Running in NY

I am at my second home in Malden-On-Hudson, NY with my fiancee Iain - here for a glorious week.  I love Thanksgiving and the holidays and it's a treat to spend so much time with Iain.  We went to the Rhinebeck Farmers' Market yesterday and got our organic turkey.  We drove through the countryside and looked at houses and talked about the future and travel and family.  We got lattes and strolled around Woodstock.  We made gluten free Dundee cake - delish (just substitute Pamela's Gluten Free Baking Mix for the flour). And I ran 3.5 miles through the sunshiney NY countryside yesterday morning and enjoyed every minute and every mile.

Three Miles

I ran three miles yesterday. It was really fun and I felt victorious - especially because it was so much fun.  I am a slow runner (about 12 minute miles) and I took it really slow the first mile yesterday and it never felt like work.  And the last mile felt like floating.  It was a amazing.  I am becoming a real runner. 

Velvet Morning Run

Wow my run was amazing this morning.  It was a soft damp morning and so perfect for running.  I ran from my house to Deb's house - about 2 miles.  And it was a great run, so easy and fun.  It almost (almost) never felt like work.  The air felt like velvet against my skin.  LOVE!!!!

The Only Way Is Essex... I'm warning you. Don't start.

Okay ... busted.  Love reality tv and my newest obsession is the rather ridiculous show The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE for those in the know).  I'm sure part of this particular obsession is my relationship to all things British (Monty Python, the Stones, the love of my life (Iain), lots of Virginia Woolf, sticky toffee pudding, Dickens, Dorothy Sayers and on and on).  But seriously, this show is one of those great train wreck half hours of guilty pleasure - a completely ridiculous reality show that you know isn't real.  And like sticky toffee pudding too much of it is probably not good for you - but it's hard to stop.  Oh... fake boobs, spray tans, glamping, vajazzling.  It's reem.  Sigh.  Don't start.  Trust me.

Thankful

It snowed yesterday and in my slightly higher than normal elevation neighborhood it actually stuck.  So I woke to find a snow flecked leafy crunchy universe; some little snowflakes fluttered around as I went on my first real cold morning run.  I was a little nervous about the ice and a little nervous about my back which I had wrenched over last weekend while raking leaves.  But everything cooperated this morning.  Good music, chilly but pretty weather and my slow shuffle didn't seem to bother my back at all.  On my cool down walk I bumped into neighbors, petted a couple of friendly dogs. I just finished a quick gentle yoga session and ... found a lot to be thankful for this morning.  A hot shower will be the delish icing on my cupcake of a day.

Hot Yoga? Not So Much!!!

I have to admit that I do try to be nice about other people's yoga obsessions... I really do.  I get that people get religious about their yoga, but I have been getting more and more annoyed with the hot yoga fanatics -  there are more and more injuries that result from this form of yoga and more and more people who crow about it.  It makes me sad and a little angry because I've seen people rip hamstring muscles, throw up, faint and generally have a really bad experience doing yoga this way.

So try a little tenderness.  Try some Type B yoga.  Sit on the mat.  Breath.  Stretch.  Do poses mindfully and slowly.  Hold them long enough that you can tell what's happening.  Be in your body; watch your own reactions.  It's not supposed to hurt; it's not supposed to move so quickly that you can't ground your experience.  Be mindful; have fun; relax.

Slowing Down and Appreciating Knitting

Recently my friend Erika posted that she was starting a really good looking sweater pattern on Facebook and I got all excited about yet another knitting project.  I am still working slowly on my Acer Cardigan pattern, but I got distracted by the idea of the Central Park Hoodie and suddenly wanted to start that too.  In a rather unlikely turn of events I managed to not buy new yarn and start a new sweater ... shocking.  I just decided to appreciate the pattern I was working on and spent a blissful 2 hours knitting yesterday evening with no TV and no music, just the sound of the knitting needles and the occasional swear word when something went awry.  Um, in the interest of total disclosure, I did buy two skeins of Malabrigo Rios for a new scarf.  Well ... it's progress anyway.

Running

I've started running this fall and it's been a funny (and joyful) thing to do as a 47 year old adult.  Or at least it's funny for me - and I'm sure it's funny for the folks who watch me huff and puff and dance by their houses in the early morning.  I am not built like a typical runner; I'm curvy and taller and I run very very slowly at this point.  But it's invigorating and at times exciting and sometimes frustrating and sometimes just plain annoying.  The great thing about running is that there are THOSE easy days - a day when for no apparent reason it's pretty good and you have moments of feeling floaty and free.  Those are nice.  And like any other practice, whether it's yoga or guitar or knitting or just getting your ass into the office everyday, those special floaty in-the-zone days come about in part because you put the time in on all the days it didn't feel so easy.  "Bird by bird," to quote Annie Lamott.

I tell myself and my yoga students (and anyone else who will listen) that I think it's a good idea to try to master something new as an adult.  It's so hard to remember what it's like to be a beginner and being in that mindset is so good - to set out tentatively and watch yourself solve problems, plod along and get better at something.   Bird by bird... mile by mile... page by page.