7 days
Yesterday was the 7th and final consecutive day in which I practiced yoga in an hour-long "power yoga" class format. Tonight, I went for an easy 4-mile run along the river. That week of yoga did some great things for me, I feel. My run tonight was fabulous. The weather helped (clear skies, dusk, no wind, 50 or so degrees), but I felt both light on my feet and limber. Kind of like Tigger - I bounced.
Some context: these classes last week were all at the same yoga studio; all following the flowing, vigorous Ashtanga-Power yoga format; all in rooms heated to at least 95 degrees F; all accompanied by usually contemporary music; led by young, fit, ebullient yet tranquil instructors; and all quite full of other people eager to attend to their practice, en masse. Why do it 7 days in a row? To try something different; my fitness regimen -and free time in general- felt like it needed an enema. And, it was free: this studio offers new students a whole week a free classes.
I'd show up, check in, line up my mat & towel in the toasty room, and attempt to relax until the class started. Then, all of us, our limbs, and our breath were off like racehorses, for an hour of work. The flow of the poses and the rhythm I found meditative; the only real distractions were when my salty sweat would drip into my eyes and sting, or at the few times that I became concerned about colliding with the yogi nearest to me.
Then, at the end, in the fairly brief final relaxation, I would again attempt to relax, with less success than I expected. Perhaps it too much to ask of myself? The heat, the music, and the nearness of so many other people: these are all very stimulating, and I am accustomed to having more time allowed for this element. Nevertheless, I was able to slow down my breathing, empty out my brain a bit, and melt into the mat. Thus far, it has served as nearly sufficient physical cooldown; I may need to practice this style a bit more to see if there is more to this style's savasana, for me.
So, back to Tigger, and the benefits of this week o' hot, sweaty yoga. I believe my flexibility and core strength has improved. I'm not sure the knots in my upper back/shoulders have improved. My breathing feels deeper, both during the workday as well as during my run.
I skipped my normal most-evenings yoga practice during that week. This usually consists of Iyengar and a little Vinyasa, by candlelight, with gentle music; even if it's invigorating, it's relaxing for me. I miss that repose, and am eager to get back into it; it helps me ease into sleep.
Will I continue with the power style classes, as part of my overall practice? I am very tempted to. Perhaps of late I've gotten too few opportunities to dance: the flowing style just feels good! It's a fun way to get core strengthening work in. And, I'm drawn to the cleansing feeling brought on by the sweat.
I've had trouble keeping up with the laundry; and today's run felt so good that I'm not ready to hang up the shoes for the winter. Maybe I'll try just taking two classes a week.
Labels: running yoga
warm yoga
I'm taking a short break from running; I still haven't decided whether or not to plan on the Memphis half-marathon in early December. I've been following a training plan for it, but a week off from it would be a healthy break.
While I ponder that, I'm taking advantage of a great offer at
the local Core Power yoga studio: newbies to the studio get a whole week for free, to taste the waters of this type of yoga. I'm on day three. I've done this style, but mostly via videos and a few classes at another studio that had ventilation issues. It's hot (though not as hot as Bikram), sweaty, fluid, music is usually involved, and the classes are packed. I'm a little wary of trying some of the more challenging inversion poses without more direct instruction, but I can ask for that there, or perhaps at a session at the Iyengar studio in town.
I'm really enjoying it! It's a great workout and I come out of the studio soaked but refreshed. Can I handle a whole week of this? We'll see. My arms are pretty sore; the legs are doing okay.
Labels: yoga running
Apple Butter
Why is it that when I'm running or driving, with no way to carry a decent camera, is when I really want to take photos? At 7 this morning, Kyle and I headed south on Interstate 35 toward Faribault, to run in the
Big Woods Run 10k race.
We had fully expected the scenery on the way down, as well as during the race, to be stunning: it's mid-October in Minnesota, we're driving southward, and that park is full of old-growth deciduous trees. The color had to be amazing. What we didn't count on was the enveloping fog that was present for a good part of the whole morning. We'd be talking about all sorts of things, then several times, either of us (ok, usually me) would interrupt the conversion to say WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT???
I got no photos of the leaves, nor of the fog.
