I have been reading posts linked to ‘Thursdays are for Thinking Out Loud” hosted by Amanda at Running With Spoons but have never joined in. Since I have a bunch of random thoughts going on today, I thought it would be a great day to try it out!
1. I am trying to get back into doing more yoga- like going to real-life classes and doing more than 30 minutes at a time. I signed up for a 30 day membership at a nearby yoga studio, which means I can go as much as I want until May 29th. On Tuesday I took a 60 minute hot vinyasa class. It felt really good to get in a deep stretch. I also noticed something amazing- my core felt way stronger than the last time I took yoga classes. (Note- I love the reflexion yoga classes that I have been doing, but they don’t challenge me as much as regular classes. And I tend to repeat the same videos, so of course its less challenging. It is really convenient, but lately I wanted something more.) So anyway, I was actually able to do crow pose!
It was crazy- I have never been able to do it before and on the first try it just kind of happened! And then something more amazing happened. I managed to pull off this pose (side crow):
So maybe all this core work is actually doing something?!
2. While the class was great and I felt like there were many good things happening, I felt really weird after. (Besides feeling like I was going to die because the room was so hot). I felt like I was all uneven walking home. I tried to explain this to my chiropractor last night, and he just looked at me like I was crazy and didn’t really address it. I think maybe I pulled something out of alignment when I was doing pigeon pose? Who knows. But my the next morning I felt fine. Maybe I just got such a deep stretch my body felt uneven because I had been living with such tight muscles for so long. I’m glad this is a “thinking out loud post”…it justifies the rambling that I just did.
3. Running lately has been mostly great. Since the marathon, I have taken it easy and there have been good days and not so good days. I try to just enjoy the good ones and stay positive when they aren’t good. Each week more of my runs have been good, so I feel like that shows progress.
I have also been doing more body pump classes and using the elliptical one day a week. I found that if I put it on a high resistance and high incline, and go backwards, it REALLY works my glutes. Strong glutes=a strong runner so I’ll do what I have to do.
4. I signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon!
I decided to sign up last night because the price went up today. I still have a long time to figure it all out, so I’m not gonna think about it for now. I figure if I want to do another 16 week training cycle, I would start training on August 2nd.
Other than that, I still haven’t signed up for other races, but I’m starting to get the urge to do something. I am trying to wait until I REALLY want to do another race so that I don’t burn out of and get sick of running.
5. I don’t know how it rained as much as it did this week. Like, where does it all come from?! Yesterday it poured ALL day.There were flash flood warnings for about 6 hours and some roads were closed due to flooding.
![IMG_2494[1]](https://runningoutofwine.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_24941.jpg "IMG_2494[1]")
part of the harbor was flooded this morning
There was even a sinkhole in Baltimore city!
6. Thank you guys for the feedback about my blog! I think my plan will be to keep everything the same but just move to self-hosted. I appreciate everyone who offered their help- I may need it! I am trying to get a sense of what I am doing before I begin the process.
7. My resistance bands keep breaking. I talked about how I am trying to work on my glute strength, and there are several exercises that I am supposed to do 5 times a day. Well I have gone through about 5 bands now and its really frustrating!
![IMG_1749[1]](https://runningoutofwine.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_17491.jpg "IMG_1749[1]")
Does anyone know of an awesome band (the small kind that fits around your ankles) that won’t break?
8. I know I said I rarely talk about wine on this blog. Well I am about to have some tonight, so I thought I would bring it up. We have about 10 bottles of red in our apartment because that is what we have been drinking all winter. I stopped on my way home from work and picked up two bottles of white (sauvignon blanc) to keep in the fridge. Now that the weather is warming up, I’ve been craving white more. So, the question is, on this warm but rainy evening, do we drink red or white?
Rob just came home and told me red, so that guess that’s what it will be!
Thanks, Amanda, for hosting the link up!
Do you take yoga classes at a studio? Can you do crow pose, and if so, how long did it take you to learn?
What races are you doing in the next few months?
Have you ever seen a sinkhole in real life? I haven’t, but the pictures look pretty scary!
I’ll ask again- any resistance band recommendations?
Wine preference- red, white, or both? For me, its both, but when its hot out I prefer white.
