Day 59: Bikram Yoga Challenge - Am I really almost done?

From Butterflies, FTW

I might be a little high on the yoga, I just used a Muhammed Ali quote to describe yoga.

I'm just one day from finishing my challenge! So far I have completed 66 classes in 59 days. YEA! It's been an amazing journey, I'm glad it's coming to an end too.

Today I took the 6:30 pm class after a fun day with a friend in Fort Worth and the really cool butterfly exhibit at the FT Worth Botanical Gardens. There were beautiful butterflies fluttering around everywhere but the prettiest ones had iridescent blue all over its back and really interesting patterns on the inside of its wings.

Makes me think if Muhammed Ali's famous quote, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Which I am sure he never thought would be used by a yogi to get motivated for class. Am I'm sure I don't use the quote in quote the same manner as Muhammed Ali, I mean, we aren't moving around in class and hitting people! But the quote to me makes me think of awareness and focus. Right? Neither a butterfly nor a bee can do what they do without proper focus and awareness of themselves as well as their surroundings, otherwise, butterflies would probably fly into things and bees would sting the wrong thing.

Ok, maybe it is a stretch....but it's yoga and we stretch...so it's ok. :)  Focus and awareness are two main things in yoga, at least in Bikram Yoga that are necessary to improve ones practice. You have to focus on yourself and the task at hand, be it locking the knee, kicking the leg, bending the spine or whatever, you have to focus and dedicate your attention to that moment. Full awareness of yourself, where your body is that day and what you need to work on, not what your neighbor is doing is also extremely important. If you aren't fully aware of yourself and your body, that is when injuries occur or as in my case, you end up in the wrong posture because you mind is in lala land.

So maybe yogis are both butterflies and bees...(I might be a little delirious from all the yoga.)

Day 57: Bikram Yoga Challenge - Yoga is for Runners, thus the Bike Run YOGA! :D

After 8 days of doubles, taking one class today should have seemed like a breeze right? WRONG! EVERY class is hard. EVERY class is a struggle. And EVERY class is worth it tenfold. Today's class was hot, duh....and really sweaty! I took the 4:00 pm class and really felt strong and flexible in the poses.

We had the studio open house today so there were a lot of new students taking classes. During the day classes I helped out at the studio and lots of new students seemed to be runners and were asking how yoga was with running.

How is it? Wonderful! I just started running last year and early on I realized the muscle benefits of yoga for runners. Lots of runners I know have had issues with IT bands, knees, calves, shin splints, etc. And almost all of those people have never taken a yoga class or really stretched. I truly feel my yoga practice initially helped prevent me from getting injuries because I stretched my muscles in yoga. It continues to help me stay in shape for my races, since I don't actually train for races, and it helps prevent me from getting injuries, which frankly, I should be more prone to since I don't properly train.

After every race, I like to go to a yoga class to help stretch back out whatever gets tightened from running. I totally feel it too. I notice it the most in Hands to Feet Pose and Fixed Firm Pose.

At one point last year during my training I did have some pain in my knees, from talking to my personal trainer I knew it was not really my knees, it was because the muscles that connect to the knee were so knotted up. I used a foam roller to loosen up the muscles but even after that I could tell I was still very tight because I couldn't bring my knees together anymore in Fix Firm Pose.

Now after every race, Fixed Firm Pose feels different than other days and I can feel a tremendous stretch from my knees, through my inner thighs. Which tells me running tights these muscles and yoga stretches them....and stretched muscles for me means less pain in my legs. (Happy legs = Happy Carolyn)

Fixed Firm Pose is where you sit with your knees bent, sitting on your heels. You then separate your feet and sit your hips between your heels. Grab your heels with your hands, thumbs outside, fingers inside and drop your elbows down on the floor. Then touch your head on the floor, arch your back and bring your arms over your head, grabbing you elbows. 

Yoga isn't just good for the muscles and flexibility, it is also great for learning how to breathe. Before I started really paying attention to breathing, I would take short breaths and end up getting winded very quickly. Running to me is partly about strength in the legs but also strength in the lungs. When I run and I feel exhausted, I just start breathing like we do in yoga, long, slow breaths, inhaling as much as possible slowly. It is really amazing, I just did this when I ran the Butterfly Boogie and it really helped me set my best time ever for a 5K. It's a work in progress for sure, I don't get it right all the time, running or inside the yoga room. There are still times I get so exhausted I think I am going to pass out but those times are getting fewer and fewer.

