Wednesday - Yoga

What: 1hr 15 min yoga (Ashtanga)

My actual plans today had been to go to St. Ed's and run the 6 mile loop from St. Ed's up through Forest ridge and back.  However, it felt like humid death outside, and I remember all too well the suffering from Tuesday's run and decided against another run: today would be yoga day.

The past couple of times that I did yoga, I strayed from the workout I have been doing, which is a super duper hard one that I can't do all of just yet, and did my own vinyasa workout.  I didn't work so much on balance poses.  Balance poses, for me, were always my strengths for the most part (although there are ones I still cannot do, most I am very good at).  So, I worked on the Vinaysa, and I worked like hell at it.  But, I also avoided poses that I need to get better at, which ...I need to get back to!

Today's workout was really difficult, and frustrating in parts.  I think it was frustrating because I was having difficulty with things that I normally NEVER have problems with, and it was just a very odd start.  Luckily, things got better about 30 minutes into the workout and I finished, although it was a slightly modified version.

Once we got warmed up and started, I realized that my vinyasa workout was not moving quite as fast as this one.  This one really cruises once it's time to start.  Starting out seemed okay, but about 10 minutes in, I was having a LOT of trouble with my balance on poses like Warrior III.  WTF?  I kept falling out of poses like Right Angle Pose - which is usually one of my very best ones.  Very strange.  I was also unable to hold a few of the poses as long as this workout has, which wasn't a huge issue in very many places before - but I again realized my personal workout hadn't held the poses quite long enough.  slacker!

I omitted Half Moon and Twisting-Half Moon poses today.  Those are always extremely hard poses for me that I pretty much never have gotten, and I'd had SUCH a hard time with Right Angle and Twisting Right Angle poses.  Another pose I had to omit - because it simply hurt too badly today to do it, which surprised me, were simple Standing Leg Extensions.   I could balance perfectly, and I could hold the 1 leg up perfectly, but my hip flexors were in AGONY,  I mean screaming, awful pain.  This wasn't the "good" workout kind of pain, this was stop. right. now. pain.  So, I omitted those and also realized this meant there was absolutely NO getting through the last 7 mins of the workout before cooldown, which is a series of core-torturing poses made for abs focus - but all would be impossible to do if unable to engage the hip flexors fully.

Even though I had mixed feelings about this workout, this was sort of a breakthrough workout for me in terms of realizing strengths and weaknesses.  Someone took a picture of me last week, and when I looked at it, I could really see what these Yoga workouts had done for my shoulders and upper body.  My chest is more open, and my shoudlers look a lot better.  I also REALLY noticed a massive improvement in my Chaturanga and upper body stregth.  Also, the flexibility improvements are significant - especially in my adductors and hamstrings.  I'm very pleased to see and feel this progress in my body. Now, I have to figure out how in hell to do Half Moon, Twisting Half Moon and a couple of others without falling over like broken furniture.

I need to strengthen my hip flexors SO badly, and it frustrates me to tears that they are so sore and impossible to do anything with on days that I"m not running.   To even be able to do the exercises it takes to isolate and work them fully - I'm going to have to run a lot less.    Only thing is - I rather love the cooler weather running.  Maybe I'll do my last event of the season in May this next year and then take the summer off to spend in the gym.  It's possible I might want to do that before then, but I also have things I'm considering (like an early may R2R2R in Grand Canyon), which means there will be very little time for taking off if I want to be ready for that.