I am seriously impressed with those yoga poses. Wow! I’m also wishing I stopped for some wine on the way home from work 😉
Haha we always make sure to have wine in the house, just in case! And just to clarify, I only held the poses for like 3 seconds. 🙂
Nice work with the crow poses! I have never done a running race but love to run haha, am hoping to enter my first next year… We shall see! At the moment I like that I have no association with number or races and that I can just run but I’d like to have a goal again…
I’m currently living in Argentina so I’d have to say RED! Have a lovely evening 🙂
I usually reach for the red, also!
That’s pretty cool that you just run for fun and don’t worry about racing. I do hope you try one out some day! It brings a different kind of challenge and excitement to running, I think.
Do you go to Sid Yoga?! That’s my favorite studio so I’m semi-biased haha but I haven’t been in weeks. I can’t believe how much rain we got. I’m going downtown tomorrow for tight club and i’m hoping everything has dried out a bit!
I’ve been going to Charm City Yoga. I’ve never heard of sid but I’ll have to check it out! I have a membership to Merritt Athletic club so I can’t really justify also paying a monthly yoga membership (I find that the yoga classes at the gym just aren’t the same). Have fun at tight club! It looks like you will have a perfect evening for running!
I always pick white wine!!
The strongest bands I have came from Beach Body – they are pretty durable.
Thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely check them out.
Hooray for the Philadelphia Marathon! I hope we see each other! I actually just bought my first yoga mat today. We moved apartments last weekend, and they have an amazing community center. There are free yoga classes twice a week. I am going to start going next week!
That is so awesome to have free community classes! Since I pay for a gym membership, I just can’t justify also paying a monthly yoga membership, even though I really like my studio. I am doing a one month trial for now but I’m not sure what I’ll do when that is up.
We will have to plan to meet at the Philadelphia Marathon! It will also be great to talk about our training once we start!
A huge congrats on busting out those awesome poses, lady! I haven’t been able to mater crow quite yet, but hopefully a little more practice and strength work will get me there 🙂 And that much rain is absolutely crazy. I keep wishing for some rain to wash away all the dust and grit that’s left over from winter, but definitely not that much. We’ve had a little bit of flooding up here in the past, but definitely never anything as bad as sinkholes.
I guess we needed the rain, but it was pretty intense! I think crow is one of those things that you just have to keep trying and eventually it will feel more natural. I only held it for like 3 seconds but at least it gave me the confidence to keep working on it!
I use these bands around my ankles for glute strengthening: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007WVIMR8/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?qid=1399006507&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70. I have them in red and blue. These also look nice, but I’ve never used them: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001795ND2/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?qid=1399006507&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70. That sinkhole looks scary!
Thank you for those suggestions! These links are super helpful.
I’ve been trying to do more yoga lately too! I think it helps me mentally just as much as physically. I can do crow no problem, but have been scared of side crow for a while and just did it for the first time earlier this week. Was really excited about it 🙂 The Philly Marathon is super fun! Loved running it a few years ago.
Congrats on getting side crow! Tonight we were instructed to try it with split legs…and that just was not happening!
I am excited to be heading back to Philly! (It was my first marathon a few years ago). From what I remember it was a great course!
Yay for side crow!! I’ve only been able to hold it once and felt like a total rockstar. But I’ve been back into yoga, too, so hopefully more improvements are coming! No races for me in the near future … Texas summer is just not conducive to racing!!
It seems like they key to mastering some of these poses is to just keep trying them! I also feel like certain cues from instructors can really help me to get harder poses.
I can only imagine how hot it gets running in Texas in the summer! It’s not ideal here either, but I usually manage a couple shorter races.
Great job with the pose – that is some serious stuff … I feel uncoordinated enough doing the fast-paced bodyweight stuff, let alone that! 🙂
I will likely do a couple of small races – I have a local charity 5k and a 8k for the Corning Glassfest later in May, then my 50 miler in early July, then a couple of half-marathons later this summer and Wineglass in the fall. Haven’t really planned anything else … I was joking that I have no clue how to run a 5k …
I’m sure you could get some poses if you practiced, it really doesn’t take too much coordination just alot of focus.
I will be excited to read about you running some smaller races! You’re right that it seems like you never run “short” distances! I don’t think I knew you were doing a 50 miler…that it awesome! Again, I look forward to hearing about it!
I love the name of your blog! So cute!
What great views for your run. I wish I ran along the water!
Thank you! Yes I am pretty lucky to live close to the harbor. Its a great place to run, but sometimes I wish I could run in an area with more “nature” and trails.