So for all you runners out there, try some yoga. Pay attention to the breathing while you are stretching your muscles and see if some yoga breathing doesn't help you in your next run.

Namaste.

How is a Single Person Suppose to Use a BOGO Free Coupon?

I was so excited to get Jamba Juice coupons today at the Butterfly Boogie race, I love Jamba Juice! However, upon closer look, I think they are discriminating against single people! "Buy One Get One Free" How the heck am I suppose to use this coupon? LOL Where the heck are the single people coupons?

This is also why I don't buy coupon books anymore, they almost always are BOGO offers or discounts on two meals. Whatever...

I am still hoping someone will come up with a way to have a food warehouse for single people, I don't need 500 rolls of toilet paper or 6 pounds of chicken either. 

Thanks Jamba Juice, you not only have enticed me to come back and get a smoothie, you have forced me to be social and meet someone else that likes Jamba Juice! Anyone want to go with me? :)

I Boogied the Butterfly Boogie 5K!

My new BFF, Exit 1B, and I had a little rendezvous today for the Butterfly Boogie 5K. Apparently everything "cool" is off exit 1B in Dallas. I just recently found this out or I might have looked for a place over there when I moved to Dallas. Whatever, now exit 1B and I are good friends, we see each other often...on my way to see my OTHER friends! Jessica, Dave and Chris ran the 5K with me and Kelly and Doug were ambitious and ran the 10K! It was a great race, perfect weather and a great course and to top it off, I set a PR(Personal Record) for a 5K race, 32:55!

I decided when I picked up my race packet at Luke's Locker a few days ago I wanted some running tights, I've wanted some since my first race this year when I froze to death and was talked out of them because "it will get warmer." There was a $10 off coupon in my race stuff so it was the perfect time to pick up a pair, if they still had some. I not only got some great running tights by CW-X (Women's Pro Tight), I got some Nathan arm warmers too.



I'm so glad I had both too! It was cold waiting around for the race. I'm use to 105 degrees on a yoga room so 50's feel very cold. And the arm warmers were perfect, during the race, I just took them off when I got hot and tucked them into my tights, so much better than wearing a jacket.

Course Map

The race was really a nice race. The course started at Reverchon Park, went along Turtle Creek and then the Katy Trail, ending back at Reverchon Park. I started off strong and felt good the whole race, at the one mile point I was at 10:47, at mile 2 I was at 21:42, at that point I knew I could get a really good time for the race. At about the 2.5 mile point we hopped on Katy Trail and I knew it would be smooth sailing form there, Katy Trail is all flat. The part of Katy Trail we ran today I had run before so I felt a little more comfortable with the course than when I ran basically the same area for the White Rock Half Marathon.

I kept looking at my watch from about 25 minutes until I finished, just trying to focus on 1 minute at a time. Then I thought I heard a beep from a police car but of course it must be a motorcycle. Weird I think...I wonder if someone hurt themselves on the trail. The beeping gets closer. Then I start thinking, oh crap, I am so slow this is the sweeper! How embarrassing! So I of course speed up. I see ahead of mea guy ahead waving people to the side at the same time watching a police motorcycle drive slowly by me. Then I see a runner behind the motorcycle and realize the finisher of the 10K is RIGHT NEXT to me, nope, now he is past me....and there he goes....into the finish line.

My last .2 or some kilometers I had to run knowing someone had just run the 10K faster than me, great. Had I known that beeping was the 10K lead person, I would have made more of an effort to finish before him! :D At any rate, I finish in record time, 32:55, which is the fastest I've ever run a 5K so I am darn happy. It's a good building block to my uh, training, yea, training for the America's Run in a few weeks in Arlington. Yes, I might actually run again before then, I need to improve at least a little on my half marathon time. :)

Now I am off to yoga to stretch out all the muscles I just tightened up running, the two are yen and yang. 

The Gang at Bread Winners after the race.