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Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Went for another run today. I decided that unlike Saturday, I wanted to actually do the full 2 miles continuously, so I expected to have somewhat of a letdown in terms of times. It wasn’t actually too bad… 15:18, 06:59 split. I would have liked to get the whole thing in under 15:00, but considering that I pretty much finished the last quarter mile on willpower alone, I can’t complain too much. If I don’t injure myself again, I should improve fairly rapidly, at least in the beginning, since that’s how it normally goes. Then again, I started off at a somewhat higher level than I often begin such things, so it’s a little hard to say. Anyway, after the run, decided to do the flexibility workout. I was originally going to do stamina, but decided to challenge myself a little more. It actually was a bit of a challenge… these runs still take quite a bit out of me. Still, made it through with little difficulty, so that was pretty good. I might get a hip opening workout in later, if I’m feeling properly inspired. I do want to start getting them in again, although really I should have done it after running, since it’s a little easier on the body if I’m already nice and warm. I was feeling a little too tired for that after the flexibility workout, though. For tomorrow… I’ll probably get back to the YCfA mini-workouts before ultimate, and hopefully some light stretching afterwards. It’ll probably be more necessary, since I imagine we’ll play the full time tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll do a better job of hydrating, and avoid leg cramps again. I have the last two times, but we only played for around an hour both of those times. So that’s the plan for now, hopefully I’ll be following through on it.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was surprisingly sore today, all over. Not actually all over, I suppose, but certainly over a lot more of my body than I would have expected. Shoulders, lower back, and buttocks primarily, with other small bits of soreness in various places. Overall, my legs were feeling okay, though. I didn’t really notice the hamstring much, although if I really concentrated I could still feel it a little bit. Decided to be cautious with it, anyway, and just do a yoga workout. Went with flexibility, hoping to get the soreness to lighten up a little. It might have been better if I had done something cardio beforehand, since I definitely noticed the hamstring a little more during the yoga, but I was careful not to strain too much. I think the workout did help with the soreness somewhat, although there still is plenty to go around. However, I’m feeling pretty good about the idea of getting some cardio in tomorrow. I’ll probably go for a run, and possibly play some Stepmania, although I’m a little less certain about that, since I think there will probably be ultimate on Tuesday. I’m not thinking it’s terribly likely for Thursday, so I’ll probably start picking things back up then (unless I injure myself again on Tuesday, of course). I think I’ll try to get an abs workout in tomorrow, unless the various cardio causes me to change my mind. Either way, I’ll pretty much definitely do something, so until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Got in the normal set of YCfA mini-workouts today before ultimate. Focus wasn’t very good, largely because I was wondering if we were going to play. There were some thunderstorms that passed through about an hour before game time, but we still ended up being good to go. Unfortunately, the advance thunderstorms seemed to have scared most people off, so we ended up with only 6. And there was some confusion with the cones, so I ended up running back home to get them and then running back, so I got in an extra mile run. Although we only had 3 on 3, it turned out to be a lot of fun, actually. We played some regular ultimate, then played a little bit of hot box. I got a cramp in my right calf during the second game of hot box, so that pretty much ended things for tonight. Which actually worked out okay, since it started drizzling a little bit harder just after we stopped, which probably would have ended things anyway. When I got home, I decided to do the py:stamina workout in order to try and stretch out the muscles a bit, and also hopefully help the muscle that had cramped. Focus wasn’t the greatest for that, either… guess I was just a little off today. I think I did help the muscle somewhat, and of course got some general stretching in, so that was good. Tomorrow… I’m not sure. I might take the day off, since I’ve been working pretty hard the last couple of days. Of course, I might be addicted to the exercise now, so I might not. I am anticipating ultimate in Southfield on Thursday, though, so… I think I’ll take it fairly easy tomorrow, and then start going hard again over the weekend. So, perhaps a workout tomorrow, perhaps not. Until next time…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga, Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, as of last night my thoughts for the day were taking the day off from cardio, and doing some ab work. However, when I started thinking about it earlier, I realized that while I didn’t want my feet to be overly sore, I really wasn’t too worried about my legs, since I’m not overly concerned about my ultimate performance right now, anyway. Pretty much pre-season until about late May, as far as I’m concerned. So with that in mind, and given the fact that it was a really nice day, decided to go for a run again today. I figured that the route I’m running is just a little over 2 miles, so I’m