Friday Fashion and a Challenge
Congratulations, you made it to Friday! I have another busy one on deck. My 10 yr high school reunion is tomorrow as well as a college roommate's wedding. It's going to be a lot of fun and a bit hectic.
I'm also hoping to get in two runs this weekend. The schedule I'm following has you run on Saturdays to tire out your legs a bit and then run longer on Sunday so you're used to running on tired legs. Let's hope the strategy works for my upcoming races.
*Fair warning that I'll probably need to throw in a few smaller fun races in the schedule. I'm getting antsy to race.
Wednesday marked my return to Lifeforce Fitness. Due to illness and a busy schedule, I hadn't been to class in a month or so. After a break, I'm always reminded how valuable classes are. I found myself grinning as we were challenged to sprint faster on our mats or reminded how important setting clear intentions are (in life and your fitness practice).
Friday Fashion:
Dress, cardigan and sandals: Old Navy, Necklace: Jess LC
That Essie nail polish that I'm loving so much is now on my toes.
Weekend #YogaChallenge Sequence:
Did you guys do Heather's crow challenge pose? I did it a few times this week. Crow is fairly comfortable for me, but now I'm working to go from crow to headstand. Let me tell you, there is a LOT of core work that needs to happen before I conquer that one.
Over the weekend, I challenge you to take about 10 minutes out of your day and try to work on just a few poses. I find this helps me think about the pose and all the muscles I'm engaging and my alignment in a more focused way than if I'm just going through a flow.
Start off in low lunge/crescent making sure your front knee doesn't go over that front ankle (bad for your knee joint to load it with so much weight). You can start in high lunge for a modified version.
Take a deep breath and push off that back foot forward to Warrior III. Hold it. Try to think of yourself as creating a T. The goal is to have your back, arms and leg parallel to the ground with your foot flexed pointing down.
As you can see, I need to work on keeping my top foot and leg pointing down. It helps to think of your hip sockets as headlights pointing straight down to your mat.
Modification: If this feels too hard or intense for you, take your arms back and bring them against your sides pointing toward your top foot. This should take some pressure out of the back and make it easier for you to focus on the core and lower body.
After you've held it in Warrior III for 5 to 10 full breaths, take your standing leg arm down to the ground and open up tohalf moon. This is very much a balance pose and a little less strength focused.
If you can, try to look up to that top hand.
After a few breaths, bring the top hand and leg down, shake out the legs and try the whole sequence on the other leg.
Why lunge to warrior III to half moon? I like this move because it's really hard for me. My glutes and hip (especially on my right side) are weak and this is a real challenge for me to not only balance, but try to get my body level and keep my foot pointing down (as you can see).
I still have a lot of work to do to get this pose where I'd like it to be. The good thing about yoga is that there is always more you can do to gain better alignment, add strength or try different variations in each pose.
Did you/will you go to your high school reunion (10, 20 + yr)? If you've been, what was your take away?
Are you all about fun or relaxing Friday nights? Sometimes we're all about fun, but more often we prefer relaxing.
I'm also hoping to get in two runs this weekend. The schedule I'm following has you run on Saturdays to tire out your legs a bit and then run longer on Sunday so you're used to running on tired legs. Let's hope the strategy works for my upcoming races.
- T minus 3 weeks until Cascade Lakes Relay!
- T minus 8 weeks until McKenzie River 50K!
- T minus 12 weeks until Victoria Marathon!
*Fair warning that I'll probably need to throw in a few smaller fun races in the schedule. I'm getting antsy to race.
Wednesday marked my return to Lifeforce Fitness. Due to illness and a busy schedule, I hadn't been to class in a month or so. After a break, I'm always reminded how valuable classes are. I found myself grinning as we were challenged to sprint faster on our mats or reminded how important setting clear intentions are (in life and your fitness practice).
Friday Fashion:
That Essie nail polish that I'm loving so much is now on my toes.
Weekend #YogaChallenge Sequence:
Did you guys do Heather's crow challenge pose? I did it a few times this week. Crow is fairly comfortable for me, but now I'm working to go from crow to headstand. Let me tell you, there is a LOT of core work that needs to happen before I conquer that one.
Over the weekend, I challenge you to take about 10 minutes out of your day and try to work on just a few poses. I find this helps me think about the pose and all the muscles I'm engaging and my alignment in a more focused way than if I'm just going through a flow.
Start off in low lunge/crescent making sure your front knee doesn't go over that front ankle (bad for your knee joint to load it with so much weight). You can start in high lunge for a modified version.
Take a deep breath and push off that back foot forward to Warrior III. Hold it. Try to think of yourself as creating a T. The goal is to have your back, arms and leg parallel to the ground with your foot flexed pointing down.
As you can see, I need to work on keeping my top foot and leg pointing down. It helps to think of your hip sockets as headlights pointing straight down to your mat.
After you've held it in Warrior III for 5 to 10 full breaths, take your standing leg arm down to the ground and open up tohalf moon. This is very much a balance pose and a little less strength focused.
If you can, try to look up to that top hand.
After a few breaths, bring the top hand and leg down, shake out the legs and try the whole sequence on the other leg.
Why lunge to warrior III to half moon? I like this move because it's really hard for me. My glutes and hip (especially on my right side) are weak and this is a real challenge for me to not only balance, but try to get my body level and keep my foot pointing down (as you can see).
I still have a lot of work to do to get this pose where I'd like it to be. The good thing about yoga is that there is always more you can do to gain better alignment, add strength or try different variations in each pose.
Did you/will you go to your high school reunion (10, 20 + yr)? If you've been, what was your take away?
Are you all about fun or relaxing Friday nights? Sometimes we're all about fun, but more often we prefer relaxing.
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