Training Log Archive: Bash

While watching the Daily Show. Today's main target was... Jon Stewart, making fun of himself for "disastrous hosting of last year's Oscars".

After a long day that began with formatting my C: drive and re-installing my 3-year-old Windows XP CD, and was interrupted by dripping ceilings and damaged drywall in two different rooms, I definitely needed an afternoon break. That suited ThunderDog just fine, since she'd been trying to push me out the door all day. We had a wonderful snowshoe around F&M's place and Palgrave West. It was my favourite kind of snowshoe route - just aiming for hills and ignoring the trails. ThunderDog stopped at every trail and turned 90 degrees to align herself with it, as if to say, "Here you go, Silly Human. Lucky for you, I've got us back on track."

Even with some new snow, it was fun to check out the elephant tracks from the Thomass race 9 days ago. Nice job staying away from the out of bounds trail, everyone - I'd wondered if that would work out OK, and it did!

Hard Core Tuesday. We ate far too well while we were on vacation, so I decided to dig out the DVD for penance.

A final loop around the Canmore Nordic Centre before heading home. Scenery was great as always, but for some reason, my muscles felt like they were completely devoid of glycogen. I don't feel fatigued, so I'm not sure why. On a positive note, we had some long, fairly easy sections where I worked on practising my balance over each ski. I have work to do, but I can feel that the yoga balance work is helping.

Today's outing was short and sweet! 'Bent and I skied up the summer hiking trail to Boom Lake south of Castle Mountain. A lot of people had skied it in recent days, so the trail was hard-packed and slick. The scenery at the lake was stunning, and we celebrated by sharing a decadent Afghan biscuit from Rocky Mountain Bagels. Then we enjoyed the long, mostly-downhill ski - being careful not to go too fast around corners, since there were a few skiers coming up. Then off to Banff for an afternoon of snacking and shopping for books and outdoor gear. :-)

This was a perfect sunny day with deep blue skies and stunning mountain views. 'Bent and I drove up into the Spray Lakes valley south of Canmore. Crash loved skiing at Mt. Shark last month, and we've never spent much time there, so we decided to try the 15 km "green difficult" loop. We'd heard that most of the trails would be groomed and trackset, but we had heard wrong! There was 20 cm of fluffy new snow on top of the tracks where it was supposed to be trackset. And then came the large section of the 15 km loop that is "not maintained in winter". That was really slow going, and sometimes it was hard to tell where the trail was supposed to go. We were sometimes up to our knees in powder wearing XC skis that are not particularly wide, so it was definitely a strength workout today, not a speed workout. But wow, it was gorgeous! The weather stayed amazing for the whole day, and there were incredible views in every direction. Highly recommended!

No trip to the Rockies would be complete without a visit to my old stomping grounds, so today 'Bent and I went to Lake Louise, where I lived and worked for a few months between my undergrad and grad studies. Fuelled by a Rocky Mountain breakfast bagel, we headed out on the Fairview Loop, eventually making our way down to the Moraine Lake Road. These days, it is groomed for skating and classic, so it's possible to ski nice and hard there. The reason to ski this route is for the fantastic views, which compensate for spending a long time on a road. Unfortunately, as we climbed, the weather went from grey skies to completely socked in with blowing snow crystals stinging our faces. When we made it up to the viewpoint, there was the hint of mountains and valleys, but most of today's scenic rewards came from the snowy forest. We skied back to the junction with the Lake Louise Road, then skied up the Tramline back to the parking lot. We went just above 2000 meters of altitude today, but it didn't feel so bad on classic skis!

Walkman, 'Bent and I visited the Yoga Lounge in downtown Canmore for an intermediate level yoga class. We recognized some of the poses and sequences, but there was plenty of new stuff, so it was harder work than usual. This was my first experience of yoga with incense, candles and Indian vocabulary. It felt great to stretch out. We are both feeling yesterday's skate skiing.

Time to get the heart rate up, so we headed over to the Canmore Nordic Centre for some skate skiing. I was torn about whether to take a lesson, since I'm determined not to develop too many bad habits with this new sport. In the end, we decided that we wouldn't be skiing too much more this winter, so we might as well just enjoy our day.

