For the rest of the month, I'm taking a break from running and devoting myself to my yoga practice.
In the past couple of months, I've really come to love the Vinyasa style (flow) yoga. From January 2008 until this summer, most of the yoga I did was Bikram. The series of 26 postures that we did every class make me feel strong, confident, and they fueled my competitive edge. I stayed away from the Vinyasa classes at Hot Yoga Louisville because they intimidated me and made me feel weak. With so much more focus on the upper body, I found myself taking breaks during class which I didn't like because I wanted to keep up with the Joneses. However, I've been keeping at it, and I'm loving it! Instead of tearing myself down because I can't do a certain pose, I'm trying to appreciate the challenge.
Speaking of challenges, I've created a mini challenge for myself to complete 10 yoga classes by the end of the month. I'm two classes in and I have about 16 days to do the other 8.
I did class #1 on Tuesday and it was Vinyasa. It was fun...nuff said!
Class #2 was last night and it was Bikram. I went into the class trying to stay positive but I was apprehensive for two reasons:
1. I hadn't done Bikram in two months
2. Bikram is very leg and back "heavy," meaning most of the poses focus on those areas. Since completing the Bourbon Chase last weekend, my legs are in recovery mode.
Bikram kicked my butt last night!! The room was hot, my legs were shaking, my thighs were screaming at me, and I thought I was going to throw up. The Bikram positions involve squatting, lunging, etc and I've concluded that it was perhaps TOO soon to go to that class that soon after doing the BC. The instructor knows me and was encouraging me to do more until I quietly told her that I did a 200 mile relay race last weekend. After that she backed off :)
Based on last night, I am going to fulfill my yoga challenge primarily by going to Vinyasa classes. Next week I will try another Bikram class, and I'm sure it will be better!
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