500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

On the last day of our 200 hour yoga teacher training, the owner of Lotus House of Yoga talked to us about the next level of training, the 500 hour yoga teacher training. This training would be an additional 300 hours of training. While the 200 hour training is seen as the "undergrad" level of training, so to speak, the 500 hour is the "masters" level.

It's a very small monetary commitment to sign up for the training, and then the weekend trainings are workshop based and pay as you go. While I don't ever intend on teaching yoga full-time, this really appealed to me. When I'm excited and passionate about something, I want to learn everything I possibly can about it! I decided I'd sign up in early 2016, and set aside the money I make teaching to pay for the workshops as they come up.

The workshops are primarily in Omaha and Lincoln, and there are quite a few of my classmates that are planning to do the 500 hour as well, so we could certainly carpool and share lodging when I'm down there, which will be great.

Recently my yoga studio announced that they are bringing up instructors to Sioux Falls for trainings, each of the weekends totally 25 hours toward my 500 hour certification. When I told Kyle about it,  he asked if I wanted the workshops for my wedding present. YES!

So in almost a month, I'll be starting my 500 hour training, and I'm so excited!

Train for ALL THE THINGS

Now that yoga teacher training has wrapped up, I'm excited to jump into a training program. Which is great, because the Sioux Falls Half Marathon is just around the corner (I start my 10 week training schedule on Monday!) and I've been running minimally. Eeps!

I have been carefully plotting out my runs for each week, and putting them on my calendar along with my yoga and barre classes (along with the classes I still need to assist to finish my yoga teacher training certification hours) and I swear I'm breaking into a sweat just by typing all of that into my iCal. So who knows how I'm going to actually complete the workouts.

As I was plotting my long runs on my weekends, I was excited to see that my cutback week fell on a weekend that I had intended on doing a 60 mile bike ride. I've done a half century before, but that was a few years ago, and I have yet to take my bike out this season for a ride. It took approximately 45 seconds of excitement to realize that if I'm going to do a 60 mile ride in one month, I will need to be doing some 30 mile rides weekly to get my booty used to sitting in the saddle. And then I looked at my already jam packed schedule and said good bye to the ride. There's always next year, right?

And the good news is that a running friend is planning a for fun 5k the morning of the 60 mile ride, so all is not lost. I can still do something fun with my cutback week. :)

May in Review

May in Review

Total Miles: 17.2 up from 3 last month. Lolz. April was a rough mouth for running. Hashtag alltheyoga. Down from from 61.5 last May.

Total Time:  2:45:57 up from 33 minutes last month. Ha. Last May I ran 9:57:55.

Total Runs: 5 runs, for an average of 3.44 miles per run. 

Highest weekly mileage:

5/18/2015 – 5/24/2015:	8.2 mi	1:18:07

Favorite run: 
5 mile "hilly" long run at a decent pace. Yeah, you just saw me put favorite and long in the same sentence. Probably because the length of the run wasn't 16-20 miles long. :P

Most hardcore run: 

Tempo run to and from barre on hills. No clue how I held a fast past after barre.

Favorite race: 
None.

Bike Miles: None.

Yoga: 21:30 hours. I spent almost a day of this month getting my om on. Whoa. And this doesn't count the full weekends spent toward my 200 hour training (except for the hours we were actually flowing/practicing). Wowsers. I'm surprised by that total!

Barre: 2:30 hours.

Favorite Jam: 

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend Five

Friday we kicked off teacher training at 4:30pm with a Manifest Flow lead by Lora. It was beautiful and incredibly thought provoking and brought me to tears. After class we went back to the studio to talk about energy.

Saturday we started the day with a Chakra Flow. After class we talked more in depth about Chakras, which is my favorite subject of the moment, so I was excited! 

We also spent a lot of time working on assists. I'm still fairly new to yoga, and the studios I practice at don't do a lot of assists during class, so I feel like I'm way behind on knowing what to do! It was nice learning and practicing on each other to feel more comfortable. We did some round robin practice teaching of the Surya Namaskar A and B as well as a portion of the Lotus Master Flow. Putting my memorization skills to the test!

Lora also talked to us about meditation, and took us through a 20 minute guided meditation. She really liked my shirt. :)

Sunday was spent practicing our surya namaskar A and B sequences incorporating the breath, sanskrit, and english poses. Each of us practice taught, which means we did about 40 total sun salutations in 2.5 hours. We got done early on Sunday because we had a 9.5 hour day on Saturday. Somehow Sunday felt longer than Saturday. Yoga messes up your sense of time, man.

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend Four

Friday night kicked off for yoga teacher training with my first experience with a mandala class. I got some new fun tank tops, so I was excited to sport those for the weekend as well. My happy place... lolz.

For those unfamiliar with mandala (like me) here's a more detailed description of what the class entailed. It was very spiritual and moving and reminded me a lot of various Native American events that I have experienced. Always striving to celebrate and heal the earth.

After the flow we went back to the studio to learn more from Erin. Erin has a yoga studio in Sioux City and went through the same teacher training that we did three years ago. To see what an awesome instructor she is in that short of time is awe inspiring. She recently completed her journeyed through the Inkan Medicine Wheel with the Four Wind's Society and became a full Mesa carrier in the Q'uero tradition. If you're like me and have no clue what all of that means, it was a very fascinating evening! We learned about her experience and the things she is passionate about and also spent some time using a special kind of sustainable wood to clear each other (similar to smudging). I didn't want to shower after because it had such a beautiful scent!