We had gone about 100 meters when 'Bent slammed into a hockey stop in front of me - arrgghh! What the...??? Then I realized why he had stopped. Sean Ruppel of Chico Racing had skied past in the opposite direction, and he had also screeched to a halt upon seeing my Caledon Hills Cycling vest. He turned around to join us for a ski. After the first 10 minutes, I tried to get the boys to go on ahead at their higher speed, but it turns out that Sean is an awesome skate skier who is hanging out with national XC team members this week. He insisted that we all stay together, and he gave some excellent pointers to both of us. Nice! I think I've got my poling technique figured out again, but I'm going to be SORE tomorrow.

I picked up a Parks Canada pamphlet on how to avoid problems with cougars. This is for Meridian, of course, since he has repeatedly expressed concern regarding this subject.

After a lunch break, 'Bent and I headed out to do a longer skate ski. We promised each other that it would be "easy", but I still haven't reached that exalted state where it feels easy for very long. (Although I did remember urthbuoy's discovery about the flat ski.) I'd picked an ambitious loop with some difficult hills, but 'Bent (yes, even 'Bent!) thought it would be too much, so we decided on something the same length, but with a lower difficulty rating. As luck would have it, not all the trails were groomed, so we mistakenly turned at the wrong junction and ended up doing the difficult route anyway. Lots of steep up and down, and we could definitely feel the altitude. I guess when you're doing a sport that makes you go anaerobic pretty easily, it makes quite a difference when some of the oxygen is removed from the air. Anyway, it was fun - in spite of stopping to gasp occasionally - and we felt entitled to eat a huge dinner, including chocolate cake. :-)

Today we all drove down to Kananaskis Country to ski from the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitor Centre. Fantastic conditions with fresh snow and beautiful mountain views! The only problem was that my wax that was so perfect yesterday was a lot less perfect today. As we gained elevation (topping out around 1900 m), fresh snow was falling and the temperature dropped, and I got big bricks on the bottoms of my skis. It re-accumulated several times before I finally removed all the offending wax - sigh... After that, I was speedy enough that I had to ski in front of 'Bent, who was still sticking enough that he had to pole down the hills.

People out here are so lucky! We didn't have to pay any trail fees today, and the Canmore Nordic Centre is only $7.50 a day.

Wtih a total of 5.5 hrs of sleep over the past two nights combined, I was thinking that I'd just take a nap and read a book when we got to Canmore. Wrong! Our friends, Walkman and Cosmic, were waiting for us to go skiing with them at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Well, how could we say no? With my brain in a fog, I somehow managed to get dressed and collect my ski gear.

Much to my surprise, the combination of cold air, good friends and fantastic ski trails revived me. Oh yes, and a Rocky Mountain Bagel. (We went there for our first meal, in honour of Slice.) After I warmed up, I started to feel like there were wings on my skis, and I only had to move my body to keep up with them. That doesn't happen to me very often! I guess I was lucky enough to choose the right wax on a +1C day, plus the trail grooming at Canmore is excellent. Fun!!!

With all the things planned for today, my brain was buzzing too much to sleep well, so at first light, I took a final ski/run around the course to check that the SI controls were all in place. It's hard to get them to stay up when the ground is frozen solid, so next time I'll use some wire or string.

In spite of my fear that my laptop may be toast, I felt a strange feeling of peace with the world as I skied into a brilliant sunrise with bits of last night's fluffy new snow drifting down from trees and glittering like fairy dust. I can see why morning people love being morning people. It wouldn't work for me, but I really do understand the attraction.

Thomass Caledon in Palgrave West - Course Setter.

Phew - everything went pretty well. We had about 70 people in attendance on a sunny, snowy day. As I suspected, the snow increased the winning time to 62 minutes from my estimated 55 minutes. Keith did a great job on the maps, and I received positive comments on the course and route choice options from several good navigators. I'd been concerned because the race map is so small that I'd devised an unusual course design to come up with the necessary distances. To my relief, the top ten included a mix of racers, including a couple of masters women, a couple of elite males, a junior, etc. I think I might have been too hard on the elite women - I'll have to look at that.

Crash provided an awesome host site with bonfire, tunes and yummy munchies, and took charge of the hot apple cider situation. Everyone commented on how wonderful her place is! Thanks to GHO for the map and to Doug for SI support.

