Back in the Game!!

I tried the Barney Stinson approach to illness, which is: "Whenever I start feeling sick, I just stop being sick and be awesome instead. True story." It didn't really work.

But today I was awesome! I was a rock star! Well, a drug addicted rock star who comes on stage all amped up, sings through the songs too fast, and nearly passes out halfway through the show. I started out great! I could breathe! And I rocked Half Moon and the back bend - best ever!

Then I did ok at some other things. Still working on balancing and locking my leg out without hyper-extending my knee. I had a few fantastic seconds of Standing Bow where I actually "got" the posture. Somehow it finally clicked, "Oh, right, kick UP and back." I feel like I've been mostly kicking back and trying to pull my leg up.

And then came standing separate leg Forehead to Knee. I won't lie, I was a little afraid of this pose after doing it sick. But I was ready to push through until my face started tingling and I realized my breath was nowhere near controlled. So I sat down. I realized I had limits and took a few moments to catch my breath, then jumped back in for the second set.

Which brings us back to the drug addicted rock star. During this plague I suffered through, sudafed and mucinex became my bestest friends. And since I was going to be doing a lot of breathing tonight, I decided not to give up on my friends just yet, and took a sudafed about an hour and a half before class. It did not dry out my nose as hoped, but my throat was like the desert. And then the hearburn! I'm assuming it was caused by the sudafed. A few weeks ago, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, I took Midol before class and then suffered the WORST HEARTBURN EVER. Even worse than that time I had a frozen burrito for lunch before class. So here's a lesson for you:

DON'T TAKE DRUGS BEFORE YOGA.

That probably shouldn't have been a lesson that took me so long to learn. Let the hot room and the humidity and the yoga do their jobs. Let them stretch out those cramps. Let them clear out your nasal passages. Know your limits. If you're not well enough to go to class - then don't go. Take a day off and get back to the studio when you feel up to it. Otherwise, you're going to be trying to get through the spine strengthening series without throwing up.

Even through I tried to cheat, the yoga definitely worked! I felt energized and able to breathe at the end of class! I was really worried about the time I took away from yoga to recuperate and how I might be starting back at the beginning. That's definitely not the case. Yes, there were things I struggled with tonight, but there were many times where I felt like I was picking up right where I left off.

Day 6 - Vinyasa!!

I had a rough time getting out of bed this morning. I was just tired. It was hard to shake this feeling all day - especially since looming ahead me was the dreaded Vinyasa.

Shhhh - I'll tell you secret: I took a Vinyasa class in college and I hated this class so much that I hated all yoga until I met Vicki. And over the years she slowly convinced that trying Bikram might not be so bad. I took a different Vinyasa class as well, and it just moved too quickly and I didn't know what all the positions were, so I just tried to muscle my way through and often failed. I didn't like that class much either. But I still liked the Bikram series, so I stuck with that.

This is all to tell you that Kate's Vinyasa class at Hart Yoga was nothing like those classes I hated. Yes, it was challenging. Yes, there were things I couldn't do. But I left the class feeling good about myself, and I wouldn't mind going back for more :) I was a little worried when the first pose we did was child's pose, and it kind of hurt a lot, but that was just some soreness I needed to stretch out from the past week!

I'm generally very aware that I have limitations, and even though I could hear Kate saying I didn't have to do a certain series, I thought to myself, "I can keep doing this, I can slowly lower down from plank..." Nope, couldn't. Instead I just fell to the floor. And made Kate laugh. That's the second time in two days I've made the instructor laugh - I hope that's a good thing! I've mentioned before that instead of arms I have freakishly long limp noodles hanging next to me. It's pretty convenient for flexibility purposes, but not so much for holding myself up. Arm strength - definitely something I can work on!

My hips are ridiculously tight. It seems like the more I try to relax and stretch them, the tighter they feel. But it's only week one and I have a loooong way to go!

It's hard to look back on class and find something that was "best" or something I struggled with more than others. It was all pretty new to me. But I had a good time and just about every muscle in my body hurts now! It's difficult not to have a good time when Kate is so cheerful and easy to get along with :D