ice water and ocicats

Tuesday: I went to my first ashtanga class in a long time (it was a 2nd series one) and it was really great. I got all sweaty and got my lotus pose (this only happens when I'm really warmed up), but at the same time it didn't kick my ass nearly as much as ashtanga used to. I may keep going to this one since it seems to feel so good, and make Monday my rest day. Decisions.

Wednesday: nothing because the Red Line had some kind of emergency and I couldn't get to acroyoga. Dreadful!

Thursday: 25 pullups at work with rifmeister in the afternoon, and then went to acrobalance where two things went very strangely indeed. First, there were 29(!) students in the class -- the previous max was 15 and that was considered a crazy influx of people in its day. It was temporary too. Poor Z-dawg hardly knew what to do with such a giant group tonight, and the floor was crowded. That said, the other weird thing was that I totally did a back walkover for the first time in weeks, and then another one and then another one. Then I went off into corners to obsess/practice until I was so tired I started dropping myself on my head and had to stop... I probably did 15 of them tonight all told. It felt AMAZING. It's the first time I ever had them consistently enough that I could actually practice the move on my own, repeatedly. After the first one they didn't even overstretch my rib muscles... they felt good. :-) I am totally in love and want to do about eleventy trillion of them tomorrow instead of going to work.

I saw a middle-aged woman on the train this morning whose bag said:

Do yoga. Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.

I used the world's most popular search engine to see what the hell was up with this mangled motto. Turns out it's a small piece of lululemon's ridiculous manifesto, which is why yoga was mentioned, and I'm not the first to skewer it. Really though, "Children are the orgasm of life"? Well, could be, could be... my understanding is that when you're actually dealing with them you're all jittery, and once it's over you feel quite relaxed and remember the whole thing as being wonderful. There are similarities. I admit, though, I have no idea what this has to do with yoga.

* * *

I wrote that this morning. Tonight, I finally had the good workout I've been waiting to have for about the last two weeks. I could tell you all about my discouragement with gymnastics, and how much I wish it emphasized mindfulness the way yoga does, and how 2 weeks ago I was really thinking about quitting (and about crying in class, which I didn't do... quite), but that would be boring. Anyway, tonight I decided I didn't give a shit, and had more consistent kickups to handstand than I think I've ever had before. I even (almost) did a 180-degree pirouette, and had a couple of reasonable handstands that I straddled up to and held briefly. Go figure.

Anyway, I'm glad I went instead of doing the other thing I was tempted to do and staying horribly late at work. (My plan is to go in horribly early, instead. I am so overwhelmed). Because the universe likes to laugh at me, I got email from 23andme.com tonight saying my genetic profile is ready to look at. Very funny. :P I'm not remotely ready to look at it, not until I'm a lot more rested.

Last night, studying NASM stuff with my friend Pole Dancer, I was nattering on about something, maybe the heartbeat: the atria contract and then the ventricles (based on the same nerve signal, but the AV node slows it down en route), and thus we get the classic two-beat lub-dub that you hear when you press your ear to someone's chest. She said "You make this stuff all so interesting!" I said "It is interesting and cool... isn't it? All this stuff is real, it's about what's inside us all the time!" And she said "It's exciting and interesting when you teach it. Have you ever thought about being a teacher? You'd be a great teacher."

I think she thinks a bunch of things about me that I think about Dan the Cat. Without trying to duck the compliment, it's kind of scary to realize it's all relative. I feel a certain weight of responsibility -- which I guess is the whole point of studying with someone else. I don't necessarily mind, because if I'm studying while thinking how to not only understand but teach the material, I'll learn that much better and I know it.

I hope I have mentioned that working on handstands every day is the bomb. I'm used to extremely slow progress, but, well, not lately. Today (when I took my daily PT-stretch-and-handstand break) I held a freestanding handstand and counted to 20; it probably was not 20 seconds but I bet it was a record. Tonight at gymnastics I also measured that mat I straddled up to last week: seven inches thick, not four or five. Tonight no such heroism was on display: I just straddled up normally in front of a crash pad, again and again and again. Once or twice I caught my balance for a few seconds, but I made it up, I don't know. Definitely over 20 times. I still seem to lose the feel of straddle-ups in between sessions, but by the end of a session it feels like I hardly need to jump. And every time the neural pathways get reinforced. You know what I really like? The word accretion. Yep, and tamales and dodecahedrons. :)

This evening I went to gymnastics, and they strapped me into a harness on the trampoline to hold up part of my weight, and I did front and back handsprings (front ones without a spot, even) and it was grand. More, please!

Class went so fast tonight. This time I decided I did want to work on back handsprings, basically because everyone in my little group now seems to be way better than I am at them. Starting on the slanted-up end of a trampoline track, I now can at least go over my hands (sometimes falling to one elbow) but I'm always landing twisted and I'm not sure why. Hmph. I did some straddle-ups too, but mostly not until I was tired, so I lacked last week's exquisite sense of focus... and I totally forgot to work on that straddle-up and roll drill.

Mostly, I cannot believe the class is half over. And I wish I were still working out. At the same time I'm glad tomorrow's my rest day. I make no sense.

This gymnastics class was different from the first one in a lot of ways. More people showed up this time, and the initial part of the class (aside from the initial laps around the track) was completely different. We had to do ab stuff, and some leg-conditioning stuff, which were pretty much impossible for me after doing squats on Sunday, and after that they set up some different practice stations and it was kind of a free-for-all. Somewhat disappointing -- if we did the same things every week, I could theoretically observe myself getting better at them over time.

Cool moments: I did a back walkover (the kicking over part) all by myself on a foam wedge, and also a back handspring with a spot. My cartwheels/roundoffs were better too.

After last week strained my right forearm I've gone back to pretty religiously doing my forearm routine in the morning. It takes a little time, but I'd forgotten how good it feels. And this week my forearms seem okay -- go figure!