Yoga Buzz

Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, I made my way to my yoga mat.

One thing I've noticed recently about myself is that I have a hard time just sitting. I think on the surface, that is pretty obvious, but it's difficult for me to sit and notice how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, etc. My love of running I think stems from a way to escape and usually my best runs are when I can just be out on the trail, leaving behind my concerns.

Lately yoga has been another outlet for me to do that. Except that instead of focusing on my surroundings and the beauty of the trail, I am concentrating on myself and inwardly focusing.

Yesterday's class was perfect. I am still sore sore from Monday's arm insanity workout (yes, that's what I've officially named it), so I went in to class ready to surrender and go into child's pose if I had to.

The class started out perfectly, with the teacher having us focus on our breathing. Throughout the class, she encouraged us to stay in the moment. Multiple times, she said,

"Just stay here, on your mat, in this room. If your mind wanders, direct your attention back to your breath".

I made this my intention for my practice. I was determined not to think about work, bills, running, lunch, appointments etc. Every time I found myself thinking outside of the room, I shifted my attention back to my breathing and the room.

This was such a great exercise for me, and was surprisingly just as challenging as a 50k or marathon!

Of course, within the first 30 minutes after class ended, several stressful situations popped up. I made the effort to breath and stay present, though, taking my yoga lessons with me to the real world! =)

Am I growing up or what?! Haha!

I got a fun new pose on my mat yesterday too! It's called 8 Angle, and I surprised myself by just going for it!

Source

I watched our instructor made her way into the pose and thought "no way am I going to be able to do that". I went through her sequence to get into the pose, however, and when I managed to actually lift my legs off the floor, I was ecstatic! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it!

Lesson of the day: You are more capable than you think you are!

Switching gears, we had a nice, long workout at Crossfit last night. Most people groan about long workouts, but these are the easiest kind for me. Once I get into a grove I just go!

The star of the show was the power clean. In power cleans, you start with the barbell hanging just above your knees. With a slight bend in the knees and hips back, you jerk yourself forward and throw the barbell up to your shoulders. This is actually one of my favorite barbell movements, and I stuck with 25 kilos for the workout, which was as follows:

40 cleans
40 burpees
40 cleans
40 toes to bar
40 cleans
40 wall ball
40 cleans
40 kettlebell swings
40 cleans
40 candlesticks
40 cleans
400 meter run

We worked with a partner and had to split up the reps into sets of 5 for each exercise. I got to work with my buddy Beth and we rocked it. She actually used 35 kilos for her cleans! We were the second group to finish, well before the 25 minute time cut-off!