I kept asking the yoga teachers, “Should I be feeling like this?” and each of them gave me a different line. Well, I discovered that the bottom line is that a little yoga is good for the body and the mind, a lot of yoga is not so good for THIS mind. And I apparently am addicted to cycling. Or at least endurance activities, running will do fine as well.

Also, I must report that the physical part of the challenge is not so fucking hard as all that. The year I joined the MIT team on their training camp in Santa Cruz was more physically challenging. As I recall, I actually started crying on the next to last day of camp while riding up the very steep and bendy Jamison Creek Road, so it wasn’t all hearts and stars for the brain part of the equation either. How about trying to keep up with those workhorses in a paceline down Route 1 so we could get back to our rental house before sundown? Not only did I think I would die, but I worried that I would let everyone down when they would inevitably have to go slower to accommodate me. So I turned myself inside out and survived. THAT was hard.

Bikram yoga for 30 days may be transformative for someone who normally is sedentary or usually does only a smattering of exercise. While I must add that I do NOT race my bike, and I don’t ride as much as someone who does race, even in the amateur ranks, I do think that my usual regimen of 10-15 hours a week on the bike and the occasionally hard ride with faster, stronger riders is HARDER THAN BIKRAM YOGA.

So now I will return to my regularly scheduled life, with mostly riding, running, and a little yoga mixed in. And oh yeah, drinking, my other favorite sport.

See you out there.

However, I’ve been feeling kind of – how do I say it – emotional. Like, occasionally weepy. This is weird. I asked a friend who is a yoga teacher about it and she claims that lots of stretching of hip abductors can lead to some emotional responses. Well, no one told me about that before! So I asked the woman teaching my class today if that ever happened to people doing this challenge – and yes it does. Fucking great! So does that mean I get to be a basket case all month? I feel fine in the class, mostly, and fine afterwards, but in the hours before I go to class, I can get a little teary. Man!

On another note, I have no desire to eat much of anything beyond fruit and vegetables and fish, and mostly fruit. Which is why my new smoothie maker is a hit. Except for today, when I managed to spill a smoothie on my lap and it looked like I’d puked on myself. Made of a mixture of banana, yoghurt, chocolate soymilk, and cranberries, my spilled beverage had the color and consistency of sick. Yuk.

Yes, I am sure this is about as exciting as anybody’s training log. Thrilling, right-o!

After suffering a little setback in my personal life, nothing major, I thought – what better excuse to do this? It’s probably better than a 30-day bender, which was another idea I had. (I have noticed that it is possible to ride a LOT and still drink loads – I don’t think the same is possible with the yoga.) The folks at my studio claim that 30 days of yoga can be transformative, and I could stand to have a little transformation in my life. Also, I would enjoy having my mid-30s weight gain / beer belly go away.

So, wish me luck. I may be too tired to ride much. But I’m sort of sick of the other people on the road anyway. These days I’d have to ride something like five hours a day for bicycles to really transform me, I think. We’ll see. Maybe next year I’ll try something new with the bike. But what??