But, as you can see, I did get photos of some of the most excellent bakery goods that the talented parishoners of St. John's Church created for their bake sale, held post-race. I hope they made a killing. What a great idea, especially at a fall race, when it's brisk outside. They should've had hot mulled cider for sale, as well!
They did have apple jelly and apple butter for sale, but neither of us bought any because we each
won a jar via the race-number raffle. What a day!
Oh, the race. It, too, greatly contributed to the good morning. Tough! Like the Sound-to-Narrows that I ran in June, the entire first mile (and then some) was a long gentle downhill on blacktop. And, like during that race, I also got a nasty sidestitch because of it. Luckily via breathing exercises and willpower it went away by the time I entered the park.
Within the
Big Woods, the trail was mostly flat, sometimes rugged, always covered with wet leaves. It offered a few fine opportunities to turn an ankle but thankfully both of mine are made of rubber (rubber that will appreciate some ice, here, soon). It wound around in seeming circles, here and there joining with the half-marathon and 5k courses. The fog still lingered, with a stray leaf falling, now and then.
I passed several people in the middle miles, though a few passed me (were they the same people? Maybe a few) during the last 1 mile stretch back up that blacktop. What a nasty last stretch it was! I don't know if it was the pavement, or the headwind, or what, but it was pretty hard. Normally I eat up gentle uphills like that, but ooof, it was a challenge.
Perhaps I was just spent! Some of my early mile splits were darn fast (hence the sideache in mile 1). I haven't seen the official results, but I believe I finished in 52 minutes. A little over an eight and a half minute mile is pretty speedy for me, for a race that was 2/3 on trail.
Kyle and I drove home, with our faith in rural Minnesota invigorated. Yay for the outdoors, and yay for church ladies.
Labels: running
this is pokey
Above is one of the marvelous plants in my brother and sister-in-law's backyard, in Phoenix: an ocotillo. In spring, evidently, it looks much more alive (that orange bloom that is using one of its thorns as a hat-rack is from the flowering plant that sits next to it). Here, it's sporting more of a glass sculpture look.
I spent this weekend in Phoenix; I'd read a good review of an area trail race in
a magazine a few months ago, so picked this weekend to visit my brother so that I could do the race. The timing worked out well (3 weeks after my half-marathon trail race), and I love desert scenery; it's so beautiful and fascinating. The
Coyotes' season opener was also a great reason to be in town, as well.
The
Cactus ChaCha was a lot of fun! It took us over pretty rugged terrain, but I did the 7-mile run in 1hr 6 minutes, which is faster than my usual trail pace. The weather was perfect: a little chilly, just at the start, so I was glad to be wearing a long-sleeve technical t-shirt.
I'd only done one trail run before -a half-marathon- which did not use timing chips, so I was a little surprised to receive one at the packet pickup. The nice thing about using timing chip technology at a trail race is that it can decrease the funnel effect at the point where the trail inevitably narrows to single-track width, near the start. This proved to be true, to an extent. And it may have accounted for the speed-racer woman that flew by me at mile five. There the h*** did she come from? The porta-potty behind the start line?
She didn't bother me, no, not much at all. I kept a pretty swift clip, and passed people now and then. This, even through some of the rocky gullies that illustrated, for me, why the race is called the cha-cha: the light-on-your toes sort of dance technique of going downhill is what you have to do, in order to keep from rolling an ankle over a rock. You also have to do a little cactus-dodging. This kept my leg turnover pretty high, although surprisingly my HR didn't get much above 162 or so. I've seen it get to 171 during road races.
There were a few rather steep hills that I wisely chose to ski-walk up, but most of the gently-rolling hills allowed for a somewhat steady running pace. Now and then some sandy areas made it interesting. However, the course wound its way a bit up
the White Tanks Mountains (I was worried that it would go all the way up, but that didn't seem feasible for a mere 7-mile race). This made for a rather sustained climb, about halfway through the race, but it eased off soon enough. The terrain was such a tease.
This was a very well-run race! Plenty of water, plus medical support at the four (or five?) aid stations. The wind had blown down many of the trail- and mile-markers, but as there was only one trail, I wasn't likely to get lost (yay!). There were "breakfast burritos" as post-race food, in addition to bananas, great (pumpkin chocolate-chip!) muffins, chips & salsa, gatorade, etc. Music, fun raffle prizes. Class act. My mom was there with me, so I had a cheering section; she claims to have had a good time people-watching while I ran around among the saguaro. And she got a burrito, after the race, too.
