The blatant crash of Autumn

So Fall is here. It's made its presence known with unseasonably cold temperatures, rainy weather, and gray skies. I was hoping Indian Summer would appear this weekend for the last sailing of the summer, but due to the forecast, the season has basically been scratched other than a couple of more education sails and the trip up to Haverstraw on Sunday through Tuesday. I'm doing the transit and the programs on Monday. It's going to be cold and rainy, and most likely miserable. It's the last chance for sailing this season though, so I'll take it. Hopefully Monday will be sunny, or at least dry. Highs are only forecast for the mid 50's though.

Turn to is 0600 on Sunday, so practicing yoga on that day is shot. Monday, I'll do it once I get home - I doubt I'll be able to get to the studio in time for even the last class at 8PM.

Here's the wrap up of the rest of the week though.

DAY 15
Officially half way there! There is a meeting for all challenge participants on Monday at 6:30, but unfortunately I won't be able to make it. Thursday was the first of the cold raw days. I planned to go to the 7:45PM Stretch/Restorative class. Once I got home after work, it took all I could muster to leave the house again. I grabbed my rain gear and headed out before I could change my mind.

The instructor wanted us to concentrate on being instead of doing. Nothing should be a strain, everything should be with minimum effort. In that way, I succeeded.

DAY 16
I got up in the morning and made a list of things to do on my day off:

• Tennis
• Yoga
• Drugstore
• Pick up food for Salem
• Pick up medical films
• Clean my desk (way overdue)
• Hang second window shade (again, way overdue. Hung the first one back in August).

Getting all my errands done for the week is a great benefit of the extra day off.

Tennis was a bit optimistic. It had rained the day before, but the streets were starting to dry. I texted Elena to tell her I was heading to the courts. Once I got there and looked at the courts. They were still soaked and covered in leaves. No tennis.

Yoga's a bit easier to predict. I went to the 12:30 open class. This week I've gone to mostly stretch or restorative classes, so it was good to get to a more vigorous class. The class (like most vinyasa classes) concentrated on variations for sun salutations, but then we moved on to inversions. Those are a challenge. The order the instructor wanted us to do them in: headstand, handstand, forearm stand.

I start out with the headstand. I've been working on the preparation of each of these poses. No matter how much upper body strength you think you have, this is really tested when you need to rely on these muscle groups to hold your body up. For all these poses, its best to start by doing them against a wall so that there is something to stop the momentum of your legs. It also helps with balance. I was able set up for the headstand on the floor (see diagram), and was able to kick one leg up to the wall. I'm not able to stay in the pose yet.

The handstand was next. One of the preparation methods is to do the pose in an "L" position, with your hands on the mat, and your legs perpendicular to the wall. This is harder than it looks. The instructor helped me into this pose by standing behind me with her knees pressing into my shoulders to help me stay up. This pose is also hard due to the muscles in the backs of my legs being really tight also. But I was able to stay up for about 20 seconds. It's a start.

I was also able to get into the crow pose for the first time. That feels like a real accomplishment.

After yoga, I headed over to Diagnostic Radiology Associates to pick up some films in preparation for a mamogram next week. My first one was two years ago, so my doctor figured it was time for another one, especially since I turned 40 this year. October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, seems like a good time for one. They are strange ghost-like images, similar to sonograms and catscans. I don't understand them, but I glad some people are trained to.