Teacher Training

So last Friday I started a 200 HR Yoga Teacher Training at Yogi's Anonymous. The teachers there are really great so I'm confident that I picked a great studio to learn from. This is their first teacher training, so you can feel them working out the kinks and trying to provide great support while being flexible. But despite that I think I'll learn a lot. I'm excited to become part of another community of like-minded people and to learn to teach something I believe in. I think I will always be teaching something in my life.

I'm hoping the community will help me break through the initial LA plastic film and get to know some great people. We have already talked about compassion and love in class so I have a good feeling about it.

So far I've had 12 hours of instruction, classroom and practice mixed together, and I'm pretty tired. Haha. I will be busier than I've been all year because on top of the training time I have to add another 4.5 hours of practice during the week plus homework. This on top of Bikerowave and regular cooking/cleaning chores will take up 90% of my free time. Finding time to work on my beater bike will be hard.

In any case I'm really happy to be doing it. 11 more weeks, here I come!

Cycle Oregon

Cycle Oregon was so many feelings: fear, excitement, calm, frustration, content, defensive, unsure, anxious, joyful, relaxing, sad and a little bit angry. Usually I blog about the physical challenges, times, conditions and compare myself to a previous me, but when I think of Cycle Oregon I don't think of any of that.

I think of the memories. I recount on what I was thinking and who I was with. What we said to each other and how it made me feel because this whole year, maybe even longer, I've been so consumed with the negative in my life. Eventually I did what I always do and push it down away from my center, which also pushes down my sources of compassion, caring, kindness, openness, friendliness, etc. I became cold, unfriendly, and always thinking of myself. Getting away and seeing familiar (and new) faces was exactly what I needed to remind me of who I am.

On the first day I thought Ku was gonna be one of those guys who just mashes his gears and goes really fast leaving everyone behind. I'm glad I was wrong. I was sad that I couldn't ride more with my friends so I promised myself that the next ride I would be just as strong as they are. I remember getting mad at KChang for not using his 28 gear on the first day. I remember laughing every night with Pattie in the tent about some funny story about Thi or Bosco. I remember every gasp and every breath I held at the sight of Oregon's beauty. I remember John, the 78 year old friendly guy on the SAG from Portland. He told me to watch Giant, with James Dean and Liz Taylor because it was a wonderful movie. John said that if he could he would reset his life and live it all over again exactly the way it was. I hope when I'm his age I will have the same feelings.

There are too many memories to list, and I don't think I laughed as hard or felt as warm as I did in a long time. Thanks for being a part of my life Kevin, Kevin, and Pattie.

Falling into place

Things are falling into place. I'm hurriedly preparing for Cycle Oregon which is in 3 weeks. I ship my bike out next Friday, so that needs to be in order and my legs need to mostly be in order in...1 week. lol.

So 3 weeks ago I bought a new saddle and have been trying to get used to it. My first 60 mile ride on it didn't go great. It was bearable, but at the end I felt like I had bruises on my bones. Then two days later I rode and still had major bruises. Today I felt much better and mostly forgot about saddle pain which is awesome! That means I didn't have any pain. Albeit I was climbing at times so I probably only spent about 70% of the 2 hr ride in my saddle, but I'll take that. Saddle, check.

New cassette! Kevin and all his preparedness convinced me to get a new cassette. So I bought a SRAM PG-1070 11-28. Compared to my 12-26 it felt really good, especially on these hills. Luckily my shifting and chain seemed OK with the new cassette. I didn't have time to make adjustments to the derailleurs but it felt just fine. I'll check chain length later. Cassette, shifting at 90%.

I still need to play with my seat height and cleat position. My right knee was hurting, so I moved the cleat back a few millimeters and that helped a lot. No pain now, but my knee doesn't always click back into the kneecap. I'm thinking that my seat a smidge too high or too low. Seat height, cleats, at 70% complete.
Shoulders are alright but towards the end of my 25 miler today I was starting to feel pain in the middle of shoulders. I had to consciously lift myself up and that helped, so I'm not sure if that was due to poor form or being too crunched on my bike. Stretch, reach, 50%.

I think one more good long ride and a few more short ones will definitely help me get my adjustments close to good enough. I was contemplating bike fit, but I think I'll be alright without it. The hills here have made me stronger and mentally ready for what lies ahead.

Strava. I finally joined Strava. After about 2 years riding without a computer I think I was ready to see how I have been doing. Mostly I wanted to understand how certain hills feel and compare them to the grade. This way I will also be mentally prepared for the climbs on Cycle Oregon. Note: 4% grades are fine. 6% is slow but doable. 8% not fun and slower. >10% sucks balls.

Now the question remains, how will I train after my bike gets shipped off? I'll have a whole two weeks without my baby. So two plans. Plan A: Finish building that beater bike and use that for training. Plan B: Lots of Yoga. I'm gonna try for plan A but really it might not happen cause this bike is bare bones. The plus to doing lots of yoga means that I will be more prepared for yoga teacher training which starts the weekend after my ride. But really I would like to have my beater bike up and running so I can use that to get to yoga class which is gonna be 4 miles away.

I love bikes.