My inner-yogi is trying to get out

Last night I went back to Stroga to start my month I purchased through one of those daily deal sites (I cannot keep them all straight anymore). It was my first time to yoga since January and my first time a non-Bikram class since sometime in the fall.

I have always said that I do not like regular yoga. I have way too much trouble shutting down my brain and just going with the flow (ha…I am so punny). But last night, I really tried and I think I did a good job. I really loved the class (Vinyasa Flow) and I look forward to going again this weekend. I think it helped me let go of some of the anger I have in me right now. There were a few times when I actually thought I may cry (but not in a scary cry face way). I have read about this happening to people in yoga before, where you just get so close to your emotions and let it all out), but I never bought into it. Maybe it is true. Guess I will find out as the month progresses

Tomorrow night is “warm” Vinyasa. The room will be 90 degrees. While that is nothing compared to Bikram, it is still hot. I think I should take two water bottles and a couple extra towels!

Back on track

This week has gone pretty well. I have been in bed well before 11:00 every night. I am getting a lot of reading done these days! I have also been able to sleep a little later each day. Tuesday I woke up at 1:45, Tuesday it was 2:45 and today it was 3:30!!!!! Falling back to sleep is getting easier now that I do not allow myself to get up and watch TV. Poor Old Christine must be devastated. I have had the last three episodes of the series on the DVR for three whole days and still have not watched!!!! I promise you are still my hero and I still love you

I did my three-mile runs the past two days. I turned both of those sessions into speed work and plan to make tomorrow’s two-miler a tempo run. I figure tempo runs should technically be longer than 2 miles, but this is my first one. Baby steps people!!!! And I WILL do my 8-9 mile run this weekend, day TBD.

Tonight I am back to Bikram for the first time in almost a week. I figure it is going to hurt, but hurt so good. I have missed it. I really hope the studio closer to me works out. It was a mistake on my part to determine the amount of time it takes for me to go to the Hill studio. Now, even though I still love it, I find it much harder to drag myself over there.

Time suck

While I was walking to the Metro this morning, I did the math on how much time it takes me to go to one Bikram class. I leave work about an hour before class, metro to Union Station, read for about 10 minutes and then walk over to the studio. Then I get ready, find my place and take a 90 minute class. After that, I obviously have to shower. Then I walk back to the Union Station and hop on Metro. Once I get to my stop, it is another 15 minute walk home….

Total time: 3 hours and 30 minutes.

Clearly I must LOVE Bikram!!!!!

My 30 day pass ends in just over a week and a half. I am going to try Dupont Bikram. They offer a $20 intro week special. The class schedule is about the same, but the commute home is so much faster. But if I don’t click with any of the teachers, I will head on back to the Hill. I gotta go where the love is….just hoping the love is close to home!

101 check-in

Well, I started my list just over a year ago. I think I have made some pretty good progress so far. I still have a lot to do to complete everything on the list, but I feel good knowing how much I have accomplished, considering I was in school, on top of my job, during year one of this goal

COMPLETED (17/101):

For the love of Travel

Travel to the West Coast

Visit India

Go to the beach

For the love of Fitness

Run a 5K

Run a race that is at least 10K

Learn how to strength train on my own

Be able to run for 30 straight minutes

For the love of Health

Rejoin weight watchers

Stick to Weight Watchers

Get prescription sunglasses

Stop drinking soda for one month

For the love of Beauty

Grow my hair past my shoulders

For the love of Food

Eat a Voodoo Donut

For the love of Learning

Graduate

Take yoga more seriously

Start a Blog

For the love of Everything Else

Share my blog with others

GOOD PROGRESS (11/101):

For the love of Fitness

Attend a group exercise class twice a month (43/66)

Work out an average of 3/week (184/429)

For the love of Health

Lose 30 pounds (15.8/30)

For the love of Beauty

Pamper myself (mani, pedi, salon and/or massage) every 6 weeks (6/22)

For the love of Food

Eat at 25 new restaurants in the DC area and 20 outside (15/25) (18/20)

Go to brunch once a month (10/33)

For the love of Fun

Read 100 books for fun (21/100)

Go on a date once a month (17/33)

Watch 26 movies I have not seen, beginning with the letters A-Z (18/26)

For the love of Family

Spend more time with family(18/33)

For the love of Giving Back

Donate to 5 charities that matter to me (3/5)

Bikram, week one

Tonight will mark my sixth Bikram visit since last Monday. I am definitely getting my money’s worth out of my month there!

