Cycling

I may or may not have commented on this blog that I used to do a lot of cycling.  There was a period where i was doing between 400 and 600km a week, and that period went on for quite a while.  Consequently, my cycling got quite fast.  There's fantastic cycling on this island.  It's really quite amazing, with long winding roads, little to no traffic, and beautiful scenery.  When the chance came up to hire a road-bike and go cycling with friends, I jumped at it.  We were three, and even though the other two cycle quite a bit, I just assumed that I'd be a lot faster than the two of them.  I had my 'cycling ego' alive and kicking from the old cyclist inside me.  Well when it came to the ride, I was useless.  It really showed that I hadn't been on a bike for a couple of years.  The other two were kicking ahead, and I was struggling to keep up.  After 55km I was completely destroyed.  We did 72km in total, but the ride home was very very slow, just cruising, spinning the legs over.

Half way through the ride, we came across a yoga shala.  I knew it was around somewhere, but hadn't been able to find it until now.  It's called "Ashtanga Yoga Ibiza", and is the only Ashtanga yoga shala on the island.  Seeing it, I had to go and inspect.  I wandered in, and as luck would have it, they were just about to start a class.  there was a teacher and an assistant.  The teacher was a little difficult, but the assistant I really connected with.  She had good energy.  Their class timetable didn't suit me, but the following week they were going to have a retreat.  The retreat was way outside of my price range, but if i were to do the morning classes, then we settled on 15E per morning mysore class.  This is still a lot, but it's an opportunity to study with some new teachers, so I said I'd probably come.  I just needed to organise some transport first.

Practicing after the cycle, and I'm a little stiff and tired, but not overly so.  A hard ride used to knock me about for a couple of days, but in the end, this was only 72km, so my body has absorbed it quite well.  I did a standing series that evening after the ride, and then a full primary the next morning.  It was nice and flowy.  I've been finding it hard to push myself to practice lately.  It could be the lack of a decent routine, or that my body isn't responding to practice the way it used to only a couple of months ago.  My lotus is very comfortable now, and I'm happy to be able to do that whenever I want.  It's good to slip into it during the day sometimes - reading, sitting on the beach, lying in a hummock…