole cover with a head as big as my fist. I wasn’t sure L would ever get in the pond after that. We swam around a little then headed back to the apartment and she read and I took a nap before taking her back to the train station. I actually got more sun in an hour today than I did in three hours yesterday…kinda weird.

L and I are tossing around the idea of doing a triathlon. I’m not sure how it came up but we started talking about it and I got hooked on the idea. She’s a little brighter than me so she’s not sold on the idea yet but I think it will be fun. I just want to train slowly so as to not hurt my joints. I’ve messed up my knees running previously but I was a bit to gung ho and was running five miles a day in less than a month… We’re talking slow and steady and probably doing a sprint triathlon in the spring (and I’m thinking an Olympic length by end of summer but haven’t convinced her yet) I have no desire to try the Iron-Man… that’s a little too extreme for me. I just think it’s a really good thing for us to do something physical together that is challenging and somewhat goal oriented (the goal being finishing, not winning). So much of my enjoyment of life is physical I just want to make sure we have something like that we can share, otherwise there sometimes feels like there’s a gap.

So that’s the weekend in a nutshell. I’m not sure what I’m up to tonight short of trying not to throttle the upstairs neighbors for stomping around like a heard of elephants… I need to get cable. I get absolutely no stations out here…