Friday, October 17, 2008

Doga - Yoga For Dogs

Have you ever heard of Doga - Yoga For Dogs? When I saw an ad in my local newspaper for this last month I just had to check it out. Was it a joke or was the studio really holding a yoga class . . . for dogs?

Well, it was a real yoga class for dogs. Now you may have to stretch your imagination a bit and use the term "yoga class" a bit loosely. But there was a real yoga instructor and a handful of people with their dogs and their mats. I knew this was going to be a challenge for me because my greyhound (Peanut) doesn't know how to 'sit' and is not very fond of obeying commands – unless the command is 'lay there and don't move.'

It was quite an interesting hour. Not sure either of us got much out of it, but it was certainly entertaining. Here's the class in a nutshell - a Peanut shell . . .

First we needed to make eye contact, which is not an easy task with a aloof greyhound, but Peanut did her best.

Here she is showing off a brand new trick that she didn't know she could do.

Here she appears much more interested in Daddy and the camera than in yoga.

Looks like I'm the only one doing any yoga here. Peanut is just relaxing.

She's just not getting it. This is supposed to be 'updog.' Not 'lay-there dog.'

Wait, she's catching on. That almost looks like a 'down dog.' I'm so proud!

And then she figured out where the treats were coming from and it was all over!

Friday, October 10, 2008

A Tough Week

I started off this week with my first trip to the gym in months. I can really only bare to be working out indoors when the weather is too cold be outside and I haven't lifted since completing P90X. For some reason I assumed completing the P90X program would keep me in tip top shape for a year. Boy was I wrong. I lifted on Monday and Tuesday with my insane husband trainer. It was hard and I felt weak. I hated it.

On Monday we concentrated on chest and I didn't find it too bad. I was sore the next day, but it was a good sore. I like it when I know that I did something the day before. I went back to the gym on Tuesday for more punishment. This time we did nothing but biceps. On Wednesday I was very sore, or at least I thought I was very sore. I had no idea how much the soreness would intensify as the days went on. I thought Wednesday was bad, but Thursday was much worse. I had a hard time just getting through the normal course of the day. Lifting my arms past shoulder level was simply impossible and there wasn’t a square inch of my back that didn’t kill if touched in any way.

I actually starting to have feelings of, “I’m getting to old for this nonsense? Why do I do this to myself? I think I should retire from torturing my body.” I was getting comfortable with giving up on the idea of killing myself to stay in great shape. Life would be so much easier if I just let go of this impossible ideal. And this blissful thought lasted for at least 14 hours.

Then last night I went to line dancing class. I talked to a new friend and got the report on how she did in her very first triathlon. She really inspired me and I made a comment like, “You go girl. I wish I could do it.” That led to her saying, “Hey, maybe next year we can do it together as a team.” My eyes immediately widened and twinkled. I jumped up and shook her hand, “You’re on. Let’s start training in the Spring.” I went home so excited I couldn’t sleep.