Hey! How is everyone?!  I’m counting down the week because we leave for vacation on Saturday! I am SO excited.  Michael and I are spending one week in a cottage on the Maine shore.  I’m looking forward to time to unwind, relax and have some fun! Also this week I am crossing my fingers and toes for good news SOON! More on that as it happens but I’ll definitely be sharing with you all!

We had a great weekend.  It was complete with runs, yoga, beach time, barbecues, and relaxing.  I hit the beach late in the afternoon Saturday and only got in about an hour and half of sun time.  Beach time makes me so happy, I love the feeling of swimming in salt water and the sun and sand on my skin! Some crazy thunderstorms came in and decided to head home before I got soaked.  Good thing I did, the storms were so intense the highway was flooding!

Sand Between My Toes!

Before I hit the beach we went to North End Yoga for a 9AM Ashtanga class.  I’d never been to the studio before and was excited to check it out.  It was gorgeous! They decorated so beautifully- a nice combination of hard words, beautiful wall colors and bright but relaxing fabrics for the draperies.  If I own a yoga studio someday (a dream of mine!), I hope it’s as nice as that one! I was slightly terrified to take Ashtanga again.  My body was sore from the first time and I knew what to expect.  I knew it would be challenging and hard.  This class was a half primary series and with half the poses and half the vinyasas it was MUCH more manageable! The flow may have been shorter but that doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle throughout the class.  I was still tight and sore from Tuesday and some of the poses were just not going to happen.  I tried to remind myself that some days we are able to test our limits in yoga and others are meant to be taken easy and do as much as we can.  It was still frustrating but I got through the practice.

Ashtanga is humbling.  It is humbling in so many ways.  From the chants and counting in Sanskrit that I don’t know to the new-to-me Sanskrit pose names,  I feel lost most of the time.  And then there is the physical aspect.  All of the vinyasas tire my arms out, and the jump throughs and jump backs can be confusing and challenging.  Quite honestly I feel like I’m flailing around and just trying to keep up.  When I flow through, I feel completely misaligned. Half the time I am on the left side of the mat and the other half of the time on the right side of the mat but never in the middle.  Every now and then I twist and bind into some challenging pose or find comfort in shoulder stand and realize that despite all of the challenges with Ashtanga I will get better and stronger and it will be easier.  I think this is why I like it so much.  I like the challenge and the reward.

LOVE Wheel Pose!

Michael and I were talking after class and he asked me if Ashtanga made feel like I knew nothing about yoga.  My answer? A resounding yes.  I told him that despite how much I know about yoga I really don’t know that much.  Yoga is a vast practice with lots of different styles and history.  I can’t tell you how many times I hear a story about yoga from one instructor and then a few weeks later hear the same story with some variation from another.  I think this is what makes me so excited to start teacher training in August.  I’m excited for the opportunity to learn and absorb as much as I can about the practice.  I hope that someday my resounding yes, will be become a resounding no.  One can hope right?

Last week proved to be a physical week.  Ashtanga on Tuesday left me with sore arms and tight hamstrings which only seemed to get worse as the week went on.  On top of that I ran a few times in the heat which also was challenging. I’m still trying to figure out how I ran 26.2 miles in that heat.  By the time Thursday came around I was happy to take a lunchtime yoga class and call it a day.  Considering it was my first full week in the new house, with a new commute and living with my boyfriend I was really proud of myself not only for the quantity of my workouts but also the quality.

Workouts Week of 6/18/12

Change can be good for us in so many ways.  For me last week, it was the change of yoga styles and discovering a new practice to inspire me and challenge me.  And on a bigger level it was life changes like a new town, new routine and a live-in boyfriend to keep me motivated and determined to workout.  Working out has always been my time, so it was important to me to keep up with my routine and get my runs in and find the mat and THEN go home to Michael and our new routine of living together.   Week 2 is upon us and despite vacation looming in front of me I hope to have another week of workouts to be proud of! More so, I hope to have MORE changes to announce soon.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed please!