So far, I really like it. I actually look forward to going each day. Yes it is hot; yes it is hard….but I feel so good afterwards. This is the first form of yoga I have been able to commit to and I have been to a lot of yoga classes! I think it is because I don’t have to shut down my brain quite as much. Or maybe it is because I am concentrating so much on the poses and the heat that I can actually shut my brain down? I don’t know, but I like it! I think it is the structure of it all that I enjoy the most.

For those of you who do not know about Bikram, it is a 90 minute course, taught in a 105 degree room, with about 50% humidity. Over the course of the 90 minutes, you go through a set routine of 26 poses, repeating each pose before moving on to the next.

(Source)

The studio I am attending, Bikram Yoga Capitol Hill,  gives good detail on the benefits of each pose. Over the past week, I felt myself get more flexible. I am not perfect at the poses yet, but I can feel a huge difference between now and last week. Sure I have to lie down in Savasana every so often when I feel myself getting overheated, but I am not the only one!

Another great benefit of Bikram is an improvement on my body confidence. As I mentioned before, it is HOT in that room! I find myself wearing less and less to class. I am not quite ready to bare it all in just a sports bra and shorts, but I do wear fitted tanks and very small shorts. I would have never felt comfortable doing this in front of anyone a week ago! My goal is be in a sports bra and shorts by my last class. I got to do it at least once! 🙂

I do have one small complaint about the studio. The past two classes, they have run out of the ice-cold towels before I got one. The classes have been a bit more packed than usual because of New Year’s resolutions and all, so I wish they had planned a little better. I am pretty sure I was the only one not to get a towel yesterday and let me tell you….that ice cold towel on my face after 90 HOT minutes is my favorite part!!!!!!

I like Bikram so much that I am considering changing my running fund reward from a Garmin to a few more months of Bikram. My Nike SportsBand has gotten me this far; I think  it can make it through another year!

This week in exercise

As I mentioned before, I made a pretty ambitious training/workout calendar last week. The more I think about it, the worse that idea is to me. I can be pretty hard on myself if I miss a set goal and I am trying to become a less stressed/more relaxed person. I have decided to just set weekly goals without assigning a specific day for each activity. That way, if I am tired on Wednesday, I can skip the run and my Shred DVD and do it on Thursday without feeling guilty for messing up the schedule. So here is this week in exercise:

Running – 4 runs (2, 3 , 2, and 7 miles)

Yoga – 2-3 times

Shred – 2-3 times

I am going to knock out a 2-miler at lunch today and I am headed to the Bikram Yoga studio after work, if the class is not full. I figure the week after Christmas is a good week to start because people are still on vacation! I am still a little nervous about the sweat factor in Bikram. It will certainly be an experience!

#reverb10 – Try

I am never going to answer all of these, but I will write the ones that really catch my eye and make me thnk.

Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it? (Author: Tara Weaver)

I want to try yoga next year. I want to LOVE yoga next year. I had grand plans of becoming a yogi this year and it just didn’t happen. I have no excuses; I had all summer. I only went about 10 times over the entire year. I have month-long deals to three separate studios. I plan to take advantage of them starting next week. Let’s do this

Well, I wanted to try yoga, but that was a big fail. I also wanted to try running. That was most definitely NOT a fail. On December 12, I looked at my dad and said, “A year ago, did you ever think you would be driving me to my fifth race of the year?” He laughed and simply said “no.” The he told me how proud of me he was. I may not be fast, but I am a runner. And I will be a runner till the day I die.