ice water and ocicats

Today I felt like a big ape in the gym, for the most part. It's funny, it's possible to quite like how a body looks and still feel, sometimes, that it's sort of dull. Anyway, after the lifting I spent more time on the stretching than usual, and I unequivocally, unambiguously DID THE SPLITS.

It's kind of funny how not-obviously-binary that judgement call seems. Let me explain: today what I did was on a mat about an inch thick, which makes me feel like maybe it shouldn't count. But I went all the way down, and was able to rest my weight on my front butt-cheek enough to lift my hands from the ground and just sit like that for 20-30 seconds. That whole thing was repeatable, too, about four times. (The other side didn't touch down, and hurt more, but I was disciplined about alternating).

Part of me wants to not give myself any credit until I can slide down into it from standing, quickly, on a marble floor, when cold, at 6:00 in the morning, hips perfectly square. But I am rejecting that... that's stupid. Of course I want to do it again, and get way more consistent, and get the other side, and all sorts of other things, but being able to sit in a split for a while was pretty much the bomb. The last time I got excited about splits, the not being able to stay and sit is exactly why I disqualified the effort. I can't believe that was a year ago... flexibility can be so dreadfully fickle. Of course, a lot of not-stretching of the hamstrings happened between that post and this one, due to injuring one of them, and these days I can and do stretch the little beasties almost every day. (Ask me sometime what I do on the subway platform while waiting for the train to show up. Hint: there's a handrail at an awfully convenient height for putting a foot on). I know that my 19-year-old self would have been delighted to see me today... though she'd also have been pretty horrified at how old I am and how short my hair is. :)

This post is a direct followup to last Sunday's. First, no sissy overlapping mats this weekend -- I touched down in my left splits, period. Butt cheek to the mat. I could only stay for a couple of seconds, but I did it three times. And I spent a lot of today making parallettes. :)

To work on now: actually being able to put weight in that butt cheek so I can pick my hands up from the floor, and plausibly stay for a few seconds. I think at that point I'll try to gain some comfort in that pose and try to let the other side catch up a bit.