Relaxation

I knew that I wouldn't keep up with doing yoga and such every day, but I think that I'm doing a relatively good job.  This week has required a lot of adjusting since I'm back in classes, so it's not so easy to organize my time.  But I did get a chance to do two workouts and they have been quite useful.  When I stretch after running, there is no question that I am getting more flexible.

Today I tried a yin yoga DVD that I got from the library.  The practitioner was Simon Low and it was great.  There was one pose that I absolutely could not manage, but the rest went quite well.  One pose incorporated into the workout was pigeon, which really stretched muscles that needed some work.  It's nothing like the Sesame Street song sung by Bert, if you're curious.

The best part of the yin yoga DVD (apart from the actual workout) was when the instructor offered an alternative banana pose at one point.  There is just something funny about hearing the word 'banana' in a British accent.

I may go to hot yoga with a friend next week (hey, why not?) and normal yoga should be starting up soon.  It will be nice to have more of an organized routine...actually, that could be said about a lot of things right now!

New schedule

With the new schedule, Mondays are now free.  I chose this schedule because it works well with my teaching schedule: I need to be at school, teaching, MWF.  All other days I run.  Good combination!  What makes it even better is that this year I am not teaching at some godawful torture hour (7:30am all of last year), so my MWF are not automatically write-offs.  But it's good to have those days for doing things like weights.  Just like today!

That makes two weeks in a row, which I think equals the number of times I did weights for much of the summer.  Yay!  And this time I remembered to stretch properly afterward, so hopefully less stiff tomorrow for my run.

I've tried two of the new relaxation DVDs.  The Qigong one is okay, there are some useful exercises in them.  The other one is a mediation one with a bit of yoga thrown in.  This isn't terrible, but I'm not used to meditating (and would rather do more yoga).  Maybe I can learn from this experience?  I haven't tried the third DVD yet, plus I have a DVD on hold at my local library of Yin Yoga, since I liked it so much.  But the selection is nice now.  Maybe I'll even revisit PM Tai Chi at some point.

Yin yoga

Yesterday I decided to take the opportunity and attend a yoga class.  Boston may be a running town, but it is also a generally fit town and there are no lack of yoga options -- particularly around Central/Harvard Squares, which is near where I am staying.  I decided to check out Karma Yoga because they had a class called yin yoga that looked interesting.  The description on the website was as follows: "Through the elegant combination of appropriate asana and gentle timing, Yin Yoga deeply stretches and nourishes the joints of the body, helping to generate much greater flexibility and core-level relaxation."  Basically, you hold uncomplicated stretches for a long time, so it was a nice class to take.  One of the challenges I find of just dropping in on a class like this is that you can be behind the students who have been attending for a while.  With a focus on holding the poses instead of the poses themselves, you don't have that problem.

I was doing yoga in Tampa, trying to go twice a week.  Mine is bare-bones yoga taught at the city's recreation facility.  The price can't be beat ($6.25 a class), although you have to bring your own mat.  Our teacher there is very nice and doesn't insist on doing annoying things like playing 'relaxation music.'  There is only one problem: when the teacher goes out of town -- as she did for the month of August -- then there is no yoga.  What is fun about being in a place like Boston are the wide number of options.  I liked the yin yoga so much that I've requested a DVD about from the library at home.  It was challenging but not taxing.

Like a lot of runners, I have basically no flexibility.  Hopefully, by doing yoga I can help prevent an injury and provide some relief to tired muscles.  When I went running today, I didn't notice any problems, which is always a good sign.