And then came the real heart rate increase for the day... I spent the afternoon on the phone with Dell - and then with Microsoft (in India!) for a second opinion. Yup, my operating system and all my installed programs are toast, along with any data on the C: partition. Just what I needed before leaving on a week-long trip where I planned to use my laptop. They've got me to the point where I can copy data files off it, which is useful, but I cringe at the thought of re-installing and configuring everything. I think this will mean a new laptop, since I was only 6 months away from replacing this one. I'm surprisingly calm, given how many hours a day I spend with my laptop on my lap. I guess it's been a bad enough week that my sense of perspective is pretty well-honed.

A bunch of people signed up for the Thomass Novice course at the last minute, so I designed a trail-oriented course quickly and headed out to hang flags. The cool thing about the Novice course is being able to ski to all the controls. The less cool thing is hand-drawing the course on 12 maps because so many people signed up after the deadline.

Adventure Girl! and Hammer kindly agreed to help me do a final vetting of the courses for tomorrow's Thomass event. We visited the first couple of controls together, then split up to save time. There is enough snow that tomorrow's race promises to be quite physical. I spent a lot of time fussing with the course lengths, e.g. a 25-year-old man should run twice the distance of a 60-year-old woman. With all the snow, it will come down to more than just distance though. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. In an ideal Thomass event, you want to see a mix of ages and genders in the top ten.

Many thanks to Adventure Girl! and Hammer for making the long trip to help me. We followed up with 30 minutes of strenuous tobogganing, which I won't log, but it's worth mentioning because it was a ton of snowy fun.

And then I restarted my laptop and got the blue screen of death. Can't even get into Windows Safe Mode. As if tomorrow wasn't busy enough already, I now need to spend some time on tech support hotlines in between running an orienteering event and leaving for Canmore. Arggh.

Hard Core DVD. I usually go to the C3 workout on Thursdays, but... well, it's a long story involving a furniture store with abysmal customer service that took a significant cash deposit.

'Bent and I have been sleeping on the floor on our new mattress since the promised delivery of a new bed in October, but there has been no sign of it, in spite of my polite phone calls every week. Finally, yesterday I tried attitude instead of good manners, and miraculously, they offered to deliver it late today. That meant I had to miss the C3 workout night, so I tried to emulate it at home as closely as possible.

And the bed? Well, the truck drove 2 hours to get here, bringing only 4 of the 5 pieces required to actually assemble it. And one of those 4 pieces was maple stained red, instead of pine stained gold. I'm afraid that I drew upon some of the language I learned in engineering school before asking them to take it back on the truck. Argggh. Oh well, it's only money. Heck, 'Bent and I have paid a lot to do adventure races where we've slept in roadside ditches.

BulletDog and I did the same route as yesterday, taking about 20% less time because (a) the trail was broken, (b) I used waxable skis (without much grip - oh well), and (c) I only had one dog stopping and sniffing things and rolling in the snow. (OK, I actually missed having two dogs.) It was another beautiful day in the snowy woods!

Power Yoga DVD.

Sadly, we didn't get the huge dump of snow that Hamilton got, but we have about 10 cm of fluffy new snow on top of the excellent base that we had before. BulletDog, ThunderDog and I went out for a ski around Palgrave West and the Charlevoix trail. Feeling lazy, I took my waxless skis, and boy, was THAT the wrong choice. I really had to work for everything, in addition to breaking trail through deep snow - except for the few pre-broken sections where my route intersected Crash's route from earlier in the day. The pooches had a fantastic time, making dog angels everywhere and plowing through snow that came up past their chests.

The forest was absolutely beautiful, and I was sorry that I'd left my camera behind. I've been writing magazine articles about outdoor sports, and because of the publication deadlines, it seems that I'm always looking in August for a photo with snow, or looking in February for a photo without snow. So I really need to get better at taking a good selection of photos in every season, before I know what I'm going to need.

Don't forget to register for Thomass Caledon in Palgrave West this Sunday. We'll be serving world-famous Crash Brownies!

Finally there was a happy convergence between Time Available and Unfatigued Body that allowed me to try out K/O's new strength routine today. As I get more familiar with it (and thus less awkward), I think I'll continue to enjoy it.

The routine is set up to work with free weights, rubber bands, stability ball and balance board, and the idea is to exercise different upper and lower body muscle groups by moving through single, smooth motions. For example, you might start with a squat, then stand up (using glutes and hams) until you're balanced on your toes. In the meantime, you've got one end of a rubber band in your hand, using it either in a pushing or pulling motion.

