Yoga?!

Robert JARRIN, who has some sort of weird fetish - I won't post his other picture(s), took this photo last night at yoga...

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Yoga!? Yes, you heard right. I decided to give this a whirl. I've heard nothing but great things about yoga and at the least it would give my body a good "stretch". I entered Dog Down Yoga for the 7:45pm session last night to meet teammates Chris Bain and the aforementioned JARRIN. I was the last to arrive and peered through the window slit to see 20 people stretching in a dimly lit room - among them a nervous looking JARRIN. I silently questioned why I was here. My thinking was interrupted by the yoga instructor who remember me from Saturday's clinic/seminar; "so glad you could join us". Yikes! I ditched my running pants and long sleeve shirt and whimpered into a welcoming dance studio which blared a motley assortment of emo-music. The room was 98 degrees and as I stared at the dial, the thermostat jumped to 99. Yikes! We hadn't even started the session yet! At 7:44:59, the instructor yelled out "it's 7:45 and we begin". Before I could ask "what are we going to do?" I was flipped into a position I never imagined I would willingly do. Literally within minutes I was drenched in sweat and my green tech t-shirt was nothing more than a wet rag dragging across my skin. I eventually chucked it. The exercises did not stop...there was no break. The torture was worse than being at Guantanamo Bay. We kept at it straight for 75 minutes without any let up. I barely had time to swig a gulp of Gatorade. The mat and floor below me were soaked in sweat and I struggled to balance for fear of slipping and crashing to the floor...which I did at least once. The instructor would walk around the minions and did a fantastic job of rallying people like me who wanted to melt away into the night.

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All and all it was good. I have a lot to learn and I spent most of my time looking at my peers to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I was way off in my breathing...likely a result of trying to concentrate on everything else. Before I fell asleep last night, I could feel my muscles react to whatever it was I had just done. During my run this morning it felt like every muscle in my body ached to a degree...nothing bad but evident I had been "worked out".

I will try and make yoga a weekly tradition...as I desperately need it. So in conclusion, thumbs up to yoga.