doing a little bit better in terms of time than I estimated. I really should be doing windsprints and hill training, though. I’ll probably start getting to that soon. It’s harder to motivate to do that, though, since I know it’s going to hurt. I’m fairly impressed with how well Stepmania actually kept my conditioning up, though… I didn’t think it would be quite that good. Playing on heavy for the last two months has helped a lot, I think. Anyway. After the run, went with the py:flexibility workout. That’s in keeping with my trend of not always doing the YCfA mini-workouts. Decent workout, I was pretty flexible after being nicely warmed up, go figure. I could have stopped there, but I did plan on doing an abs workout today, and I want to keep up on the abs work, I decided to get a yoga abs workout in. It was actually pretty damn tough… apparently I wasn’t wrong when I felt like my abs got a huge workout from the Stepmania yesterday. To complicate the matter a little bit, my legs tried to start cramping halfway through the workout. However, I was able to stretch them a little bit and then resume the workout, so it was okay. I just had to be careful for the rest of the workout. It was good to get it in, though. Hopefully there will be ultimate tomorrow… the temperature is supposed to be nice, but there’s a chance of thunderstorms, so hopefully it works out. If not, I might run again, and I’ll probably play some Stepmania, so I’ll get my exercise in either way, I guess. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, after Sunday’s workout, I decided that my leg really didn’t get a lot of benefit from the workout, but could probably use a few days of rest instead. So I took a couple of days off to let it recover. I really should have done a workout yesterday, but I allowed the forces of laziness to overcome me. Disappointing, but there you have it. Anyway, rather unfortunately there was no ultimate game today, so I definitely planned on getting some exercise in. Went for a walk earlier because it was pretty nice out, and then did some Stepmania just before yoga. It went pretty well… at first I was a little out of it with the arrows, probably because I haven’t played in at least a week and a half, but after I got back into the reading it started to go really well. Possibly because I haven’t really done anything for the past three days, so my body had pretty much fully recovered from previous ailments. Wanted to get in some good stretching after that, so I went with the flexibility workout. The things I really need to keep going for during the season are flexibility workouts and abs workouts, I think. I’m not as worried about the longer workouts, since that’s not my focus right now, and certainly my cardio conditioning should be getting considerably better, so I don’t anticipate any trouble when I do come back to them. But I don’t want to lose the gains I’ve made in the abs area, and definitely don’t want to regress on the flexibility, since that’s been rather hard fought, and will continue to need work for a long time. Something I have to be aware of, so that I don’t get sucked into the routine of only doing stretching workouts. Tonight’s workout went pretty well, although my muscles felt like they wanted to cramp, at least a little bit. I think I need more potassium in my diet. Something I’ll start working on. Well, that’s all for tonight, I think I’m going to try and get regular workouts in all weekend, probably with some other exercise as well. Possibly running, if I can convince myself to do it, probably just more Stepmania otherwise.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was originally thinking that I’d probably do total body today, but then ended up having some weird soreness in my left pectoral, and decided that I should probably hold off. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, but I eventually realized that it was probably leaning on that side for several hours yesterday while playing games. Don’t know that I’ve ever had that happen before, but it’s quite possible I just never noticed. Anyway, played a lot of Stepmania tonight. Didn’t even realize it until I was done. I started out kind of slowly, which is to say with some easier songs, so it wasn’t as if I was playing at high intensity the entire time. Decided to go ahead and get a stretching workout in after that. It’s inevitable that I’m going to do a lot of the YCfA mini-workouts as stretching workouts during the ultimate season, but I’d like to get some more variety in this year. So today I went with py:flexibility. It was decent… I did notice the soreness a little bit, but not too much. It’s a little tough to do these workouts after Stepmania, because my feet are often sore afterwards. I should probably get back to doing the workouts beforehand. I did notice that I seemed a little extra flexible today in forward bending, and perhaps in general. Quite likely just because I was fully warmed up. Tomorrow… not sure. I’ve been having some trouble predicting what I’m going to do lately, so maybe I’ll just wait and see what happens.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

