Best Laid Plans

Well, I meant to get to bed by ten last night, but i got to futzing around with the last entry and didn't hit the pillow until after eleven. So, of course, I had to get up early to assist on a section. It was only 2:00, but the other call doc who would normally have assisted was tied up doing another case in the main OR. I tried to get back for a little rescue nap, but they got me up at three and again for good at four.

Not the worst as call nights go but not what i had hoped for. Practice wasn't too bad though. I had a pretty good first series. When I came in the room a little after nine, it was really warm. Somebody had cranked the heater. Ideal. Tim's out of town, so none of this conserving energy crap. Tapas baby. When the 7:00 Mysore class leaves, there's usually a much smaller number of people to keep the heat going in the 9:00 class, so having the heater already turned up was an unexpected surprise. I thought we had it made but the 9:00 teacher apparently turned the heater off when he came in. The room cooled way down. So did the energy level of my practice.

I thought I'd end up going fast and doing as many poses as possible, but an hour and a half in and I was just finishing first series. I looked over at my friend Holly, trying to gauge if she was going to go on and start second series when she finished her first. I started off in second hoping she'd stop so that I could then also feel free to stop. I couldn't quit if she was going to keep going strong. Fortunately, she must have tweaked something in her back, because she got out one of those back roller things and started doing some work on her sacral area. I was free to be a quitter. I did go ahead and do backbends and the finishing poses, which left me about six minutes for savasana.

I've been trying to force myself to pull my legs further thru each time I try to do a jump back. I was actually having an okay day of it until I saw Holly press way up and easily glide back. Not in my repertoire. Seeing her do it so easily broke my spirit or something because my next three or four attempts had barely enough lift to even get my feet back to where my hands were. When I am able to get the feet up and back to my hands, I'm getting screwed up on the pull thru by my feet position. My toes keep catching on my hands or arms. I usually go back with my feet extended. It feels like I can lift better when I do that. If I lift with my ankles flexed, there's more room for them to fit thru, but I can't lift as well and they don't clear the floor. I think that's my weakest thing, the internal lift that brings the foot of the bent leg up and away from the floor. I've seen people lift straight up from Tiriangamukha Ekapada Paschimottanasana and keep the toes of the bent leg right next to their butt. I can't even get my foot off of the floor when I try it.

I had an epiphany recently. It struck me that, since I haven't really made a whole lot of progress in jump backs for years now, maybe I'm just not strong enough to lift my current weight enough to do the move. As I see it, my options in trying to over come this roadblock are to 1) get stronger or 2) get lighter. Of the two, the second option definitely seems the easier to achieve. I think it's do-able.

My wife needs the computer to send out some lacrosse team e-mails, so that's enough for tonight.