CPY 30/40 Day 3: Making Time

For the longest time, I would set my alarm for 6am, expecting to happily jump out of bed to head to a yoga class or put on my running shoes. What really happens is that I will hit my snooze button, glare at the workout clothes I've thoughtfully placed next to the bed, roll over, and twilight sleep until 7:45.

But you know what? I've finally decided that it's ok for me to not be a "morning" workout person.

What this does mean, however, is that I have to make time in the evenings for fitness. For Day 3 of yoga, I am very proud to say that I squeezed a class in between work and coaching rowing - and was so happy that I did. Did I arrive at rowing a minute late with mascara all over my face? Yes. Did the rowers care? Not in the least.

I'm quickly learning that one hour a day isn't a lot to ask of myself. The time I spend on my mat is mine and mine only. What I do there, whether it's an awesome day and I feel great or a crappy day and I take it easy - that's mine too.

I suppose this goes hand in hand with the "I'm busy" excuse. But it makes me want to make time for other things I typically put off - calling my grandma. Putting away all the laundry at the same time. Making the bed in the mornings. Doing small things that take little-to-no time to make the people in my life feel happy and loved.

"No act of kindness, however small, goes unnoticed."

And it took a minute of me hanging out in tripod headstand to realize this? Hm.

Yesterday was a day off from yoga so I ran a nice, slow 3 miles and it felt GREAT. Tonight I'm back on to Hot Power Fusion.

CPY 30/40 Day 2: Toxins

Why is the second workout when starting a new thing always the worst? This always happens when I decide I'm going to "get back into cardio" too - first day feels great, I go longer than I thought I would, and I'm stoked to go out on the second day.

Second day is sluggish, stabby, gaspy, and sweaty.

That was tonight.

There was a thunderstorm threat tonight and I was feeling potentially migrainey so I skipped the sculpt and did a C2 class instead: "CorePower Yoga 2 (C2) is a rigorous yoga class with demanding strength postures that will have you moving, breathing and sweating! True to its name, a C2 class focuses on building and engaging your core strength to support you in more advanced postures. Set to energizing music in a heated, climate-controlled room, CorePower Yoga 2 strengthens, balances, detoxifies and exhilarates the body and mind."

I usually like this class a lot. You don't get bored, you move a lot (flow, in yoga terms), and you usually get to try some of the balance/flexibility stuff that I feel like I might be able to do in the next few weeks (headstand, birds of paradise).

Tonight, however, I felt like every alcoholic drink I've ever imbibed came out through my pores (along with all of the hangovers, french fries, puddles of ketchup, mountains of ice cream, and a salt lick) and dripped onto (and off of) my mat. I was exhausted and dripping by 20 minutes in. I need to figure out a snack situation that will get me through all this yoga, because today's blueberries and handful of nuts an hour before class did nothing for fuel.

AND it was FARTY. I heard at least six farts from my fellow classmates. (Yoga class farting is really funny and simultaneously extremely serious because nobody laughs).

The theme of class was "gratitude."

CPY 30/40 Day 1: Keeping myself honest as "the eternal beginner"

I'm really good at starting things. I'm not so good at finishing them.

Garance Dore recently wrote a post about yoga and her "eternal beginning" and it resonated with me. The same day, my yoga studio announced their 30/40 challenge: 30 classes of yoga over 40 days. I decided to start it.

I normally wouldn't blog about such a mundane topic, but I a) don't believe you can achieve goals without yelling from the rooftop what your goal is and b) need a way to keep myself honest about actually doing this (and finishing it).

So last night was class #1.

During the warm-up, the instructor talked about what bullshit it is to always say "I can't, I'm busy." Hhhhhhhhhhhh I SAY THIS ALL THE TIME. It is my #1 go-to excuse, even if the task I am busy doing is slobbing about on the couch watching The Only Way is Essex. I say it so smugly too, like "I have so many tasks. I am extremely important and thus better than you are." I will definitely reevaluate how I use the phrase going forward, using it only as a truth and not a crutch.

Then she put us through a routine of 5 trillion ways of getting into (and then holding) HALF MOON. I hate half moon. It may not look like much, but it hurts my hips, the balance is impossible for me, it makes my thighs look fat, and besides Warrior 3, is truly my most hated yoga pose.

This is half moon.

If I had known it would have been a class of half moon bullshittery, I would have said I was busy and couldn't make it.

BUT: Last night I slept like the dead. And felt very smug and proud of myself for only skipping three days before getting started with the 30/40 challenge (sigh).

Today my hips are sore.

Tonight is "Yoga Sculpt" (yoga with weights, aka last week I actually started laughing because I thought the instructor was kidding when she asked us to do something. She wasn't.)

Onward.

Um, well, it took:

4 years, being a surf bum in san diego, countless half-finished applications, some half-hearted studying for the GRE, a broken heart, a mended heart, moving across the country (twice), a lot of vodka, 3 "real jobs," some research, 6 weeks of wandering around Europe, and agonizing over a sufficient personal statement for way too long...

but I start grad school at DePaul in 6 weeks. FINALLY. English MA/PhD here I come. Bitches.

The Sculls

I started rowing again last night. Went out in a 4 with this organization last night, started by my lovely and fabulous friend Jenn: www.recoveryonwater.org

Then sculled for the first time ever this morning...Jenn and I are racing a double in a 1K sprint in 2 weeks. That pretty much means I'm going to live at the Lincoln Park Boat Club:



...and not be able to move for the next week while my muscles (and poor, blistered hands) get used to it again after, oh, a five-year break.

But DAMN does it feel good to be back on the water. Ohhhhh early mornings, you make Chicago look so beautiful, before everyone is out and about.

JEALOUS?!?!

dug up this gem in the southside today. anyone want to go rollerskating like it's 1989??? mr. telephone man...there's something wrong with my line...

damn.

welcome to the household:

LOMO!:


Turntables:


Dwight: