Looks like I disappeared again. We have been doing so much work on the house and garden, I’ve been killin’ it with school and also a little work. Did I mention I’m training (poorly) for an ultrarathon? Right…..
And upgrading animal digs so we can go on our numerous adventures scheduled for the upcoming months.
So forgive me if my posts are few and far between. I promise I’m learning a lot to share when I have time to share it.
I am having a hard time trying to fit in ultra training and yoga. I need both. I definitely need yoga, but I’ve committed to some serious runs this year…. and I can’t really be unprepared and not expect total disaster (read: 50 miler 3 weeks before my underfunded BOMF NYC marathon).
Fundraising has fallen by the wayside (bad, bad, bad) and I’m having to trick myself into showing up for class (also bad). I’ll figure it out eventually here. I did wake up this morning at 4:00am so I could be out to run a fiver with a friend of mine by 4:45. Holy crap. Nice to have it finished though. I’m sure a nap is in my future.
On this week’s to-do:
-Handicap friendly coop
-pass math exam
-even shorter haircut
-try to raise some major fundage for BOMF
-and new recipes! now that I have time to cook (seriously… where are the squash blossoms in Tampa?).
-TNT long run
-spin (x2)
-get most all of my miles in
oh life. you do rock.
That’s right! I’m back! AND I can now add certified (not yet registered) yoga instructor to my repertoire. Love Love Love and gratitude to Ally Ford for being an ah-mazing teacher and leading me to a daily ashtanga practice. Friday was our last day… bittersweet you know. And now I have some new skills and it’s time to get all my shiz together and try to fit everything in that I’ve missed this past month.
I took it pretty easy this weekend. I desperately needed to catch up on a months worth of missed/crappy sleep and also needed to tend to C. Not to mention it’s been raining for like a solid 10 days (which I kinda love). Coop/run cleaning, house cleaning, laundry doing, cooking, holy moley…… there’s just so much to do. I’ve got to catch up on school work (not to mention the math classes I’ve been missing), get back into fundraising gear and I also applied to intern over the fall/spring at Sweetwater Farm.
But what better way to recommence my real life than by taking this handsome boy to the vet this morning?
Did I mention he is 103 pounds? (that’s like 20 pound overweight) Yikes! Lets just be clear here… he doesn’t live with me. I didn’t do it. Still a sweetie though.
Well, I just wanted to get a quick update in here and let everyone know I’m still alive. Kicking even. Now I’m off to do some work, run (oh, right… I’m supposed to be running 50 miles in Oct…), clean, cook, and get in some much needed Mysore.
peace, love, gratitude and all that namaste stuff
Today started out with the blahs. I woke up just feeling wonky and I couldn’t get out of it. I was sad, or out of sorts… I don’t know. Did the regular morning stuff, drove to the shala and commenced chanting and meditation. By the end of meditation I was feeling a bit better, but still sorry for myself (for whatever reason…). Then I practiced. It was a nice slow vinyasa flow that suited exactly how I felt today. I don’t know how it always works out that way… but it does.
After, I still felt a little down… but a shower and some errands (ie. lunch and a dog/cat food stop so I didn’t have to do it at 5pm) cured me pretty nicely. I was insanely patient driving home, which is sooooo unlike me, and guess what? I got home in exactly the same amount of time… with NO STRESS. Funny, right?
I did hear something that I thought was disturbing when I listened to the news though. About the geese at the airport in NY. You know the famous geese in the propellers from the Hudson emergency landing? Well, apparently they wanted to make the airport safer so last year they made a plan to capture the geese and gas them. Animal rights activists had some problems with that and luckily it didn’t happen. Now though.. the new plan is to capture them and relocate them to Pennsylvania where they will be cooked and fed to poor people.
I’m really just not sure how I feel about this….. Feeding them to the poor is definitely better than gassing them.. but geez. All in the name of airline safety. At least now a little bit of my airplane terror can be tempered by the death of thousands of birds. Hmm.. If you want to check out the whole story HERE it is.
On a lighter note. I am 3 weeks into YTT. Which means I’m almost finished… which also means that I need to stop stammering through my cuing while teaching asana. I’ll give you the full update when it’s all over, but today I’m just happy it was able to quell my dreary Monday mood.
TNT is going well. We had our first official training day Saturday with some breakfast and a shoe demo after. Everyone is really great and I hope we can get everyone faster and stronger and happy with their efforts by the fall. Ive also been recruited for the Florida Keys Ragnar which isn’t until January thank god. Lots on my plate here. Ultra training is on hold until YTT is over and then I need to get my ass in gear…again. I’d like to keep up with my 6 day a week ashtanga practice as well, so we’ll have to see how to work that one out. Luckily I should be [retty hungry with all that exercise so there should be some awesome recipes coming up in July. Until then, it’s cous cous and kale.
Hopefully I’ll be back soon… but I’ve got a boatload of work to do.
Namaste ya’ll
*oh and by the way…. air conditioning rocks.
I call this one ‘Cat in front of fan.’
Why you ask? Well, mainly because she is in front of the fan that everyone has been battling to get in front of since it started getting hot. And let me tell you…. it is HOT up in this piece.
