YTT wekend 2

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Big breath in and let it out. Reach up. Fold. Halfway lift. Fold. Arms all the way up. Hands to heart. Breathe. Over and over til my shoulders ache and creak. How's the yoga stuff going? You like it? Questions I struggle to anwser, so give a brief and enthusiastic yes. Time away from my family means time at the studio with strangers who are quickly starting to feel like family. High highs and fierce anasana's accompanied with nerves and fears of unknown and not knowing. There is no control. Get used to it. Be comfortable. Let it all go. Describe it, I can't. I'm doing it. Working at it. Breathing through it.

Weekend 1 complete

I am not sure where to begin. Overwhelming is certainly true in all aspects - physically I was pushed close to my limits, we hit a point where I stopped counting hours of practice b/c I couldn't keep it straight. A little Real Worldish - 20 yogi's placed in a room and we'll see what happens when people stop being polite. Information. So much information. My brain hurt as much as my abs by the end. Emotionally it was tough - I'm rarely away from my family for longer than a handful of hours and never for days in a row, I learned very quickly that they are my life force and when I'm away for days at a time it hurts. Guilt. Lots of it. Shit comes up on your mat. It just does and it did this weekend. Use the breath. Ego checked hard when I struggled with student teaching. Loving acceptance and instant forgiveness. It's all a learning curve. Powerful - Oh man, hitting my own unexpected walls. Watching others hit and overcome their walls. Amazing, simply amazing. Arm balances. Holding crow for 3 breaths for the first time. Ever. Attempting other crazy shit and laughing when we fell. Pride. We were all there. Starting something real together. Achieving something together. Dirty - 21 hours in a hot yoga studio with 20 other yogi's. Enough said. I can see how this experience has the potential to be transformative. I can also see where I'll be tested. 1 down, 7 to go.

And it begins, WSPY Teacher Training

Teacher training starts in a little under 4 hours. Am I ready? Not quite but given this is the first nap for my 3 year old in months I'm allowed to goof off a little rather than deal with the mountain of chores I should tackle including packing a bag. This blog has covered everything from running to tri training to pregnancy to motherhood and god only knows what else. For the next 15 weeks I expect it - and most other aspects of my life - to revolve around yoga. 9 of the next 15 weekends will be spent in the studio in training. I'll share my experiences and thoughts along the way. I'll admit to some butterflies going in, I'm not sure what to expect. Not sure what we'll be doing, who I'll be doing it with and what the final product will feel like. Doesn't help that the list with what to bring included pain relievers!!! I need this though, in so many ways. Time away from my life, my phone, diapers...all of it. Nap time is ending so that's all for now. I'll keep you posted along the way! Ran for an hour this morning

Knees, stupid knees

So my knee hurts. Not sure why, haven't changed much or amped anything up. Lets compare today's reaction to maybe 5 years ago with no kids. 5 years ago: I would have likely already taken a week or so off of running. Likely would be hitting the spin bike hard. Would have already arranged for PT eval and would have signed up for every other day sessions for the next 6 weeks. My entire list of running friends would have been consulted for their diagnosis. Coaches would have been emailed, maybe even a podiatry appt scheduled to have my inserts tweaked. Today: I've ignored it for the last week. Keep toying with taking time off but since running is not only by stress reliever but also my main form of socialization I keep going out. Today I actually thought about taking a spin class and realized that I can't do that with my crew of little one's so packed up and headed out for a run with the beast. No time for PT, nor am I interested in the co-pays that would accompany those sessions. Haven't texted about it, my phone is full of babysitting related messages. As I type I have a frozen cookie monster boo-boo buddy on it and this would be the first time I've iced it. What's my plan you ask? I'll probably keep running til it gets worse or goes away. Oddly enough it doesn't hurt during or immediately after, so who knows. I thought about blaming aging but then I remembered that I'm only 29 as my son insisted that I was really in my 50's. Ran 3 miles today

Who has time for this??