And I’ve finally managed to get back towards my normal schedule with this workout. Not sure how long it’ll last, because my sleep schedule is still pretty crazy right now, but I’m going to try and hold to it. I do prefer getting to the workouts a little… earlier than I have been lately. So to speak, anyway. Anyway. Decided to go back to pilates abs today. It wasn’t as tough as I feared it might be. I mean, it was really tough, but it was a little bit easier than last time. I managed to fight my way through the entire workout this time, at least, although I’m sure my form suffered a bit near the end. I was feeling fairly drained after the workout, but decided to go ahead and get another workout in anyway. Not wanting to take it too easy, I decided to go with py:flexibility. That wasn’t too bad… it wasn’t the greatest, because I was definitely feeling the fatigue from the abs workout, but I think I did reasonably well. I need to start cleaning my mat more often, though. It’s getting slippery again, relatively speaking. For tomorrow… I think perhaps yoga burn. I don’t think I’m really feeling like doing total body again so soon. Perhaps I’ll come up with something else that I feel like doing more, though, so who really knows. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

After pushing the envelope a bit for the last couple of days, I decided to take it a little bit easier today and just get in a little flexibility workout. I figured that it would stretch me out a bit, without straining my shoulders, which seem to be the weakest link right now, as it were. Pretty successful workout, as far as that went… definitely got in some leg stretching, and didn’t notice any shoulder fatigue at all, which is really all I was hoping for. Focus could have been a little bit better, especially at the end, but I’ve noticed I often don’t focus well if I’m worried about time at all, so that was probably part of it. Anyway, just wanted to get the workout in a little earlier today, and take it easy. Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… ideally some combination of abs and another workout, but we’ll see if I manage to motivate up for that.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I’m still having some trouble deciding what workouts I want to do, but at least I’m back to the point where I want to do workouts. Today, ended up going with py:flexibility. It went pretty well… some of the focus that I had yesterday carried through to today, which is both surprising and pleasing. I usually have trouble getting much focus on these faster workouts, so it was nice to have some for once. Hard to say how quickly the knee is healing… I’m trying not to pressure it, in hopes that will allow it to heal more quickly. For this workout, only a few modifications… instead of doing the pigeon lunges, I just held downward dog through that entire time. Working on my strength can’t hurt, and I couldn’t offhand think of a good modification for those poses. The only other mod was for the one-legged forward bend… I put the leg into position, but didn’t bend forward. This was actually fine. Overall, the leg injury might not be too bad of a thing… if I continue doing mods like that, I’ll be forced to really focus on rotating my hips properly, so as not to put pressure on the knee. I’ve gotten a lot better about that, overall… when I first started doing yoga, I think I put a lot of pressure on my knees, which was probably the cause of some of the long standing knee injuries that I suffered through. I’ve become far more attentive about that, but as the injury shows, not always attentive enough, although in fairness to myself, it did happen quickly, and I didn’t notice undue strain on the knee before it happened. If I had, I would have backed off. Still, I was pushing more than I should have been, and am paying for it. Anyway, I’m going to try and get an abs workout in tonight, I think, and then another workout of some type tomorrow before heading to Chicago for a few days. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t manage to get a workout in yesterday. I had originally thought that I would get one in before leaving, but I decided I just wanted to hit the road. After I got home, as I suspected, I didn’t really feel like doing a workout. Specifically, I ate dinner and went to sleep. I’m uncertain as to whether or not I’ll attempt to get a make-up workout in at some point. Probably not today, anyway. For today, I just went with flexibility. While I do want to start getting back to the full length workouts, today I was just looking for a decent workout that wasn’t too long, as I have a number of things that I need to be attending to. I think the next two weeks are going to be somewhat of a crunch time, and after that things should ease up for a while. I’m hoping I’ve learned some lessons about procrastination, and maybe things won’t be so bad right at the deadline this time. We’ll see. Anyway, things to do and all that, so going to wrap this up. Might do an abs workout tomorrow, but I’m not really sure right now.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, despite some panic this morning and some stuff still to do, I managed to sneak a quick workout in. It actually went fairly well… I was surprisingly well focused, for the most part. Whatever I did to the side of my right leg actually feels much better today. My left tendon/knee problem hurts a little more, but that’s not unexpected. Hopefully with some good stretching over the course of the week, I’ll be able to finish healing that, or at least getting it back to the point where it was before. Anyway, things to do, places to go, so must be off. I’m planning on sticking to morning workouts over the next few days, but I don’t know that I’ll have net access, so there will probably be a slew of non-informative updates when I get back. I’ll try to note anything particularly special that occurs during the workouts. Until next time…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Keeping to my short workouts for at least another day or so. Went with PY:Flexibility today as a slightly different choice from the strength workouts I’ve been focusing on the last couple of days. I was pretty satisfied with the workout… I’m getting back to the point where a single one of these workouts isn’t a significant strain, at least not beyond the soreness my body already has from previous workouts. Which is to say, once I get used to daily workouts again, I’ll probably start considering combining these shorter workouts into a longer one, to get a more complete workout. While my shoulders did feel a little fatigued from my last strength workout, the most noticeable soreness was in my abs. I guess I pushed a little harder than usual yesterday, but that’s a good thing… staying on the offensive. Anyway, things to do and all that, so going to wrap this up. Soon, the madness will be over, and I can start getting to some longer workouts.