Mainly we all just sit here in the living room in front of the fan and try not to move… since that’s when the sweating starts.
Why am I telling you this? Well, today is a fateful day in the behnke/winn house. We are officially going to have air conditioning by tonight. Allegedly. It IS 7pm and the guys haven’t finished yet… but I’m, uh…. optimistic? In the meantime though… two dogs, two cats and two people are waaaay too many sitting in front of this fancy shmancy swivel fan. God bless it though… it’s kept us alive so far. By which I mean I haven’t killed C yet in a fit of blazing hot temperature induced madness. I fear it may be coming though…. good thing these guys are supposed to be done 3 hours ago soon….
Anyhow. I went to my first Mysore class today! Hooray! It was actually pretty awesome. After I fixed my mess up of going straight from surya namaskara a to trikonasana everything else went swimmingly. I added in a new posture that I haven’t been able to do yet…. and now the work begins. Jumpbacks are the devil, but I will figure it out. So all in all it was wonderful, except that it cuts into my boyfriend-girlfriend dog walking time…. oh mysore, can’t we coordinate a time that works for me?
I also took the rest of the day off after mysore, chanting and meditation. A little break right in the middle will do me good I think. Give me some time to catch up on some other stuff… you know, like homework, cleaning, running watching Weeds on netflix…….
Tomorrow a.m. is our first official TNT run with just our group. 4 miles and breakfast. I can’t complain…. except that I haven’t had the time to run more than 2 miles in two weeks. Let’s hope ashtanga is comparable… cuz that’s all that’s fitting in right now. And lord forgive me for wearing my Vibrams to practice. As a coach I was asked not to so that I don’t ‘influence’ the new runners shoe choices and lead them to think they should go all barefoot. Well…. for f*ck sake people… they’re adults aren’t they? I will not treat people like children and I don’t wear regular shoes. That’s the truth….. so sue me. If they are going to be influenced like that then maybe they need a little real world wake up (shin splints anyone?)
I need a nap.
-Peace out-
It’s strange to be gone all day.
I leave at 8 and get back at 6. Those hours usually spent cleaning, pounding the pavement and playing with avian, canine and feline alike are now spent meditating, practicing and teaching.
It’s week two and i feel pretty good about everything. Meditation and breathing are amazing and really have effected my state of mind. Practicing everyday has been great for me, not to mention my triceps.
I’m hoping i’ll be ready 3 weeks from now to teach confidently and manage to put away my spin instructor face and put on my yoga hat. Right now they are painfully overlapping. My spin class regular huzzah and cinicism desperately grasping to stay afloat amidst the firm yet gentle style of the yoga teacher underneath. Stay under, if only long enough for me to teach my graduation class….
Everything else (cleaning, schoolwork, running etc…) is all falling by the wayside as i move farther into asanas and bandahs and om shantis. It always works out for the best i suppose.
After this month i plan a serious rededication to cooking though. I’m not promising anything in the other areas, bur cooking, that needs to come back.
On this weeks schedule: class observation, seated poses, anatomy and my first mysore class (yikes).
How am i going to run an ultra?
I love this word.
jai [same]: victory
I’ve heard it used in so many situations (chant response, as an exclamation, etc…) and it is always so beautiful and joyful. I guess one would be joyful if there was victory……
duh, winning.
Here’s the news from the Love Drop boys:
Love Drop #5 was one of our best Love Drops ever, and you helped make it happen! We loved surprising the Stalnaker family with a Mustang convertible - we were able to make the family think we were unable to get a car at first, so it was fun to see their faces when they realized that we did get them a car. Check out the final Drop video here to see how it went down!This month we're coming together for the Aubin family. This family has recently suffered a huge loss with the death of Keith, their husband and father. Keith died in April after a long battle with multiple health problems. This month we're helping the family work through their loss - and have made it our goal to raise at least $3,600 to pay their rent for the next three months to allow them to focus on everything they need to without the fear of losing their home. Go to Lovedrop.us to help. -J$ & Nate
Holy forward fold.
Teacher training started Monday and I was totally stressed trying to figure out how I would fit it all in. The training itself is great. Chanting, breathing and meditation in the morning followed by asana, lunch and discussion.
So I wake up at 6am, do house/pet stuff for two hours, leave to drive for 45 min and then commence zen. Yesterday though I had team in training at 7pm so it was go go go all day. I was not in the right mind set.
Then asana practice happened this morning. I was tired, totally not balancing like I normally would, and worried that today’s practice just might not be that great. Let that be a lesson. Today was the best and most helpful practice so far. I was out of balance but my perspective was just different today. The air was lighter, I was calmer.
And them forward fold happened. The instructor came to adjust in forward fold and my body just clicked right where it needed to. EVERYTHING changed. The temperature, my attitude, the light in the studio.
Thank you thank you thank you yoga for always proving that our bodies and minds are these crazy magical vessels that can change EVERYTHING.
Welcome to givemegrace.com! I'm Grace, a twenty-something personal trainer/group fitness instructor from Florida that loves to stay healthy and happy through fitness and food. This blog follows my efforts to eat clean, live sustainably and run/bike/swim/asana my way to a happy life.
Feel free to contact me at: grace@givemegrace.com
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