If You're Happy and You Know It, Touch Your Toes

I took for granted being able to touch my toes until I couldn't touch them anymore. Baptiste yoga has a lot of sun salutations and I got quite familiar with my shins. There was very little difference between my forward fold and my half forward fold, but at least I was able to show up to yoga class.

My precalculus class conflicted with my Monday night yoga class at Dancing Dogs Yoga, but last night I was able to return for Zach's class. His class is my favorite. Miracle of miracles, I could touch my toes. I could forward fold and touch the mat. I could jump back into plank for chaturanga. I was even able to flip my dog and hold a side plank. And then I did a wheel.

Maybe my consistent hard work and dedication to healing has paid off. Maybe it was my new cork B Mat yoga mat. It gets grippy when you sweat on it, making it perfect for sweaty hot yoga.

I don't think my back is magically cured. I still feel it several times a day and I make sure to ice it before bed. I've started to sleep with a pillow between my knees because I am a side-sleeper and I've noticed a difference in my posture since I started doing that. Regular movement from walking to class, spinning at Rukus, and yin yoga has been helpful. I started Be Better group training with Sarah Furman last week and we are focusing on our posterior chain. Taking time off from lifting was needed but I think just 2 days a week has already been beneficial.

New yoga mat feels.

Dancing Dogs Yoga now has yin yoga on Sundays with Alex. I highly recommend Alex's class because I love yin yoga and she's a lot of fun to be around. Yin yoga has you hold poses for 2+ minutes with the assistance of props. I find lying on a bolster in half pigeon to be a great way to cap off a weekend, and it doesn't hurt that I usually head over to Superica for a margarita on the way home.

Dancing Dogs Yoga

This summer I have enjoyed going to Dancing Dogs Yoga, a Baptiste yoga affiliate studio located on the Beltline at Studioplex Alley. A few years ago, I was on a business trip in Saratoga Springs and the meeting ran over (what's new), forcing me to miss my Bikram yoga class. The studio offered to let me attend the Baptiste class instead and I fell in love with the practice. Now I live a 10 minute walk away from a fantastic Baptiste studio and I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.

I started off by signing up for the unlimited intro month and then signed up for the Yoga 101 series. I HIGHLY recommend taking this workshop. It meets every Wednesday night for five weeks. Steffi breaks down the components of the practice and teaches you so much in such a short amount of time. I think it's helpful for anyone interested in Baptiste yoga, even if you've been practicing for a minute. So many things clicked for me for the first time during those sessions. You can get the series plus unlimited yoga for $75, or $50 for just the series.

Today was the first day I was in the studio since July. Even though I woke up feeling stiff with a sore back (possibly because I fell asleep on the couch binge watching Veronica Mars season 3 yesterday), I realized that I had so much more strength and mobility now than I did in June and early July. This gives me so much hope that I am finally on the right track for a full recovery.

School starts on August 26 and I plan to attend DDY every Monday evening. My favorite instructor Zach teaches the Monday 7:45 PM class. Other teachers I really enjoy include Shelley, Shannen, and Steffi.

DDY offers both class packs and memberships. You get a significant discount if you join before your intro month or Yoga 101 ends. I bought a 20 class pack at 20%, giving me a $60 savings.

Knowing Science Stuff is Neat

This morning I woke up and decided it wasn't a good day for me to go to CrossFit. I was sore from yesterday's Strongman training and I burned my finger cooking last night. Heavy hang cleans were probably not going to help me feel better. I'm trying to remember that exercise is fun and that I enjoy it and no one makes me go to the gym, and I can take a day off when I want. I got a little restless by noon and decided to go for an easy run on the Beltline.

New Year, Same Me, Hopefully Some More Posts

It's 2019! I am excited for a new year and a new semester, but I am even more excited that I woke up this morning well-rested. I have had the worst cold since Friday. I've basically been in bed for days, and it was a legit struggle to stay awake at dinner last night. I spent my New Year's Eve exactly how I wanted to spend it - having dinner with my best friend - and then I was home and in bed with the pups by 10 PM. I just wish this cough and the rain would finally stop!