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Wasn’t quite certain what to do in terms of the workout today, but eventually decided to try out the flexibility workout, yet another of my workouts that I haven’t done since May. I was a little concerned about my ankle, but I was pretty sure that there were only a couple of things that would really get to it, so I felt like giving it a try. It went pretty well… not only was I cautious about my ankle, but also about not overextending my hamstrings. I won’t know how successful that was until tomorrow, of course, but I actually think it went fairly well. I was also fairly focused for the most part, for at least the second day in a row. It feels like things are starting to come together, perhaps. I’ll definitely have to wait for more data to see if that’s true, but it’s looking up, at least. Anyway, a workout tomorrow before ultimate, at least, that’s the plan as of now… probably a little later in the day if ultimate ends up getting cancelled, which it might.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga, Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I got to this workout a little too late to be able to do intermediate yoga today. I was afraid of straining the sore right tailbone with total body, and just wasn’t in the mood for YCfA. So I decided to go a little bit easier, and got in a flexibility workout. It went pretty well… I was breathing fairly well, and trying to be more precise in my movements. I was very cautious with the triangle pose, not extending into it fully on the right. I also held back on wide angle seated forward bend. Overall, I think it is getting better, so I’m hoping that if I’m properly cautious for another few days, it will finish healing and I can go back to using it normally again.
The flexibility workout felt a little light by itself, so I decided to go for a challenge and did the abs yoga workout. I think it went pretty well… I tried to continue that precision of movement. Certainly I was feeling the burn… I figured that I would, given the abs pilates workout yesterday. It definitely made this workout more challenging, but I think I held up pretty well. For tomorrow, I’ll probably get in some mini-workouts, although I might substitute cycling for swimming, to try and avoid the tailbone as well as to get in a little more backbending. It’ll probably depend on how I feel then, though.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I haven’t quite made it back to the point of getting in serious workouts, but I think I’m still progressing in that direction. I’m still trying to balance resting up a little with recovering my previous level of dedication… resting is still winning, but more in the slacking off way. Like today, I intended to get a better workout in, but waited until late again. I still feel like I’m undergoing a mental shift, though, and have hopes for improvements soon. Part of the problem right at the moment is that I bruised my left heel slightly playing ultimate on Thursday, and am trying hard to take it easy so that I’m ready to go again on Tuesday. Still, it’s a little frustrating. Anyway, I felt pretty good about tonight’s workout, overall. I was getting into it quite a bit, especially at the beginning… but really, I felt pretty connected to the workout throughout. I did note that I think my experience would have been even better if I were going into the workout already warm, like if I had done stamina and/or strength beforehand, but that’s not terribly surprising. I’ve also been trying to take it easy on my wrists, to see if I can get away from them hurting occasionally after workouts. Anyway, I’m going to try for a long workout tomorrow, probably not intermediate yoga, but possibly total body.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Can’t seem to break the motivation slump here. Instead of the planned (and somewhat desired) yfs:s1 workout, I ended up just going with a flexibility workout. Which isn’t terrible, I suppose, but really isn’t what I’m looking for right at the moment. Anyway. The workout went fine, although that right tailbone area is still sore. I’m not quite sure how long it’s going to take to heal. I think it is getting better, though, and I’m trying not to push it too much. We’ll see how that goes. My hamstrings were somewhat tight to start, but they loosened up reasonably well. I think my legs were thrown off from not stretching out after ultimate on Thursday, so I think that I’ll try and make sure to get at least light stretching in from now on after ultimate. At least until it gets much warmer out, and my legs are more used to being beaten upon for two hours. At least I have ultimate tomorrow, which should get my yoga schedule back on track a little bit, for a few days.