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Acroyoga Festival 2011, part one
Oct. 8th, 2011 11:20 pmI'm skipping out on the acroyoga festivities tonight and getting some alone time. Tomorrow I will indeed do the evening party, and I don't want to do two in a row -- my capacity to be social is about tapped out. The choice tonight was between participating in a benefit for the Africa Yoga project, and taking a hot bath while reading Reamde... yeah, Neal Stephenson wins. Easily.
So, perhaps you want to hear about the festival? I didn't feel great, so I started off easy yesterday with an all-day Thai massage training. I learned a few things, and although I was jealous of those who felt energetic enough to do the more acrobatic workshops I also felt sort of proud of myself for actually picking something that matched how I felt instead of blindly trying for the hardest option on the table. We did a few minutes of craniosacral work (I hesitate to call it "massage"), and although it's hard to believe that was really doing anything I did find it extremely relaxing to have someone holding my head. I started to fall asleep, and as I did so had a dream / vision / hallucination of a whiteboard being erased. How symbolic. :-)
Today and the next two days are each broken into three sessions: the first two are dynamic/acrobatic, the third one is after the lunch break and is more therapeutic. Basically, two interesting classes per day. Today I had one with the Yogaslackers (working primarily shin-to-foot and foot-to-foot mounts) and one with a Dutch acrobat that was aimed at getting us into hand-to-hand. Only moderate success there, but I did quite well on some of the handstand exercises we did in that class that were leading up to the hand-to-hands. I held a split handstand for at least 10 full seconds on my own, maybe twelve, which is a near-PR for me and felt fantastic.
I also learned during morning warmups that a few things that I haven't practiced in ages -- straddle-up jumps to handstand, for instance -- are easier than they were the last time I tried them. Thank you, Toledo! It's got to be all that shoulder work paying off.
P.S. I shouldn't have been flippant about walking across Richmond alone at night with a bunch of stuff. That was a truly bad idea. It's not enough to look like a grad student if you're the only female (and the only white person) on the streets. All is well, but I won't be pushing my luck on that one.
So, perhaps you want to hear about the festival? I didn't feel great, so I started off easy yesterday with an all-day Thai massage training. I learned a few things, and although I was jealous of those who felt energetic enough to do the more acrobatic workshops I also felt sort of proud of myself for actually picking something that matched how I felt instead of blindly trying for the hardest option on the table. We did a few minutes of craniosacral work (I hesitate to call it "massage"), and although it's hard to believe that was really doing anything I did find it extremely relaxing to have someone holding my head. I started to fall asleep, and as I did so had a dream / vision / hallucination of a whiteboard being erased. How symbolic. :-)
Today and the next two days are each broken into three sessions: the first two are dynamic/acrobatic, the third one is after the lunch break and is more therapeutic. Basically, two interesting classes per day. Today I had one with the Yogaslackers (working primarily shin-to-foot and foot-to-foot mounts) and one with a Dutch acrobat that was aimed at getting us into hand-to-hand. Only moderate success there, but I did quite well on some of the handstand exercises we did in that class that were leading up to the hand-to-hands. I held a split handstand for at least 10 full seconds on my own, maybe twelve, which is a near-PR for me and felt fantastic.
I also learned during morning warmups that a few things that I haven't practiced in ages -- straddle-up jumps to handstand, for instance -- are easier than they were the last time I tried them. Thank you, Toledo! It's got to be all that shoulder work paying off.
P.S. I shouldn't have been flippant about walking across Richmond alone at night with a bunch of stuff. That was a truly bad idea. It's not enough to look like a grad student if you're the only female (and the only white person) on the streets. All is well, but I won't be pushing my luck on that one.
