The Cows are in the Meadow

One of the opportunities of Juneathon is to use it as an excuse to try new things. Most people seem to have embraced the idea of the 100 press-up, 200 sit-up challenge and I am full of admiration as that seems quite hard. But my need is for more flexibility and balance; hence I will be trying yoga.

I am not a total novice as I took a class a few years ago but since then my stretching regime has been none too impressive and I remain rather stiff, especially the hamstrings. Work needs to be done otherwise I will continue to contract into myself and become a little ball.

I actually started last week and went to a class last Thursday and was quite impressed by how different it was from my previous classes i.e. the change from traditional Hatha to Ashtanga. I did not realise the sun could be saluted so much and I ended up watching the beads of sweat drip from my forehead onto the mat - that never used to happen.

Today I went for my second class but it was cancelled. What to do? If it had not been Juneathon I would have shrugged my shoulders and thought nothing more about it but I had programmed this as my main activity of the day. So I had to unroll my mat in the lounge and try construct my own session from The Runner's Yoga Book (useful because it recognises the fact that runners tend to be stiff and shows a number of less testing modifications to the classic poses). For some reason I found it very difficult to keep my focus but nevertheless I struggled on for 30 minutes before deciding that that was enough.

I also went for a cycle ride with the intention of taking some photos of the Belted Galloway cows which usually gaze at Boxmoor. They are wonderfully gentle beasts who pay very little attention to the people who walk on the footpaths that criss-cross the meadow (or even idiots with a camera kneeling in front of them).

Juneathon Day 4 stats:

Homemade Yoga: 30 min
Cycling distance: 7 miles
Cycling time: 40 min