We'll have to get K/O back in a couple of weeks to make sure we've got it right, but I was happy with the Non-Boredom Factor today. I am a little worried about knocking my teeth out from a crash during the Full Push-ups on Stability Ball While Being Harassed By Lab Retrievers exercise, but I guess that's one of the advantages of being married to a dentist.

Not sure whether to call this running or just skidding around in the snow. I didn't wear spikes, but I should have!

KS failed to find one of my flags when he was testing the Thomass course yesterday, and not surprisingly, it was the dubious rootstock that I'd had very little confidence in. It didn't help matters that I had a different rootstock circled on my hand-drawn map than KS had circled when he put it in OCAD, but the truth is that I was much more wrong than he was. So... I returned today and wandered around until I finally chose a rootstock that I was happier with. There are about a dozen rootstocks in the area, and they're not all mapped. One of the features of an area full of fallen trees is that it's hard to pace count on an accurate bearing, so I came at the thing from several directions, but it was never straightforward. I think I'm happy with the placement now, but I will be asking Hammer's opinion when he's here.

As much as I love wandering through a snowy forest with map and compass, I've spent more than 8 hours doing that in the past two days, so this morning, I would have been happy to plop my tired body in front of the fireplace with a big pot of coffee, a couple of warm dogs and a good book. (Unfortunately, that book would have to be "Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change", since I've got class tomorrow.)

However, I'd promised KS that the Thomass course would be in place by noon for him to test, so BulletDog and I dragged ourselves out to hang the last controls, which were spread out at opposite corners of the map. Just my luck, today was one of those days when nothing was easy. The boulders were buried in snow, so I couldn't tell where they were. The map showed 3 rootstocks around one control, but there were six in the terrain, thanks to windstorms last fall. A couple of small clearings were hard to identify because of other clearings in the same area. So... it took longer than it should have. Glad I've got Hammer and AdventureGirl! coming to help me with the final course vetting next weekend, since I'll want their opinion on placement of a couple of the controls.

Hot off the press! 'Bent completed the Canadian Ski Marathon Gold at 3 p.m. He had a great time at Gold Camp last night and was far too warm at -27C with all the stuff he'd carried in that big backpack. He thinks he skied too fast yesterday, so he took it easy today. Although he'd claimed that he only wanted to try this once, he let it slip that he was "planning to carry less stuff next year". Ha!

Now that BobTheNavigator has been named Race Director for ARC, I've tentatively added some of their races to my calendar. Although I've always focused on FAR events in the past, they are offering so few races in eastern Canada this year that we need to look at other options.

Oh, this was FUN! :-) We have to miss the Snowshoe Raid, so BobTheNavigator asked if I would test the course. Yay!

Following up on my post-Ballengee-accident New Year's resolution to let someone know when and where I'm wandering in the woods, I asked BTN if I could check in with him when I was done, since 'Bent is sleeping in a snowdrift in Quebec tonight. He did one better, coming along to Horseshoe to ski for the day. So now I can tell my dubious Mom that I am so cautious about my outdoor activities that I enlist the captain of Canada's top adventure racing team to keep an eye on me when 'Bent is away. However, the flip side was that this meant I had a witness, and thus the time that I took to complete the course could not be kept secret.

It took BTN four hours to hang flags, but he didn't have to wear snowshoes. Since then, Horseshoe has been buried in wonderful powder snow. The heavy trees and the shapes of snow blobs on stumps were reminiscent of B.C. It's not often I can say this in southern Ontario, but I was sorry that I hadn't brought big snowshoes with more flotation. It was a LOT of physical effort. I've called it Level 3 because of occasional stops to make notes or hang flags, but there were plenty of places where the intensity was higher. This had better make me lose my post-Christmas weight, or I give up!

As for the course... Wow, it was pretty out there today. At first, there was heavy snow falling, then sun and blue skies took over. The course was a fun blend of different types of navigation - long, tricky legs in flat, nearly featureless terrain, and shorter legs that featured steep hill climbs and awesome descents roaring through powder snow. This is going to be a 3-hour rogaine-style event, and I would never have attempted to get to all the controls. But as a tester, I had to visit every one - about 15 km, I'm told. Actually, I did skip one outlying control because I was running late and still hadn't come into cell phone range. This snow will likely warm up and consolidate over the next 2 weeks, so the course should be faster on race day. But it will be an interesting and strategic event, I think, since it may be difficult for anyone to get to all controls in 3 hours.