No hangover for this girl this morning.

Be Hot Yoga

I have spent the month of April going to Be Hot Yoga on Ponce De Leon Place, which is right off of the Beltline near Ponce City Market. It's a super close walk for me and right near the doggie daycare Frank and Daisy Mae go to. (It's called Spot for Dogs and we HIGHLY recommend it.)

I've been thinking about getting back into Bikram yoga for a while. I've been to a few different studios in NY and Houston, but I've never had a regular practice. The boyfriend has been doing Bikram for 7 years, and whenever I say I can't sleep or feel stressed or pretty much anything at all, he tells me that yoga and juicing would fix that. (I'm 99% sure he's not a dirty hippy.) Turns out that Bikram makes me wide awake and I haven't been able to fall asleep after any of the evening classes. Oops.

The nearest Bikram studio is in Marietta and I am not about that OTP life unless it means Chinese food. Be Hot Yoga is right down the Beltline from my apartment and most classes follow the traditional series of 26 postures, although some are combined to meet the 75 minute class format. Some instructors take some artistic license with the series. More about that later.

A Grey Run

Today I decided to go for a run after church. I figured a quick jaunt down the Beltline would get me the steps I needed to complete my weekly Pact, and perhaps I could convince the boyfriend to leave his cave apartment for food. He and I came down with terrible colds. Thankfully I appear to getting well faster.

Run, run, stop for coffee at Inman Perk. 

The patient was somewhat better and agreed to go to Ladybird for lunch. It's no Waffle House, but the food is pretty good. I tried to drink a glass of pinot grigio and didn't even want it. Send help because I'm clearly dying.

The boyfriend let me borrow his coat for my walk home. No way was I running after that brisket potato chorizo hash egg scramble. I enjoyed a leisurely stroll and took some photos, including this accidental shot of my face.

There's new art everywhere.

Paris on Ponce never disappoints. This is no filter. Grey day, pink ombre paint job, random gorilla in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

First Long Run in About 2 Years

I signed up to run a Hotlanta Half course preview last Saturday. I figured it was a great way to get myself to complete a long run. I got a little nervous as Saturday approached; I hadn't run 10 miles since I completed my last half marathon on November 8, 2014.

So I wake up at 5:45 AM on Saturday in an attempt to kind of recreate race day conditions. I needed to leave the house between 6:45 AM and 7 AM to make it to Big Peach Running Co. on time. Back before I had two dogs, I would have been able to wake up at 6:40 AM and make it out the door on time. Now I dragging two dachshunds around in the dark asking them to go potty. After the troops were pooped, fed, and watered, I ate some raspberries and drank a protein shake. Then I neurotically peed a few times and headed on my way.

The Big Peach's midtown location is 1.8 miles away from my house. I ran/jogged/walked over there and sadly my GPS didn't pick up. I didn't realize I didn't connect to the satellites until a mile into the group run. We started and ended in the same location, but Garmin shows the start as somewhere near Georgia Tech's campus. The nice thing about the Garmin Forerunner 630 is that it continues to track your mileage without the GPS, unlike my 305. I lost so many miles to that damn thing.

Sunday Run

Frank and I flew back to Atlanta yesterday and got home a little before 2 PM. It was good to be back home and we spent some quality time on the couch. I knew I wasn't going to hit my step goal by lying on the couch and was facing a $10 fee for my Pact app if I didn't get moving, so I went for a quick run on the Beltline at 6 PM. The nice thing about living this far west is that the sun still sets at 7 PM this late into the fall.

Atlanta, I love you.

Thoughts on Love During a Long Run

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (Corinthians 13:4-7)

Today I ran the long run I skipped last Friday in favor of watching The Young and the Restless in bed with my dog. Spectacular idea at the time and I felt pretty good on my run today. I had 8 miles to cover before my Pure Barre class at noon. I left a little bit after 9:30 AM and headed south on the Eastside Beltline Trail.

I had to run 4 more miles after the Beltline so I hit up Piedmont Park