Yoga Continued

Lots of stuff going on this week, but I continued on with the challenge somewhat successfully. I'm not hitting every single day, but I figure that its not exactly part of the practice to get angry at myself for not doing it every day. Its a challenge not a commandment. Days where I did not meet the challenge are in red.

DAY 8
No yoga. Again, didn't quite get up in time to do it in the morning, and I was getting together with Christopher for dinner so no yoga after work. We met for dinner at Rice, and then I got to experience the frustration of parking woes one encounters when living in the East Village while a film crew takes over your neighborhood. Needless to say, we had a side trip in the middle of the evening to Williamsburg to deal with the parking dilemma. Due to the fear of finding a spot, it was a short adventure.

DAY 9
My day of the week off due to the current paycut situation. Carrie was in town for work, so I was planning on meeting up with her and Kathleen in SoHo after having lunch with Roberta in Leffert's Garden. Or is it Manor? I forget. Either way, I had to be in Brooklyn around noon and SoHo around 3PM. Yoga, yoga, when can I fit this in when I've got plans for the bulk of the day? Plans included:

• A viewing of The September Issue. Fantastic fashion documentary of the production of the Vogue 2007 September Issue. It's right up there with Unzipped, the Isaac Mizrahi documentary. Although I still can't believe Anna decorated her townhouse with that shabby chic furniture.
  
• Drinks....somewhere. Fancy new hotel on Crosby was not accepting 'non-residents' until the following week. We ended up at Sweet & Vicious.
  
• Dinner at MacBar. Now that I am ok with gluten, a macaroni and cheese fest was in order. I felt as good afterwards as any normal person ingesting massive amounts of processed cheese.

Back to the yoga situation. Thanks to the DVR, I've been taping episodes of Namaste off the Fit! Network. I came upon an episode on strengthening poses. Fantastic.

DAY 10
Woke up to a rainy but somewhat warm day. I was scheduled to sail the morning Harbor School sail from 1100-1500 hrs and then the 1600-1800 hrs public sail. The wind was perfect for sailing. Unfortunately, it also made me complete exhausted and not able to do much of anything for the rest of the day. No yoga.

I was however able to drag myself to Brooklyn for dinner with Heidi and Carrie. Heidi had gotten her share of the CSA bounty that morning, and made a great dinner (with Tom's help on the fish). Halibut, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and bok choy. Ice cream for dessert.

DAY 11
In looking at the calendar, I've missed two days this week, so I feel motivated to go today. Today was also the team day for the Ladies Social Tennis Club out in Prospect Park - four hours of play between the different members. I already woke up to sore shoulder muscles from sailing the day before. Tennis today was going to be challenging. Luckily on Sunday nights there is a restorative yoga class at Om. I love restorative yoga. Its a series of poses where you're propped up on pillows, blocks, or bolsters, and you rest for 10-15 minutes in a pose.

I head out to Brooklyn at around 9:15AM en route to Heidi's. This was the weekend that the MTA had decided it would be a good idea to do work on just about every single subway line. Instead of taking the normal route of the A to the F, I just take the A one more stop to Hoyt/Schermerhorn. I discover that although its a slightly longer walk from that station to her apartment, its a shorter trip since I don't have to wait for the transfer at Jay Street/Borough Hall.

Do I thank the MTA for this little bit of transit knowledge? Hell no. That's a small victory in the confounding set of options that I'll have to deal with for the day. We ended up driving out to Prospect Park and avoided MTA pain. For the morning at least.

The tennis wasn't so bad considering that the soreness in my shoulders in the morning was only the beginning of the pain that was surfacing from the day before. In the end, it was my whole back, as well as my sides and abs. Basically, the whole torso. Strangely, my legs were unaffected. I needed a massage.

At 5:00PM, I headed to Union Square for the restorative yoga class. As I was hoping, it was just what I needed. Although I did fall asleep in some of the poses. Really, what do you expect?

DAY 12
Ah Monday. Columbus Day. My office does not take this day as a holiday, so I'm in the office with about five other people. It was a slow morning, so I checked out Om's schedule for the day, and there is a stretching class at 7:30PM. Sounds good, hopefully they will concentrate on the back of the legs where I have the most trouble.

The slow morning turned into a slow day, and it seemed like it was days before I could leave my desk. I get to the yoga studio for the class, and all the students are waiting on the instructor. I'm anticipating a slight man to walk in - most of the teachers are either women or men of small stature. In walks this guy who is about 6'-4" and he's just big. Except he has a small head.

He starts off the class with us in Vajrasana. I hate this pose. It's a seated pose, where you're legs are bent underneath you, and you're sitting on your heels. My knees just don't like being bent that long. We're in that pose with different variations for about 10 minutes. I'm somehow able to unbend my legs afterwards.

Then we moved into downward facing dog. He decided that this would be a partner pose where people would pair up, and one person would place a strap around the other like a harness and help the person get deeper into the pose. Cue the S&M images of someone getting lead around like a dog on a leash. Hilarious.

A while later, he directed us into a pose where we were kneeling with one knee against the wall with the shin against the wall, and the foot of the opposing leg on the floor in front of us. We were expected to be able to sit up straight from this position. Sort of.

All in all, it was a very challenging class.

DAY 13
Took a break. Chey came over after work to do laundry.