Anyway, it was loads of fun, and I am zonked. A perfect night to crash on the couch without guilt, drink hot chocolate, and watch girl movies that would bore 'Bent to tears.

When I got home, there was a voice mail from 'Bent, who is in the Canadian Ski Marathon Gold Camp tonight. As previously announced, today's course was shortened to 68 km from 80 km due to bodies of water that didn't freeze early enough. The result was that 'Bent made the cut-off for the final section at noon and got into Gold Camp quite early. With all that time to sit around at -20C, I'm sure he'll appreciate all the extra layers he's carrying in that big pack of his.

Congratulations to Tree Huggers Hingo and Luscious, who completed their first marathon in Sedona today. Also, a pat on the back to Tree Hugger Brittany Webster, who was selected for the senior national XC ski team, but declined in order to focus on the junior program.

I set out most of the controls for the next Thomass event, and took down most of the remaining controls from the Tree Hugger race in the same area. It was a bit complicated because I was juggling three maps (yes, you heard it here first - *three* maps) and trying to choose a reasonable route. Somehow I ended up doing everything that needs to be done in the middle of the map, but there are 3 controls still to be hung on the eastern side of the map, and another 3 controls left at the far western side of the map. Oh well...

I'm one of the few people who always wears eye protection while bushwhacking, so it was annoying when I finally emerged into an open area, took off my sunglasses, then immediately got a big chunk of bark in my eye while hanging a flag on a distinct tree. (Oooh, another hint!) I had to keep my eye pointed in approximately the same direction for the final 20 minutes of my excursion - otherwise, it didn't feel too good.

ThunderDog and BulletDog had a fantastic time playing in the snow as we travelled around. They are napping by the fire as I write this, and they haven't asked me for dinner yet as of 7:30 p.m., which proves they are very tired. Just as well, since they'll have a quieter day tomorrow while I'm testing the Snowshoe Raid course at Horseshoe.

'Bent looked pretty happy when the pooches and I dropped him off at the Scarborough Town Centre to catch the bus to the Canadian Ski Marathon. There was a throng of fit-looking, toque-wearing, Goretex-jacketed folks gathered in the parking lot, and all the Gold participants were eyeing each other's backpacks for the overnight camp. 'Bent was concerned that his was bigger than everyone else's - but we all know that size isn't everything, and besides, I'm pretty sure I saw some guys there who had bigger ones than 'Bent.

So... my girls' weekend has begun! I started off by browsing the sales at Running Free for an hour, buying several new pieces of attractive sports clothing that I definitely don't need. Ya! And it's always difficult when the household chef goes away, but it does allow me to be a carnivore for a few days, so I brought home a roast chicken, much to the dogs' delight!

If you're thinking about entering the Horseshoe Resort Snowshoe Raid, be sure to register soon. It's only 2 weeks away, and there is some concern that there may not be enough interest. I've heard lots of people talk about it, so please sign up if you're planning to go. No need to pay until race day. Solos or teams of two, including a Parent/Child category for family fun. I'll be testing the course on Saturday, and it looks awesome!

C3 training night in Caledon East. Mostly ran with Nikki and Mota, discussing last week's IPCC report and recent media coverage of various environmental issues. Nikki is the Editor of Alternatives Journal and does some climate change consulting, so she knows a bit about this stuff. It was COLD in the wind until we got into a rhythm, but not bad after that. Everyone headed back earlier than usual.

Caron's theme for tonight was "Hard, Harder, Hardest", so each exercise had a progression, e.g.:
1) Lie on your back with legs straight up in the air, then do crunches up toward your knees.
2) Lying in the same position, use your abs to lift your hips off the ground, pushing your legs toward the ceiling.
3) Still in the same position, raise your arms and do crunches while lifting your hips. Try to touch your ankles wa-a-ay up there.

Ouch. If you couldn't do an exercise, you were supposed to return to the next most difficult level that you had been able to do.

Tonight's yoga class also had the "hard, harder, hardest" theme, e.g.:
1) Hinge from the waist into a forward bend, with your hands touching the ground. Lift one leg behind you as high as it can go.
2) Keeping your leg way up behind you, move one of your hands from the ground to your supporting ankle.
3) Still keeping your leg up, move the second hand to your ankle, so that you are now balancing entirely on one foot.