Blog? Oh that's right, once upon a time I blogged with a bit more regularity. My excuse? There is the baby who is up like clockwork at 5:30am, really 4:30 but I refuse to go in that early. I lay there and pretend to sleep until she threatens to wake up the boy then I scoot as fast as possible to scoop her up and silence the alarm. Then there is the boy. Oh the boy. Lets just say that nursery school starts in 2 weeks and it can't come soon enough. I love him, I really do, but we need some space...time to miss each other. Joking aside, life is a whirlwind. I can't tell you if I'm coming or going. Every week starts and I wonder how we will survive and then before I know it we are celebrating suriving yet another week. My sense is this is life now and we just have to get used to it. Running? Yes, I'm running. It varies week to week, no training plan but I aim for 3 week day runs and usually hit them all with distances in the 4-6 mile range. Add to that a weekend "long run" which has been anything btw 5-7 miles. I should go longer but need beach season to end. Um, also we are owed a round of applause. Not only am I runing with pretty good regularity but Joe is getting out there as well. Yes, you read it right...2 kids and we are both running! Difficult feat but we are pleased with some small tangible baby steps. What's that? When am I going to come up with a training plan for that spring marathon I keep hinting about? Patience please, I need to get in a few 10 milers before I feel like I can commit. Yoga is going strong, 3ish classes a week. 2 weeks before that training takes over my life and I think I'm underestimating the impact it will have. Ignorance is bliss right? Ran 3.5 miles today

200 YTT...here goes nothing

I'm gearing up for my 200 hour teacher training program at Wayland Square Power Yoga. I feel like this has been something on the to do list for a number of years and the fact that it's finally going to come to fruition is a little wild. There have been any number of reasons why I didn't do it sooner and the story as to how I ended up with this program is one for another day. Regardless, here I sit with a month to go and a world of doubts. I mean really, I signed up for a program that requires my total attention 8 full weekends over 14 weeks while trying to manage 2 small kids?? We are the definition of a hot mess at our house, all of us! So then why am I doing this? For the last year and a half I've been introducing yoga to kids and love it. This certification will allow me to continue with this work and also expand to working adults and older adolescents. Going in and introducing kids who have never experienced yoga and watching it click for them is something else. Listening to them tell me that they taught their parents and siblings the breathing exercises is really what this is all about. Seeing kids develop a healthy sense of self and grow in confidence week to week gives me a sense of fulfillment that is hard to find elsewhere in the professional world. Most importantly I'm at a crazy time in my own life. I need yoga now more than ever, the quiet, the focus, the clarity, all of it. So I can't do handstand and my sandskrit pronunciation is laughable at best but yoga is about expanding personal boundaries and testing limits so here goes nothing.

Save the Bay Recap and what's next

Fail on my part, Save the Bay was over a week ago now and I've been absent. No worries! It was amazing, great event. One that is already penciled in for a repeat performance next year. So it's hard to recap a swim event, unlike running once you get swimming things zone out. Morning of was nothing but laughs, ball busting, and photo-ops with friends. No nerves, just smiles all around. I knew I had put in the work, joking aside there was no question that the day would go without issue. Hardest part was at start of swim trying to hook up with my trusty kayaker. Once we found each other, or lets be honest she found me (I had given up and was ready to bandit with someone else's kayak) I just started to swim. The water was like glass, easy breezy. Yes there were jellies, yes there were other creepie-crawlies and they only made me swim faster. I started to get cranky about 3/4 of the way through and thankfully that's when Melissa started to get more excited. With running you get cranky and slow your pace maybe walk a bit, with this I would sputter a bit and just keep swimming. Nothing else was going to get me out of there. Official time was 1:11:03, just 1 minute over my estimated time. Forgot my garmin, but a friend clocked in at 1.9 miles so who knows how far I actually went. This might go down in the books as an annual event. I've been a bit bummed ever since finishing, it was one of those events where I really loved not only the lead up to but the day itself. So what is next? Too be honest I'm not sure. Had toyed around with a spring marathon but not sure I want to go there just yet. I'm running 3-4 times a week and never more than 6 and having a good time with it. I've been accepted to a yoga teacher training program and that starts in Sept!!! Every time I think about this I get excited and queasy all at once, it's going to be wild! I have to get my personal practice in gear, both at home and in the studio. So far doing well with 2-3 classes a week, the home practice is a work in progress. More on the yoga in another post, I have a lot to say and am still formulating it all. I don't know if I can do that and marathon training, at least not without Joe threatening to leave me. And I will sheepishly admit to not swimming a stroke since Save the Bay, ah well, happens to the best of us! 1 hour of yoga today