Yoga Is Not For Sissies

In the past year I’ve been to yoga at 24 Hour Fitness a handful of times, including this morning.  Each time I go I discover anew that yoga is not easy.  I would be interested in hearing from my readers about their yoga experiences.  Is it as challenging for you guys as it is for me?  Maybe I’m just getting old and weak.

I find it slightly disconcerting although unsurprising that I am one of about three guys in a class of twenty.  The other class members seem to range in age from early 20s to 40s and 50s and are typically quite lean.  I probably outweigh most of the people by 80 pounds.  The instructor is an African American man named Tabu whose muscles are so well-defined they could have been carved that way.  Tabu puts on some new age-y music and we begin.

After about 25 minutes, I’m breathing heavily and I’m starting to sweat.  I look around to see if I’m the only one and, sure enough, I am.  Not even the 50 year olds are showing signs of slowing.  After 45 minutes, there is literally a pool of sweat around my yoga mat and all of my muscles are shaking.  I am utterly incredulous when Tabu commands us to “sit a little lower” or “hold that pose a little longer.”  By this point, there are some other heavy-breathers and sweaters but I’ve still got a good lead on them.  I take some consolation in the guy to my side who laughs quietly to himself as he tries, with moderate success, to hold some of Tabu’s ludicrous poses.  Maybe I only think they’re ludicrous because I’m totally spent.

I watch in disbelief as the 100 pound waif beside me eagerly increases the difficulty of her pose when Tabu says, “If you’re body is asking for more, give it more by doing this…”  The last ten minutes I spend mopping sweat off my face and hands while attempting the cool down exercises.  I still end up mostly just standing or sitting.  I feel complete relief when we utter our final ‘namaste’ and I can relax.

I scan the room.  The 50 year olds and the guys are showing some fatigue and sweat.  Most of the people younger than 40 look about the same as when they started.  I still can’t believe how easy they made it all look.  I hobble over to put my mat away and then I grab the mop to clean up the small pond I left behind.  As I walk out of class on wobbly legs and drenched in sweat I think to myself, “Yoga is NOT for sissies.”

Long Boarding in PB

In the first 26 years of my life I had been on a skateboard exactly one time.  It was at my friend Trevor’s house when I was about 8 years old.  I remember that it was a short ride and I wiped out and I didn’t like it very much.

Fast forward to 2008.  One of the first activities that Maren and I did together was skate boarding at Mission Beach.  It was really late at night so I wasn’t too afraid of embarrassing myself.  I discovered that I actually enjoyed it.  It probably made a difference that we were on long boards and not traditional skate boards.

Fast forward to today.  Since moving to Pacific Beach last year, I’ve been going out skating fairly regularly and I’ve gradually been getting better.  But I’m not that good and in the process I’ve realized something.  You’ve got to have thick skin to be a novice skate boarder in PB.  Most of these people grew up with a skate board or surf board under them and it seems like a given that residents should be proficient on one or the other.

Why do I bring this up now?  Last night Maren and I went out to grab some Mexican food, she on her cruiser and I on my long board.  I was feeling confident.  But not even two blocks away from home a jag in the sidewalk takes my board out from under me.  I stayed on my feet but it was enough for some guys passing in their truck to hoot and holler and point at me.  Okay, a little embarrassing but not too bad.

Then after we’ve eaten we’re almost home and I’m crossing an intersection near our house and I try to slow myself down by dragging my right foot a bit.  Turns out the street was wet and instead of slowing down I did a classic feet out from under me and board flying down the road ahead of me bum drop in the middle of the street.  When that happens your bum never hurts as much as your pride does.  Thankfully, all the cars had their windows rolled up this time.

So there you go.  They weren’t my first wipeouts and definitely won’t be the last but I thought two long boarding fails in one night deserved a blog post.

What do Sidney Crosby and OK GO have in common?

They were both the subjects of some very interesting material on my Google Reader this morning.  And now I will share it with you…

First, remember how Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in the gold medal game last week?  And remember how he threw off his gloves and stick?  Well, that stick and one of those gloves is missing and Reebok is offering a $10,000 reward for their return.  Crazy, eh?  Now that’s a Canadian legend in the making.  Check out the article.

Second, the band Ok Go released a new video last week.  You may remember them for their treadmill video (which I have also included, just in case you haven’t seen it yet).  The song is called “This Too Shall Pass” and the video is pure genius.  Enjoy.

Go Canada!

The Olympic Song for the Vancouver games:

My New Obsession

Some of you might know this about me: I love trivia and I love memorizing things.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Ken Jennings, but I certainly enjoy the feeling of just knowing things.  When I was about eleven years old and had dreams of becoming a world famous chemist I came across the periodic table of the elements in my parents set of encyclopedia that I just happened to be browsing through and I thought to myself, “How great would it be if I could memorize all these elements?”  So by age twelve I could name all the elements by symbol.  And speaking of trivia, the only magazine that I’ve ever read every article, cover to cover, is Mental Floss, a magazine of pure trivia.  It’s such a fascinating publication.  I would recommend it to everyone.

