Sunday Morning Yoga

I experienced a delicious Sunday morning while Margot and Simon went to church. 90 minutes of yoga. A live-filmed class at San Francisco's Yoga Tree studio (where I went to follow a Jason Crandell class in August 2009), led by Janet Stone. It was amazing! There was mantra chanting, a meditation in motion, a focus on obstacles, creative flow, ending with a seated meditation. I smiled. I sweated. I opened. I moved.  On a rainy October morning, this was the perfect remedy!

My yoga practice has been floppy since September (coincidentally since I started teaching). It's been inconsistent and my practices have been short. I know that the length of a class doesn't really matter: it is better to do 20 minutes daily than 90 minutes weekly. But... there's something so rewarding and more powerful in a longer class! You get so much more out of it. It brings you to another level.

And great news: Margot loves yoga! I didn't have anything to do with it. She begs me to watch "yoga kids" - YouTube videos of children's yoga. Sometimes she joins in, other times she just quietly observes. ;)

Time for Tea

"One drinks tea to forget the world's noise; it is not for those who eat rich food and dress in silk pyjamas." - T'ien Yiheng  c.1570

I wish to share with you the following (based on the entertaining book How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson):

Four o'clock tea. It makes sense. It marks the point in the day at which your energy is at its lowest. It's a time for reflection, to slow down, to pause and breathe and contemplate life.

Tea should be a daily ritual.
The legendary fisherman, Chris Yates (Who???) explains that "Tea making, like tea drinking, must be a leisurely, contemplative affair, the mind calming as the loose leaves are given ample time to swirl, separate and glow in your teapot". Quite poetic, mr. fisherman.

The enemy of tea is coffee. Joyless coffee. Hodgkinson bashes coffee drinking by controversially declaring that "Coffee is for winners, go-getters, early-risers, guilt-ridden strivers, money obsessives and status-drivem spiritually empty lunatics. It is an enervating force. We should resist it and embrace tea, the ancient drink of poets, philosophers and meditators."  Ouf! That's quite an opinion!

Here's how I like my tea:

morning: a pot of earl grey or orange pekoe in my big mug:

afternoon: a pot of loose leaf jasmine with honey.

Les feuilles virvolent*

Beautiful October day! We had fun in the Gatineau Park leaves:

Stuffing the purple bag ("sac à dos" as Margot names it) with leaves

Hiding Spot

Finding the perfect leaf (or not)

Yoga in the leaves

Picking up leaves

Flying leaves

* leaves flying/dancing/skipping in the air ;)

Freshness and Zoo

FRESHNESS:

Sometimes re-arranging furniture is the remedy for a stale room. This afternoon, we moved our living room around. Fresh!

Also, the weather is getting fresh these days.

THE ZOO:

We visited the Toronto Zoo last Sunday. We took tons of pictures. Here are just a selected few:

A butterfly in the Indo-Malaysian Pavillon.

Margot really wanted to see the elephants. But once we got to them, she wasn't too impressed...

Exotic fish.

Giraffes were also on Margot's Wish List...

The White Lions were beautiful. Margot actually liked them.

I Did It!

33:56 (including a brief 5-second Margot kiss near the end of the finish line). My first ever race.

Post-race thoughts:
-It was a small race (250 participants). I like that!
-It didn't feel competitive.
-Myself and about a dozen other runners didn't wear the race T-shirt (given when I picked up my race kit). I felt a bit out-of-place. I thought it was a faux-pas wearing the T-shirt (judging from the gigantic 42 000 participants Ottawa Race Weekend in May) and I wanted Simon and Margot to recognize me (which wasn't a problem at all)
-I was way too fast at the beginning of the race. Everyone just zoomed through the starting line! I followed the crowd, but then realized that my pace was too quick and slowed down to my comfort zone.
- I ran for 16 minutes (when I hit the 2.5km mark), then walked for 2 minutes, then ran to the finish line (for about 14 minutes)
-My goal was to run in less than 40 minutes. I achieved it!
-5 km is the perfect length for me.

I'm the one in red with my arms in the air.

My cheering crew

Apple Picking Season

Goodbye sandals!
Hello apples!

 

Here's why I love autumn:
-Wearing hats, scarves and sweaters.
-Crisp air and cool cheeks.
-Weekend walks in the woods.
-Rainy days as an excuse to knit, drink tea and read.
-Apples.

Here's why I don't love autumn:
-Dark late afternoons.
-Wearing proper shoes.

Running

Yes. I started. I started running.
I admit that in the past I was a runner basher " Who can possibly enjoy the torture? In +30 degrees, -30, in rain, in snow. Why? What is so fun about running?" I didn't get it. Note: I still don't get those obsessive joggers.
However, at the beginning of August, taking full advantage of the nice weather and a reason to leave the house, I laced my mom's old running shoes (they fit perfectly and even though they are past their prime, I like them and have never had any issues with them), grabbed my iPod ("running away" playlist) and double (and triple) checked  my goal from my "couch to 5km" training schedule. And I just started running.
I'm doing a walk-run program, which is a gentle initiation to running. Nothing too hardcore and I don't beat myself up if I miss a day in the week. Or even an entire week (which happened at least twice since I began my schedule)

Last weekend, I decided to sign up for a race (and not just think about signing up). Like most big decisions (and this is big for me), I did a lot of research. There's only so many races in Ottawa in the fall (it's not like 30 will be added in the next few weeks) . Luckily, Ottawa is a race city which means that there are many races every month. Which one to choose??? For me, the cause is also important. Did I really want to race for the Wellness campaign in aid of the Government of Canada workplace or the Ottawa hospital emergency services? So I chose the Children's Make A Wish Foundation. I'm not soliciting anyone for donations, I just want to run for something which I believe in. It's in 2 weeks and I'm doing well in my "training". I'm on week 7 (out of 8-week training), which means that I'm now running 12 minutes + 2 minutes walk x3.   I have no idea how long 5 km is, but I think that I'm running that distance... We'll see on race day!   (update: today I ran 30 minutes non-stop for 3.88km - it felt great!)

This is me after my run today. This is what I wear: beat-up running shoes, rolled-up yoga pants,  cotton T-shirt and long-sleeved (cotton is a big no-no), $5 shades. I have a stick in my right hand which I hold when I jog ( it works!) and it's the only time I sport a watch)

Here's why I like running:
-It's simple.
-It gives me a reason to listen to upbeat tunes.
-It doesn't take a lot of time (compared to a 90-minute yoga class)
-I'm outside!!! BIG PLUS!!!
-I feel refreshed after a run (and after a shower)
-I'm out of the house (not like practicing yoga at home)

The location of the run is also important. At first, I was running around my neighbourhood: lots of road options, not a lot of cars, lots of uphills...  But recently I started running on the NCC path by the water: it's easy access, lots of trees, I can run on the grass by the bike path (I feel like I'm doing trail running), it's calm (except on weekends when cyclists and rollerbladers take over). Also, last weekend, I ran on the Sugarbush trail in Gatineau Park while Simon and Margot were walking. That was fun!