Ashtanga 17

The humidifier ran out of water at 4:30 this morning and bummed me out as I was really enjoying my sleep. I filled it up and went back to bed finding it hard to get up when the alarm went off at 5. I did so and rolled out my mat on the studio floor at 5:30. Yesterday afternoon I realized why one of the everyday early risers wasn't at the studio yesterday, he's already in New York for the first of his two weeks with Guruji. It's less than a week away and I'm very excited. I leave in 3 days!

Anyway, I threw an extra Surya Namaskara B in this morning after taking off my shirt and being very fidgety through the other Suryas. It may sound prudish of me but I have never taken off my shirt in a yoga class. First I find that the shirts tend to collect my sweat, and I sweat a lot. Second I have lost 40 lbs in the past 6 months or so and I am simply not used to being able to comfortably take my shirt off in public. Third, I'm never sure how people are going to react to my excessive scars. Of course in yoga no one is paying too much attention, especially at the loft. Ashtanga requires a great deal of internal focus. People can come and go in the class without me ever noticing the change. So I've always thought that removing my shirt would assist with my practice as one really needs sweat for lubrication with many of the poses and after today I'll say it appears to be slightly true. My jump throughs were more like slide throughs and I was really able to slide my arms up into reverse prayer during Parsvottanasana.

I screwed up the order of the asana and did Purvottanasana after Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana. I then went into my Janu Sirsasanasas. I had one moment of clarity with a jump back that went OK. I actually got myself up off the ground and began to move back towards plank. It will come. Due to my extreme sweating I used a towel over my knee when doing Marichyasana D and actually got the binds on both sides again. My back is beginning to straighten in the Marichys as well, which is helping a great deal I'm sure. I can't remember if I did 4 or 5 Navasanas, but know that they were killing me at the end. My push ups in between navasanas are rough, really rough, but at least I'm trying every time. I finished with a poor attempt at Bhujapidasana. I can wrap my legs around my arms and lock my feet together but begin to loose balance when I move my head towards the ground. I tried for a moment to extend my legs straight but it wasn't coming to I kind of jumped them back to plank and vinyasa'd from there.

I moved to my finishing asanas without any adjustments from Matthew. I did manage to figure out the somersault (roll back) between Uttana Padasana and Sirsasana. I need to keep my legs straight, which Matthew did come over and point out to me, and I tried it twice without doing so. But either way, this one had been evading me for quite some time as I was always going way too fast. It's a very slow and deliberate movement. It's really easy once you do it.

If I can work through Bhujapidasana, Kurmasana, Supta Kurmasana, Garbha Pindasana and Kukkutasana and get some knowledge of the vinyasas between then all I should be able to keep up with Guruji's Led Primary next week. And if I can keep up with that throughout the week I can bring it back home with me and perfect it over time.

Whew! Look at that ambition on the page! :) Let's see how this moves into reality over the next few days. I'd like to go down and work on some asana in the gym, but I don't have any shorts with me today. grrr...