Day 197: Body and Spirit

My body is feeling pretty beat up today. I am being punished for that post where I said a run was "too easy." Seriously? There must be a happy medium, somewhere between too easy and super-hard. Maybe too easy is actually pleasantly paced, or perfectly wonderful, or happily unstrained.

After my swim on Friday, I had a usual day filled with usual home activities, then went out to a kundalini yoga class late in the day, which required a lot of sleight-of-hand childcare wrangling (almost didn't make it). Began the two hours class thrilled to be challenged, and, as the session went on, cursing my enthusiastic morning swim (which, combined with certain kriyas, appeared to have turned my arms to jelly), and by the end I felt quietly humbled. I went home and had a beer with my husband and stayed up later than usual (post-midnight). I knew there would be pain the next day. And there was. I did not get up for the early morning yoga class, as planned. But thankfully a friend posted a photo from her early morning Saturday run, and it inspired me to run, also as planned. I made it six aching kilometres through fairly heavy snow with thighs so sore and tired they were not much interested in rising OR falling. I comforted myself by thinking that I will no doubt feel much worse during the last six kilometres of the triathlon.

This morning, I rose early-ish and went to a 90-minute hot yoga class that was not on my high priority list to attend. I actually didn't want to go. And it was a challenge. My legs felt better, but my triceps were watery and the one felt like it had been punched repeatedly. I could barely lift my banana to my mouth let alone do extensive downward dogs. At least, that's how I felt going into class. But I made it. I was tired and weak, but I stuck it out and without too many modifications made it through to the end. And I felt so fabulously good afterward.

I decided that my body needs a day off. So I am not going for a run this evening, as planned. No. (Mind just said, what???? Are you sure????). Yes. I am sure. My body needs a day to recover and rest, and then I'll feel even stronger and can reap the benefits of all this freaking work I've been making it do.

I also had an additional thought. About the body and the spirit. A strong body does not equal a strong spirit; not necessarily. I can strengthen my body all I want, but if my spirit is weak, if I'm not connecting to something larger than the body's simple and self-involved desires, all the work is for nothing. Physical work can be good for the spirit, but the two don't automatically go together. Someone frail of body might be mighty of spirit; and vice versa. I would like to be both. I would like to connect this body work to spirit work. That sounds ephemeral, and perhaps is, but here's something that happened today: when I thought about the word spirit, I felt stronger during the class; and when I thought about the word body, all by itself, I felt weaker.

:::

This week (assuming I don't run tonight--no, I'm not going to!): five yoga classes; two runs; one swim; one spin. For a total of nine exercise slots. Next week, I'd like to add one more run. I may drop a yoga class (or two) in order to do that.