Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Adjective Antics

It's the little things in life, like tonight when I hopped on my bike and headed for yoga at the gym. I had a bunch of things to do at home, but I knew that yoga would make me feel better so off I pedaled. Even though I didn't bring my mat and had to use one of those blue mats that elementary schools have for gym class, I was still looking forward to my hour of relaxation. I had a sudden start when my ears tuned more closely into the instructor and heard her describing the '8 minute power bursts'. Power? Burst? Surely, I had heard her wrong. No such luck, a few moments later we were deep into the Pilates 100 and bicycle crunches and well on our way to a maniacal fast-paced circuit of Downward Dog with a leg raise, warrior poses and some good old fashion plank work. My dreams of deep relaxation breathing were drowning in pools of sweat around me.

I made it through the hour, but will be rereading the class schedule for a yoga class that explicitly caters to meditation and child's pose.

Training Day 4:
2.01 miles, 30 minutes (Mostly running at 4.0mph, but with a few intervals of running at 4.5mph and walking at 4.0mph, and this time includes my 3 minute warm-up walk)

I'm hoping the rain will hold off tomorrow morning so that I can go for a short bike ride. If not, I might hit the gym and use their elliptical.

Have you ever walked into a fitness class and realized it was not what you were expecting? Did you end up liking it?

7 comments:

  1. hahaha, well at least you have the joy of knowing you kicked butt! take a bubble bath to compensate! :)

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  2. I pretty much crashed after the class, but a bubble bath would have been great. I think I'll aim for that tonight!

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  3. I've had a bad biking class because the instructor kept us in the saddle forever and my girl parts hurt. But I'm kind of a chicken about trying new classes! Good for you!

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  4. I had a bad yoga class experience when I first started going to the Y last spring. I'd been going to the early morning class which was sort of a combination of tai chi, yoga and a bit of pilates and I loved it. So I decided to try the gentle yoga class. I think maybe the actual practice was ok, but the instructor had a grating voice and just had frenetic energy (I don't know how else to describe it) and I was anything except relaxed. I've never been back to one of her classes...it was fairly miserable for me.

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  5. I think I might go back, but definitely not if I am looking for a relaxing yoga class. Oddly enough, Maggie, her voice was the only soothing thing because she kept repeating all the moves over and over. It was a bit trance like.

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  6. I had a funny Zumba experience. It's a fun concept, and I'm all about dancing... but this one time the teacher didn't actually teach or explain or guide anything. The enormous, overcrowded room (I think there were 80 people?) was just beyond her control, so she shouted out "follow along like a school of little fishies!". It was utter chaos, to latin groove music. Every woman was dancing in a different direction. It was hysterically funny. "Shake it harder, do your groove thing!"

    Yeah.

    whit

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  7. See now that would have been great - at least very amusing, I on the other hand left feeling broken and beaten down! Ugh!

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