I think there were maybe 300 people running the 7 mile race, and nearly 200 doing the 3-miler.
I came in 22 out of 121 women, in the 7-miler. I didn't expect to place, but the field in a trail race sure is different than in a road race. Those rare folk that do it, tend to be pretty competitive, or so it seems at this shorter distance.
I may do this one again; October is a fine time to visit Phoenix, even if there aren't yet spring-training baseball games.
Labels: running
out in it
I have simply GOT to get a phone with a camera in it. All this trail running I've been doing, and no fabulous photos to show for it - my smallest camera is too large, and if I'm going to bother carrying small electronics, said electronics had better involve telephony.
The beastie above was in my garden a few weeks ago. I wish the photo were of some of the sights on last Saturday's run in
Lebanon Hills park. It was an amazing fall day- colorful trees, dappled light, still plenty of grasshoppers tickling my legs, leaves crunching under my feet, and an almost perfect temperature.
Here's the discovery I really wanted to capture: I'm running along one of the grassier, wetter parts of the park, and see in front of me what appear to be two whiffle balls, sitting right together smack dab in the middle of the fire road-width trail. Weird. But families with kids do come through here quite often; maybe these toys just got forgotten. I pass them. They don't have holes, like normal whiffle balls. And one's a little bigger than the other. Odd. I stop dead in my tracks, walk back. Poke at one, softly, because I'm now thinking they are puffball mushrooms. The move like a large button mushroom would move. Somewhat firm, but they don't seems to contract to my touch. So, maybe they're not of the puffball variety, but wow. Huge mushrooms, in the middle of a trail. Clearly no dog has been here lately.
It's such a nice, big park. Thankfully, a while ago I gave up on the business of trying to count miles on trail runs, and a trail run is now simply, beautifully, a fun hour or two of exploring. After a few failed attempts to follow "recommended" routes from
Kate Havelin's book, I determined that either a) she and I navigate using entirely different methods, or b) she confuses the reader on purpose, in order to force him/her to just enjoy the time on the trail.
Whatever the conversion method, it worked: It's a lot more enjoyable to just decide on how many minutes I want to run, using a rough estimate of my pace, and then stopping when I reach that goal time. I never know where I'll be! However, I may have to revise this plan, should I continue trail running, this winter. In warm weather, I don't mind walking even up to an hour, to get back to my car, but in the winter, when I may get chilled during the walk back. I may have to do a little more careful planning, in terms of my route, and in terms of clothing.
That can wait, a week or two. I'm off to Phoenix for a trail race, this weekend. I don't have to put away the sunscreen, just yet!
Labels: nature, running
"...likely god's favorite breakfast food..."
Popovers are indeed the perfect combination of crispy and eggy-gooey textures. Their transformation from a placid yellow liquid batter to a golden, drunken minaret is a joy to the eyes. Plus, they are finger food!
Axel's in Mendota brings a neverending stream of them to your table - and then gives you a bag of what's left in the basket, when you leave. Sadly, that's all that's memorable to me, of the food there, and while popovers make a great breakfast, for dinner we usually need more than bread. So, home cooking was in the cards, for last night.
These made for a most excellent starchy side, to the grilled chicken-and-red-pepper on the menu. I'd never made popovers before, but yesterday I got a craving for them, so I dug up & printed
a Cooking Light recipe for them online, before heading home. The one type of baking pan I don't own is a popover pan, but the muffin tin subbed in quite valiantly. They turned out pretty impressively. Per the recipe's advice, I did not open the oven door to peek -but I swear they were taller, about 25 minutes into it, so I was a tiny bit disappointed at what I saw at 40 minutes. I suppose that was just part of the show -or maybe I need to clean my oven window. I ate two last night, and one today. Steve's consumed at least four by now.
Humorously, one of the reader comments on the recipe was that the results were too bland. This is reliably true for many CL recipes, but it's a ridiculous comment for popovers. That's what fig jam is for! Or jalapeno jelly!
Thanks, Mark, for the quote, above. So true- and you're in the land of the brioche!!
