Hanging Out

I won't even try to catch up on posting. I'll just pretend that nothing of import happened in the last month. It probably didn't. I don't even remember. I do miss blogging about all the cafes I go to though. But let's just say, I have 1-3 cups of coffee a day. Pretend like I blogged about them. Ok, the end.

But ... I did decide to try something exciting for once (it may have been due to my gym membership expiring and this class was free and you know how I like to take advantage of free things).

http://www.stevenashfitnessclubs.com/programs/anti_gravity.html

Anti-Gravity Yoga!

I was super pumped. PUMPED. Now, I didn't know what to expect, and honestly, I was a little apprehensive (has to do with the fact that all sorts of flipping/inverting becomes very difficult when your butt outweighs the rest of your body). But it was super duper fun! 

This class was definitely not as yoga-y as regular yoga classes. I mean, we did do some basic postures (all with the sling) and at the end, Cocoon pose was definitely helpful for savasana (best. pose. ever. just imagine yourself hanging in the air, enveloped in silk. yup. best. ever). But the fun stuff, like the flips and the inversions, was more about the fun than about the yoga. Of course for someone who has long harboured delusions of being a Cirque du Soleil performer (poor Mom had to walk into many a situation when I had somehow fallen into a wall during a pirouette/got stuck stretching/broke a table during my 'interpretive dancing'), this was a wet dream.

Let me just say that I was a bit skeptical of these slings holding all xxx pounds of me. But the instructor assured us that these silk slings can hold up to 1000 pounds (which of course made me think of just who they were targeting these slings for). Because it's true, the slings support you during balance poses you might not have been able to do otherwise, but in some other hanging poses, the sling can definitely dig into your skin and I could certainly see the advantage of being skinnier at those times.

In any case, as soon as I jumped into it, I decided immediately to rig something similar up at my house. Somehow. I see many a bedsheet sacrificed in the future towards my 'exercise and fitness' endeavours.

So. Much. Fun. I would just sit around and swing in it all day. 

And of course do fun poses like Vampire Pose. Chanelling my inner Bella, that's right.

But seriously though, while we were doing all the stuff, I thought, 'hey, well this is all fun and games but it's not really "exercise"'. WRONG. My muscles definitely feel the TRX-like lunges and stretches that we did. And the planking. And all the ab support needed to hold poses like the one above.

Yes, I may have just bought an unlimited summer pass. I am so going to pass off acrobatics-in-a-bedsheet as legit exercise. Just try it and thank me later.

This is Actually an Exercise Blog

To kick off the summer, and also to give myself something to do (besides the Internet/TV), I've decided to actually exercise. Aka, not bask in my marathon glory but continue to work on my running and on yoga.

So Monday, I dropped off my mother at work and I hit up the dyke for an easy 5k - basically a shakeout run to test my bones after the marathon hurt. Well ... it was creaky. My muscles were stiff-ish and my pace was not great, but it was sunny and beautiful and obviously I was happy I did it. Because duh, you never regret a workout.

Look at that beauty!

Now since I couldn't rope anyone into taking a photo of me, I had to play around with the self-timer. About ... umm ... 20 photos later, I got this gem.

I must've looked a little crazy running around a picnic table in circles, but this self-timer stuff is pretty tricky. It says the picture will be taken in 2 seconds, but that's a total lie, unless the camera is doing 1-supercalifrogaliciousexpialadocious-2-supercalifrogaliciousexpialadocious. Anyways, I wanted a picture and what Anna wants, Anna gets.

Now I WAS planning on running every day and being all super-runner like @SkinnyRunner but I was still feeling creaky so instead I hit up a Yoga for Core class at Steve Nash. I haven't done regular yoga in YEARS (because I always do hot yoga) and I have to say that I did miss the muscle-relaxation and stretching-power that a heated room gives but I still felt really good afterwards.

Really good, but not totally worked out, so I also hit the treadmill and some weights for a bit. I was no Arnold Schwarznegger, but I bossed those 8lb weights, haha. And then I proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. The end.

Of Work Outs Working Out

My Friday was cray-cray nonstop. The day before, it was all sunny and mild, so I busted out an unplanned run in the park (and believe me, jumping over snowbanks and frozen puddles is a real workout!) and I ended up coming home late at night, because our rehearsal was (surprise!) 3 hours long instead of 2. So I when I dragged my exhausted ass home, I just collapsed in bed, scared shitless of my super busy Friday.

First up, gym with my lovely friend Vanessa. My desire to chat and socialize only slightly won over my desire to not do anything athletic.

But we ended up chatting and gossiping on the ellipticals, which made the time pass by really quickly. I can't say it was a workout, because I wasn't sweating like a beast (like I usually am after a hard workout), but I definitely had fun. Plus we were those girls - you know the ones who aren't really working super hard, and who are all 'OMG, Greg did WHAT? And how was it?!'. But it was a good start to a Friday.

Following our gym date, I had to do a model-backstage-worthy shower/change of clothes deal before running off to my 3-hour seminar (and that WAS a workout ... putting skinny jeans onto wet legs should be an Olympic sport). The seminar was dull, as expected, which was only exacerbated by my lack of caffeination. Don't worry though - I fixed that problem as soon as was humanly possible. Can't keep me and caffeine apart for longer than a day - we were just meant to be!

That would be my reaction too, Allie. Me too.

Post seminar, I had a lab meeting, but also somehow managed to squeeze in a skype date in between; all I know is that I was VERY hungry by that point, and so my labmates had to deal with me eating my tuna-and-egg-and-onion salad (a very pleasant combination for me, but usually not so much for the people around me) in the middle of describing my research.

And then it was time for another class (ah, darkened lecture rooms, how you make my eyes heavy and prone to closing ... leading to unexpected naps during class). You would think that would be a good end to a busy day, but no! Lo and behold, I had to run home to grab dinner before my friend Jill and I traipsed over to my hot yoga studio for an evening Karma class.

The Karma class is by donation (aka 5$), so it is always uber busy. For our 1.5 hour class, they filled the room to capacity - i.e. 100 PEOPLE! That means basically that it's mat-to-mat, and you get really acquainted with your neighbour's breathing and sweating patterns.

So yes, less than ideal - but it was seriously the best practice I have had ... EVER! The instructor was great and the poses seemed to flow and throughout the whole thing, I just felt really in tune with myself and with the poses. There were some poses where I recognized for the first time just how the parts of me were supposed to fit together and how I was supposed to feel. In any case, it was magical. And I was happy to share it with a friend.

Of course then I came home and collapsed in a pile of exhausted wet-noodle-like limbs. Going out on Friday? Pfsssshh. As if. All the cool kids around in bed and asleep by 10pm.