I just logged a workout in DailyMile and realized I’d logged six workouts in a row.
This is not something that usually happens. I am not someone who has to be persuaded to take a rest day. I don’t plan rest days because I’d rather plan workouts everyday or almost everyday and realize stuff comes up and 1-3 of them probably won’t happen. (Those 1-3 don’t usually start with an r and end in unning.)
Three of those were runs: two run-mutes and one long run. Whatever. The run-mutes only served to get the miles in–they weren’t particularly awesome or awful–and the long run was rewarding, as they usually are. (I mean, I have a hard time not running more than 6 miles and feeling good about it. That’s about when the endorphins kick in for me.)
[photo via Ashley]
I also tried out Strala Yoga with Ashley and Ashley on Sunday.
AND I LOVED IT. It was $15 for the class, which is pretty reasonable for New York. Tara Stiles is the owner of the studio. (I thought she was the instructor in my favorite yoga DVD, but it turns out that’s Sara ivanhoe.) I knew I’d definitely heard her name before, but didn’t know why. Turns out she’s actually pretty controversial in the yoga world for being a little unorthodox. I really enjoy yoga, but don’t practice it super-frequently, so I’m definitely not a yoga snob. All I care about is if the class stretches me and relaxes me, and this class did both.
[Photo also via Ashley]
One of the criticisms in the NYT article I linked to up there is that Tara’s a bit of a goofball. Well, so am I, so any time I heard her giggling as she talked to someone while adjusting them, I smiled, too. As for the actual yoga, it was all pretty standard, except for some “yoga freestyle” right before the savasana (in which I wondered why I was paying to just pick my own poses) and the really long savasana. I think it must have been at least 10 minutes.
We took the Relax class, and it absolutely filled the bill. Before the class, I was stressing about work, moving and other stuff, after the class, I was a smiley, bendy girl who was very happy to walk the 2.7 miles home.
Tonight, I was off to a Refine Method/Lululemon blogger event. As part of their community-building, Lululemon invited a bunch of bloggers active in the health/fitness/wellness community in NYC to take a free Refine Method class. I had been curious to try it in the way I am to try any new NYC workout class (ooh! shiny!), but I hadn’t had a chance to try it yet.
I may or may not do a full review sometime, but I didn’t love it this first time. Dori swears by it, and I was hoping to love it, too. To be honest, I sort of skimmed some of her posts, so i totally didn’t realize it wasn’t a barre class, which I thought it was. I was corrected an awful lot, which was both frustrating and disheartening, but I was also corrected a lot during my first Physique class and still loved it. I can’t put my finger on what I wasn’t crazy about with this class.
The group was really fun (and I think i giggled through the last 2 minutes of class when Laura‘s foot came about 2 inches from my face while stretching, and I looked at her, and just said “AHEM.”)
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And the workout ended with champagne. Can all workouts please end with champagne?
Six days in a row? Tomorrow is sure as hell a rest day.
I had no plans for today to be a rest day but when the alarm woke up and I stood up my body screamed. Today is definitely a rest day and I’m hoping that tonight won’t be too killer.
@Ash Bear: I believe the definition of a rest day includes…not working out? 🙂
Sorry again about the gross foot thing!
I too was disheartened by all the corrections I got, while other people (ahem, Ashley! You are awesome!) kept getting major praise. I WANT THAT! I got super sweaty though so I may go back and try to achieve perfection 🙂
@Laura: No, it was mostly funny. Good to see you!
Also, I would try again.
I’ve been doing Refine since it opened, almost a year and a half ago, and I still get corrected in every class, in almost every exercise. It’s just to make sure your form is right so you get the most out of your workout and it has nothing to do with being “good” or not at it. Everyone’s form needs correction — if it didn’t, we’d all be teaching!
@Dori: Oh and I guess you missed all the controversy on my blog last month when I talked about who I don’t do barre classes anymore! Ha. I thought you knew it wasn’t!
@Dori: I guess I realized it wasn’t a traditional barre class, but still thought it’d be closer to barre than boot camp-ish.
@Dori: Oh, I know. I just showed up in a crabby mood, and being corrected on almost every single exercise didn’t help.
I really appreciate you linking that NY article. While I’ve found a lot of benefit from the spiritual parts of the practice, I know it scares many people away. I came to vinyasa because I was still to get a solid workout, but it’s been the biggest help in getting over my anxiety in the past six months. Different people come to yoga for different reasons – as long as they are on their mat, it’s all good to me.
Lulu has such cute stuff, so champagne REALLY fits!
I am uspet I missed it last night, work got int he way and I dind’t get out of the office until close to 9 PM. ANyway, I will see you tonight.
I am not sure I would have liked the barre class either, althougth I use to be a dancer.
Six in a row? Way to go!
I love, love, love yoga!
last week, I decided to enrolled in a fitness activity because I wanted to lose some weight… I really enjoyed it!
First of all, I LOVE Sara Ivanhoe, she’s awesome. Tara Stiles is great too. I don’t mind the kind of controversy she has surrounding her — I do yoga as fitness, not religion, so whatever. The only complaint I have is that in her DVD that came out about a year ago, you can BARELY hear her the whole time. She doesn’t tie her hair up, so the whole time she’s flipping it around and it’s really distracting and she wears these TINY shorts that she’s constantly tugging at. It’s really distracting. But I love her videos online and once I get past all the distracting parts of it, it’s a great workout.
Six days in a row?! Wow! Considering you are getting ready to move right now that is awesome…time for a rest day 🙂
Thanks for the link to Tara. She sounds like my kind of yoga instructor. Can’t wait to try it out!