We had a similar balance pose where we had one leg out behind us, and for the hardest version, we clasped our hands behind us, pulled our shoulders back, and raised our joined arms as high as we could. Caron said sweetly, "If you're going to fall down, remember to unclasp your hands and get them in front before your face hits the floor."

It all felt good tonight, and surprisingly relaxing in spite of some hard work. I think I'm hooked.

K/O came over to show us a new strength routine that links lower body and upper body exercise efficiently and effectively. Looks like I'm going to need to work on my full push-ups - not just any full push-ups, but really shaky ones where my hands are on a balance board or stability ball. Should be fun!

It was -25C with a good dose of windchill this morning, so we had some concerns about the ski out to our van. Not concerns about us, but concerns about our dogs, since they live indoors most of the time. Sometimes in very cold weather, they've stopped and lifted up a paw for us to warm in our bare hands. If that happened in this weather, it was going to make it tough for the humans, and who knew if they'd be able to make it all the way? And what would we do if they couldn't? We didn't know if their ears or other body parts might be as susceptible to frostbite as our own. Much to their embarrassment, we dressed them in boots, coats (heavy horse blanket style) and Buffs over their ears (which were promptly pushed down). This was a first for both of them, and when the boots first went on in our test earlier this weekend, they had lifted their legs in a high, exaggerated motion like a spider. They managed to trot along just fine today, forgetting about the annoying footwear. We all survived, although I had to keep warming my cheeks (facial, that is) when they went numb.

Another fun year at Kukagami Lodge, in spite of the less-than-perfect snow conditions! I think I ate too many homemade cookies and breads though...

Nasty drive home on snowpacked roads. Lots of cars in the ditch. Not fun.

Skied the Bear and Heron trails with 'Bent and BulletDog. Bear is the trail with the longest, steepest hills, so we had to be careful to ski under control in case of surprise trail obstacles. It really wasn't too bad, and the scenery was stunning on this sunny and very COLD morning.

Skied Old Mill, Sugarbush and Short Fox trails with 'Bent and BulletDog. There is more than enough snow to ski, but it's fluffy stuff, so there's not much of a base. There were twigs and occasional bits of rock that stuck out of the snow, but that's the reason I wore my rock skis. I'd been afraid that I might run into a rock and hurt my knee, but conditions were a lot better than that - and it turns out that the rocks on the trail aren't that big.

Skied up the lake with the whole gang, including both pooches, to visit an area of ancient white pines. The warm, late afternoon light was incredible, especially when it sparkled on ice spilling down cliffs.

Walking through the bush to visit a number of huge old white pines. Naturally, this called for a photo of me hugging a tree. If I knew how to embed photos, this would be the place.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Phew. I was up between 2 and 4 a.m. every night this week, trying to get things done before we went away. After all that, I just hope that I have enough energy left for a vacation!

After a pleasant start to our trip, we drove through heavy, blowing snow east of Georgian Bay, with visibility so poor at times that it would have been tempting to pull over - except that someone might hit us if we did.

So it was ironic to learn that we would be getting the "low snow" discount at the backcountry XC ski lodge we were heading to about 30 km northeast of Sudbury. Somehow, the snow has been missing them this year. They probably have as much as we have in Palgrave, but it's Shield country, so there are a few more rocks to watch for. For the first time in 12 years of going there, we were asked to ski in to the lodge by travelling 6 km across the lake instead of 7 km through the forest. It was actually surprisingly pretty. They had set tracks that weaved among islands and along the shore, so it was as scenic as the forest, although definitely not as hilly.

'Bent, Griff, JM, ThunderDog, BulletDog and I had less than a kilometer to go when we noticed a small skier with excellent form heading speedily toward us. Young Kate, age 9, whom we've known since before she was born, has been getting coached this year, and it shows. She can double-pole as well as Tarno!

Hard Core - class with Caron. The class was noticeably smaller this week, and we teased her that it was because of last week's Extra Hard Core workout. She went pretty easy on us tonight compared to usual. There were only a few times when she made us hold some awkward, abdomen-stretching position for an extra count of 8. It turns out she was in an extra good mood after being asked for ID when she ordered a drink on the weekend.

It took us awhile to notice, but the theme of tonight's yoga class was doing the same poses in different positions - standing, sitting and lying down. There was one section in particular when I thought my quads were going to explode if I held the pose any longer. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the variety in each yoga class, and by how much I've underestimated the difficulty of yoga in the past.