Now that you know this about me, I’m ready for you to know what I’m obsessed with these days: Sporcle.com.  I think I might have mentioned it briefly earlier in my blog.  But if you haven’t heard of this website please go ahead and check it out.  It’s a website full of little quizzes.  Everything from naming all the presidents of the US to naming VH1′s top 100 songs of the 90s.  Even if you’re not a trivia buff and even if you don’t fancy yourself very good at remembering things it’s a great pastime and a great way to hone your geography or history skills and so much more.  Maren and I will often do quizzes together.  We compete on some and cooperate on others.  Since I’ve started my Sporcle habit I can now name all the US states and their capitals, I can name all the countries of the world (with a blank map in front of me) and all the flags of Europe.

So go check it out.  In addition to the ones I’ve already linked to above here are some quizzes that you might enjoy:

Car Logos. 90s Video Games. Guess The Language.   The “A” Game. Time’s Top 100 Novels.

May 30 – Jun 1

This weekend was big for two reasons: First, my mom and sister Ruth were coming to town, second, I was running the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon on the 31st.

My mom and sister were moving from Naples, FL to Everett, WA and they were driving the whole way, so they made a few stops along the way. They stopped in Houston to see some old friends there, they stopped in San Antonio to see my brother and his girlfriend and finally, they stopped in San Diego to see me! It had been about a year and a half since I’d seen them because I wasn’t able to go see them this last Christmas. So it was really good to have them come visit.

What made their visit even sweeter was that they were coming in time for my marathon and they would get to be part of my cheering squad. The other part of my cheering squad was my then girlfriend, now fiancee, Maren! It was so cool to have them there cheering me on.

The marathon was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. This was my marathon and, for that matter, my first real race of any kind. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into until I arrived at the starting line the morning of the race. Gradually more and more people showed up, until there were thousands of us milling around, waiting in ridiculously long lines for port-a-potties, stretching and making other last minute preparations for the big race. When the race started there were 22,000 runners lined up. It was crazy that there were so many! The start of the race was kind of anticlimactic because they just say “runners ready… go!” and then, because there’s so many people, you end up walking for a minute or two before you reach the official starting line and the crowd lightens up enough for you to run.

It was also really cool once the race was under way. I was always surrounded by people, some dressed as Elvis, some dressed in other costumes or matching outfits. Some guys even ran the whole marathon barefoot! Because it’s the Rock and Roll Marathon there were live bands playing every couple of miles or so. And in addition to the official drink and refreshment stations along the route, there were plenty of random people offering all sorts of snacks and refreshments. People were handing out otter pops, bananas, sodas, cheez-its, pretzels, beer, I even saw one guy trying to advertise his restaurant by handing out burritos.

For me, the run went great for the first 15 miles, then as I took a scheduled walking break, my legs started to cramp up and I started to get faint. I walked until mile 17 where they had some Gu energy supplement stuff, that stuff got rid of the faintness, but I was still cramped up and stayed that way for the rest of the race. I couldn’t run more than a half mile at a time. I had to run and walk and run and walk. It added about an hour to my race time. But I still finished in 5 hours and 25 minutes. And crossing that finish line is, honestly, one of my proudest moments. Add to that the fact that as I crossed the finish line both my mother and Maren were shouting my name and beaming at me from the stands. It felt great!

After I finished, I was pretty spent. Maren and my mom said that I was slurring my speech and was just generally exhausted-looking. But I was done and it felt awesome. I picked up my goodie bag and went home to have a massage and take a nap.

The day after the marathon my mother, sister, and Maren all went to the zoo. We spent a good chunk of the day there, and it was pretty fun. My legs were pretty dead, though. Then that evening we had dinner with Maren’s siblings. And after that I said my goodbyes to my mom and sister because they were leaving the next morning.

And that’s the rundown of that weekend. Full of fun and excitement and achievement. But I have to say, I was glad to be done with the marathon. Training for that sucker took up a lot of my time and I was tired a lot. It felt great to do it, but I was glad it was done. Although, since I felt I could have done better, I did catch myself looking up other marathons that I could run to redeem myself. So there might be another marathon in my future. I’ll keep you posted.

My Hockey Woes

I’ll be honest, I don’t usually follow hockey very closely but now that I live in Southern California and the Playoffs are going on I’m realizing that I really miss the Canadian emphasis on hockey.  In Canada you can catch nearly every playoff game on basic network television.  Not to mention Hockey Night in Canada!  Here in San Diego you get a game on Saturdays and for everything else you need to subscribe to a special cable channel.  All the sportscasts here are talking about the NFL draft and the NBA finals with the NHL as a side note.  It’s understandable, but frustrating nonetheless.

Like I said, I don’t follow the NHL very closely but I still easily get caught up in the excitement.  And I have to say that with my hometown Oilers disappointing a little this season and not in the playoffs, I’m finding myself pulling for the Canucks this year.  And they’re off to a great start!  Here’s to some great playoffs and a Canadian team winning the Cup!