General update - 1/20

After 3-4 days, the soreness I felt in my calves after the 1.8 mile run the other week finally went away. So doing 1.8 miles was definitely a little much. It'd be nice to follow that run up with something like 1.5 miles in short order, but the weather around here has made that difficult to do. But I should probably just suck up the fact that my toes will get cold, and get it over with. In fact, I could bust it out quick before a yoga class where everything would get warmed up right away anyway. Actually, on second thought, that is probably a good idea - any tightness that might show itself would be met quickly with heat and stretching.

The other thing I've done a couple times now is to get on the bike rollers for 30 minutes at no resistance. The idea here is to get the knee and muscles used to the motion of cycling without any of the resistance that can lead to muscles tightening. It is also a good way to get the butt used to sitting on a saddle again. Both times I've been on the rollers, the left IT band has felt a bit tight the next morning. So far, it hasn't lasted more than a couple hours, but it has prompted me to start rolling the IT band out again on the PVC just as a precaution. The way I'm looking at it, though, is that if I am feeling that tightness and it is not lasting, hopefully after a few sessions I won't feel it at all, which would be an indication of progress.

Lastly, I've started noticing another round of improvements due to yoga. Last update I mentioned that I can sit with my legs crossed, and while it is not comfortable, it is significantly less uncomfortable than it used to be. This past weekend, I found myself sitting on the couch with my legs crossed.. inadvertantly. I'm not sure whether it was because my legs were tired of being stretched out in front of me or what - but that is something I'd never have done before.

Other aspects of yoga are improving as well, but only in a way noticable within the context of yoga itself. Previously, both fixed firm pose and camel pose were undoable for me - but I've recently been able to start laying back in fixed firm pose (knees are still too tight to fully get my hips on the ground), and I've been able to get into the full backward bend of camel pose. Not only that, but I've been able to do both in the past couple classes. For about a week, I was only able to do one one or the other without getting extremely light headed.