TandemHearts

I do some very basic yoga  a few times a week, mostly to stretch, but it also helps me to relax.  We were watching a show and a character was doing yoga and did a headstand.  Thom asked me if I could do that.  I had no idea if I could or not; but later on I got out the yoga mat and did one.  Headstands are kind of fun.  I now do one at the end of each session instead of corpse pose.  They aren’t as relaxing as corpse pose, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to keep my legs straight, toes pointed and not fall over.   If I’m balancing well I’ll do some side splits followed by some front to back splits.  Point those toes!

Thursday is plyometrics day with Shawna, my trainer.    When we first started doing these I was not very thrilled with the exercises.  They’re hard and I felt like a dork.  However, I’ve noticed that I am running better  up short, steep hills and I think it’s because of the plyometrics. Anything that makes me run better is good!

Every Thursday is a little bit different.  This week Shawna set up four steps of varying heights and I jumped across them in various ways – forward, sideways, on one foot.  After about thirty minutes Shawna started combining the steps, making them higher.  By the end of the session I was doing single jumps onto a step that was twenty-three inches off the ground, a few inches above my knees.  To do these jumps, I started from a squat, swung my arms and launched up and slightly forward.  I landed in a squat, stood up and stepped backwards off the step to repeat.  There were five jumps to a set and I did five sets at this height.  Thom asked me if it was scary and yeah it was a little, especially the first time.

Image from Sport-Fintness-Advisor.com

I was surprised at how sore my quads were on Saturday (our 23rd anniversary!) when we went for a ride.  It made the 8% grade very entertaining.  NOT!  Descending back down the 8% grade I came around a corner to see Thom standing on the wrong side of the road with his bike on the ground.  The first thing I did was scan his body for blood.  None!  Phew!  His tool kit had fallen out of its holder when he went across a cattle guard.  It had gotten jammed into his back tire and locked it up at about 28 miles an hour.  I could see the rubber on the pavement where he had skidded to a stop and it had left a gaping hole in his tire.  We walked down the hill a little further to where there was a turnout and discussed what to do next.  I rode back to the rest stop and asked them to send someone to pick him up and we SAGGED back to lunch.  It was still a fun day.

This week I’m in math class all day and I hope there’s not too much homework.