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March 2006 Archives

March 1, 2006

Losing My Balance

In mid-January, the place I had been taking yoga classes restructured somehow and my teacher left. That particular class is no longer offered and she isn't teaching anything similar elsewhere (in fact, her only regularly scheduled class is a class for seniors offered on Tuesday mornings at another local studio).

I *loved* her class. It was just the right combination of poses and breath work at the right speed. I left the class feeling lighter and longer and blissed out. Because the class was at a resort, I was often the person who didn't come with a friend so the teacher would be my partner if she wanted to do partner poses. She was the guide on my journey to quiet my mind and release my tension.

Since that time, I have tried two other classes and they seem to have landed on opposite ends of the spectrum. Last week, I took the yoga/pilates fusion class at my gym. The poses were too fast, the music too loud, and I felt rushed and overheated. Tonight I took a restorative class which while nice and relaxing (yay, aromatherapy), had a whopping 4 poses in an hour and a half and was almost all lying on the floor breathing.

I suppose I will just have to keep looking. In the meantime, I may try to put together a home practice if I can keep dogs and cats and the view of my cluttered house out of my way for long enough to be of benefit.

Namaste.

EDIT: Hmmm. Looks like they've added my original class back to the schedule at a different time with a new teacher. Since I still have 2 more classes on my card, I think I will give that a shot before looking elsewhere.

March 11, 2006

Wrestlemania!

Ahhh... conked out dogs.

After 2 bouts with Maggie submissively peeing on my carpet, we put her in the crate last night to keep the knuckleheads away from her. This morning I locked the dogs out back and Maggie was taken out front to potty (I love having a fenced front yard).

There was a nice break in the rain so I took the 3 girls out back and let them do their sorting ritual. Once Luna and Kira were doing nothing but looking up as if to ask "Can we go inside now?", I figured it was safe to bring them in the house.

What happened next was fantastic. Maggie and Luna started to play! Kira would get jealous and take Luna down. They rolled around like nuts for nearly half an hour. Luna engaging Maggie and Kira swooped in to get her fair share. Now they're snoozing. Yay!

March 13, 2006

The Big Walk

It's official. Mark & I are registered to walk the 95th Annual Bay To Breakers race in SF on Sunday, May 21st.

Back at the end of January, Mark's sister sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to join her again this year. I forgot all about it. Then a message went out to everybody at work looking for 15 people to do a centipede in the race, carrying letters spelling the name of one of our websites. Since they expect to keep that at a slow jog/fast walk, I decided I'd be better off walking separately. I was shocked when Mark mentioned that he'd be interested in joining me.

The primary reason for the sign-up is to motivate me to walk more. I seem to have plenty of excuses for not walking. The race gives a convenient excuse in favor of walking (especially without feeling guilty for not taking the dogs along). Since the week before Christmas, I have been going to a strength training class at the gym (and have missed only twice) but my cardio effort has been sorely lacking. It is always too hot, too cold, too light, too dark, too busy, too tired... I could go on but you get the idea.

The race is a 12k (roughly 7.5miles) across San Francisco. The course rises slowly from sea level until you get to the end of the 2nd mile and are faced with an 11.5% grade on the Hayes Street Hill. That appears to go for about a mile, after which the course has a mild downward slope until you get back to sea level at the finish.

So far I have determined that 3mph is a reasonable pace (except on that hill...) for me to walk comfortably and that I can handle an 11.5% grade for at least 5 minutes. I haven't made it to the gym early enough to try to walk a full 7.5mi on the treadmill yet but I'm hoping to do that tomorrow as soon as I get off work at 1:00pm (if there are people waiting, the equipment has a 30 minute time limit and the gym really fills up after 3pm). My goal is to cross the finish line. This means that we need to walk the course in under 3.5 hours, as the finish line gets diverted at 11:30am in order to close by noon. In theory, it sounds pretty easy at this point. I'll know more once I can actually see how well I fare on endurance at the gym.

Also, I probably won't wear anything costume-y but if I did I would have to find a long blonde braided wig, a viking helmet, and a SPAM tshirt. :)

March 30, 2006

Moral Imperative

I've recently decided that I have gone too long without having ever tried a creme brulee.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to provide locales in either the SLO area or Bay Area that give good creme.

This message will (not) self-destruct in 15 seconds.

About March 2006

This page contains all entries posted to blackmoondog in March 2006. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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