Another Week

In the past 7 days I’ve gone to 11 yoga classes. I’m addicted to yoga. All week I managed to make it to the early morning 6am Hot Yoga class. My ten day trial expired yesterday so when I go this afternoon I’m going to sign up for the three month membership. Last night I went over to Qi Yoga for the Yoga for Detox class. It was a great class! We did several poses I’ve never seen before, like “bird of paradise.” It was really cool to mix new poses into a familiar flow. I’ve already signed up to go again next Friday!

Today I ran the Christmas Carol 10K in 1:04:11. It was pretty chilly this morning, but a great day for a race. I definitely enjoyed the day!

I’ve been busy getting ready to fly home in January. I’m mostly packed, and presents are wrapped. I’m sad I’ll be missing Christmas with my family again, but I can’t wait to go home for a week!

Hot Yoga

This week I started practicing hot yoga. It is amazing! The poses are less strenuous than the vinyasa I’ve been doing, but with the room heated to 105 degrees it’s pretty intense. Within 10 minutes I’ve got beads of sweat forming on my skin, and by the end my clothes are soaked through! I’m still in the ten day trial period, but if I can motivate myself to get to the 6am classes next week, I’m going to invest in a membership. The room is like a sauna. It is so hot I cannot help but be fully present and in the moment. The heat and the detailed instructions make me 100% focused on what my body is doing, and every thought I had before the class started disappears. Today I went to my 4^th class, and those 90 minutes flew by. Attending these classes is also making me more mindful about drinking water to stay hydrated.

Today is day 25 of my run streak! I’ve run over 24 miles last week. If I can make it to New Years, maybe this will be the start of a great Resolution? Yesterday I volunteered at the Santa Stampede and next weekend I’m going to run the Christmas Carol Classic 10k. And in just a few weeks I’ll be home!

Status Quo

Life has been spectacular. I’ve managed to keep up the Holiday Run Streak running at least 1 mile everyday (some days that is the only thing that motivates me to get to the gym!) Today is day 18 of the streak! Yesterday was the Ugly Sweater Run in City Park to benefit Toys for Tots. That was the most chaotic run I’ve ever been to. There were 7,000 runners! Everyone looked absolutely ridiculous/amazing in their ugly sweaters, Santa hats, stick on mustaches and assorted other holiday garb. Once I got there, and picked up my Santa hat and a delicious Angry Orchard Cider I started the run. This event wasn’t times, so I set my stop watch, and took it easy to enjoy the day. It was a great place to people watch! Everyone looked awesome and the atmosphere was festive and fun!

Last weekend was the first 5K of the Run Denver series. I ran the Rudolph Ramble in 27:46 which is faster than I’ve been running since this summer. I’m planning of running the entire series as hard as I can, and hopefully will be able to improve my record time! This week I also went to check out Qi Fitness studios because I have a groupon for 10 fitness classes. So I stopped in and dropped in on a “Kardio Kinesis” class. It was more of a workout than I expected- the class was a circuit of body weight exercises that made me sweat! In the next few weeks I hope to check out their yoga classes.

With the year winding down I’ve been trying to think about the upcoming year and what I hope my life to look like. I have started applying for Outward Bound internships for the summer, and I finished updating my Americorps application so I can begin applying for Americorps Habitat for Humanity positions soon. This week I submitted my finals for my Nonprofit Management classes, all I have left to do is finish my online profile and submit it and I’ll have my certification!

Yesterday Lori had an Empower Women in Africa sewing event in Boulder, and Sam (also from Bike and Build) offered to drive me! It was a great event- a lot of people learning about the organization were really excited about the work we were doing. The woman who runs the little sewing shop taught me how to use a sewing machine! It was great catching up with Sam and Lori, and I’m glad the next event is going to be in Denver.