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Well, my knee was feeling fine today, so I decided to go ahead and head out for ultimate. In preparation, I did my normal routine of mini-workouts, running, swimming, and all sports. Nothing exciting about that, although I did have fairly good focus and integration of breath. After that, I went out and got around two hours of ultimate in. It was pretty good… decent competition. I think I’ll enjoy that game, if it doesn’t get ridiculously crowded. The only negative was that I strained my right quadricep a little, maybe after half an hour or so. I took it a little easier after that, and it was feeling okay by the end. Once I got home, though, it felt like it was stiffening up again, and I was sure that my other muscles probably were as well, so I decided to get in another workout to try and stretch things out. For that, I went with the py:flexibility workout. It didn’t really target my quads quite as much as I might have liked… then again, that may have been a good thing. The nice thing about the workout was that it didn’t take me very long to get warmed up. I was getting pretty tired by the end, though, particularly my shoulders. Not quite sure why that was, but the end of the workout came at about the right time. The only problem being that it’s hard to say what kind of impact it is really going to have on my level of soreness. I doubt it will hurt, anyway, besides perhaps my hamstrings. Anyway, we’ll see what I end up doing tomorrow… I’d kind of like to get in a full workout, but I might take it easy if I’m feeling particularly sore.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t get quite as much shifting in today as I was hoping to, so I decided to go with another light workout, and try again to get to the intermediate yoga tomorrow. So I just picked up a nice flexibility workout. The main goal for tonight was to try and continue to work on integrating breath and motion. I’m not sure that this workout is really suited for that, at least not while learning… the quick transitions make it hard to focus as much on things like that. Perhaps I should have gone with one of the yoga for strength workouts, so as to have more time. Something I’ll be considering, at any rate. Anyway, things went pretty well in the beginning, but it started falling apart in the middle somewhere, and I found myself getting behind in the breath a little, which is never good. It was actually tiring me out a little bit because of that. But I made it through, and I intend to continue working on it in the upcoming workouts, although perhaps not as much the intermediate yoga workout, once I finally get to it. That’s pretty much all for now… I plan on getting a long workout in tomorrow, even if it doesn’t end up being intermediate yoga.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility, Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Something a little different today… decided to hold of on a regular full length workout, and instead do a few from the py:complete workout disc. I wasn’t really in the mood to do the strength workout, so I went with stamina and flexibility. I’m fairly impressed with the amount that my stamina has increased in the past few weeks, despite a less rigorous schedule than I had originally envisioned. I went through the two workouts without any trouble, hardly even breaking a sweat. My biggest problem is that I need to clean my mat… it’s getting a little bit slippery. Which makes it hard to hold downward dog, sometimes, because my hands keep slipping. Other than that, things went pretty well. Tree pose was fine today… it’s been a little odd lately. Sometimes I have no problem with it, sometimes I really can’t do it at all. Doesn’t make much sense, especially since that was one of my better poses, way back when I started. Anyway. Still hoping to find a regular schedule one of these days, but I’ll probably have to wait a little longer. So until next time…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, my original plan was to either get in a short workout and play ultimate, or get in a long workout. I ended up being lazy and deciding not to drive out to play ultimate, so I figured I’d then end up getting a longer workout in. I did not, however, factor in that I would end up taking a long nap later in the day. I’m really not certain what that was about… I really shouldn’t have been all that tired. I mean, I did go short on sleep while traveling, but not by all that much. So I don’t really know what was up with the extra sleep. Anyway, that combined with a corresponding lack of eating a whole lot made me decide to go with a shorter workout after all. Because I wanted to test my theory on whether I knew how to keep my hamstrings from being sore (or at least, as sore), I decided to go with py:flexibility.
I felt it was a pretty good workout… well, in the sense of being fairly involved with the workout, anyway. It actually seemed pretty easy overall, which isn’t all that surprising… it’s never been one of the most difficult workouts, and as I more commonly do the longer workouts, it’s just going to seem easier. I actually don’t anticipate that I’ll be doing it terribly often as a solo workout in the future… possibly as a warmup for ultimate. Hmmm. Once ultimate starts up again, I’ll have to figure out what I want to do with the yoga workouts… I suspect that short workouts will seem insufficient by then, even with the extra activity. Maybe I’ll do a stretching workout in front of the playing, and an abs workout or another stretching workout later. Perhaps by then I’ll just do full workouts later. I’ll find out then, I guess. Well, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know whether I avoided making my hamstrings sore, but I’m feeling pretty good about the new method, so hopefully it’s going to work for me. I’ll definitely try for something longer tomorrow, quite possibly YCfA.