Saturday I woke up to my favorite running weather. Cool, rainy, still. Most folks were thrilled the weather was dreary, since we've had some truly sunny and gorgeous weekends where we've been "stuck" inside the studio for training. But for me, all I wanted to do was go run for a couple of hours.

sigh.

Luckily, I was treated to an awesome yoga flow to start the day, and really spoke to this runner girl: Awaken the Psoas!

This class was led by Melanie who is from Omaha with the teacher training trainers. She is an anatomy guru and was here to cover that section of our lectures. The class was awesome, but really hard for me, because my psoas are incredible TIGHT. I left the class feeling a lot looser than normal, and wished that I could have taken notes on the flow to do daily!

Then we settled in for anatomy. This was one of the sections I was most excited to learn about, and Melanie did not disappoint. I love learning from people that are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about what they're discussing. I learned so much from her.

I also got hit on by this creep.

After class, Ollie enjoyed some mom and pug time. I laid on the couch and within moments she was parked in this spot.

Sunday started with an hour long flow and then we discussed the ethics of yoga and the business side of yoga with the yoga studio owner. It was really interesting and made me realize that I don't ever want to own a studio. :P (Or a business in general for that matter, man, what a lot of work! I'll stick to my library.)

We also discussed our areas of passion with the group. My list is ever evolving and I'm fully aware that I'd need eleven lifetimes to accomplish it all. 

During the lecture portion, Becca constructed this amazing yogi recliner and I had to snap a picture to document it (and to remember it for future training weeks. What a smart chica.

The latter half of the day was spent practice teaching in small groups and then teaching the larger group. The more we practice, the more I feel like I could actual teach yoga (it's the darnest thing, I tell you). I really excited to see where this journey could take me.

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend Three

Our third weekend of yoga teacher training kicked off on Friday night at a slightly earlier time. Naturally I got an email mid-afternoon that my engagement ring was ready to be picked up after 15 days off of my finger. I somehow managed to book it to the jeweler and get to the studio, get changed, and sneak in with a minute to spare.

When we arrived to class in the dance studio, the space was set up for the dance recital later that night. And it was the most amazing space for our yoga practice! It was my first time practicing kundalini yoga with Carole Westerman from Lotus House of Yoga.

Per 3HO.org:

Kundalini Yoga is called the Yoga of Awareness. It is a dynamic, powerful tool that is designed to give you an experience of your soul.

In Kundalini Yoga we harness the mental, physical, and nervous energies of the body and put them under the domain of the will, which is the instrument of the soul. This technology precisely and consciously combines breath, mudra, eye-focus, mantra, body locks, and postures to balance the glandular system, strengthen the nervous system, expand lung capacity, and purifiy the blood. It brings balance to the body, mind, and soul.

We did a lot of breath of fire in the practice, which is incredibly difficult for me. A lot of the movements seemed really basic, but were incredibly hard. Many of the movements and breath work made me feel ridiculous, but a lot of the practice was done with our eyes closed, so it was nbd. If you ever have the opportunity to try kundalini, definitely do, but go into it with an open mind!

After our practice, we headed back to the studio to learn about prenatal yoga. It made me realize how little I know about pregnancy! It was a great eye opener and I left with many dos and don'ts as well as many modifications for the future preggos that attend my classes!

Saturday we started the day with a flow based on the five elements. It was awesome and hard and a great way to kick off the day of class. Saturday's classroom focus was Ayurveda. For those unfamiliar with ayurveda, it can be defined as: The ancient Hindu science of health and medicine, based on maintaining balance among the five elements earth, air, fire, water, and ether.

Hence the morning's flow inspiration, eh? :) Carole is a smart yogi.

We each took a quiz to determine our ayurvedic constitutions and learned a ton of things throughout the day to be mindful of, careful of, etc. etc. based on our results. As part of our class curriculum, we were required to purchase Ayurveda: The Science of Self Healing: A Practical Guide. I haven't made my way through it completely, but it's a pretty fascinating read so far, and would be a great place to start if you're interested.
 Also, the tests we took are here and here.

My dosha results are strongly pitta with some equal parts of vada and kappa.

To end the day, we did a yin yoga practice which I had never experienced before (a weekend of many firsts if you're also noticing the trend!). We learned that yin yoga is the yin to vinyasa yoga's yang (see what I did there?). We also learned the difference between restorative and yin yoga, as they are commonly used interchangably. Per our lecture, restorative yoga focuses on relaxation of the muscles and body, utilizing props to aid in the process. Where as yin yoga is concerend with stretching and joint health and working on the fascia and connected tissue. The analogy Carole used that resonated with me is that "Yin yoga is similar to braces aligning teeth." Very cool.

Sunday we started the day by doing an amazing restorative class. I was incredibly sore, so it was much needed and much appreciated. It also reminded me that I need to get back to restorative classes more frequently! They've taken the back seat since I haven't been destroying my legs by running all the time.

I could've stayed in this forever. Optimal levels of comfy.

After the practice, we split into duos to practice our assists during restorative positions. Heaven.

Then we split into groups to work on our portion of the master flow series that we were to teach to the group. We practiced our section, over and over and over with different students taking the lead on teaching and eventually took a break for lunch. After lunch, we had a new group with each individual knowing a different section of the flow and we practiced and practiced and practiced. By the end of the day, we split into two full groups and each of us took a turn instructing the full class during a 90 minute flow. I was certain my arms would fall off if I was required to do another chaturanga.





When we were all done, Carole treated us to a 25 minute nidra yoga session. It is said that 20 minutes of nidra yoga makes the body feel like you've taken a two hour nap, so I was all in with a late flight to Vegas just a few short hours away! It was really interesting, and I definitely fell asleep during it, as did many others. I must say, I was up until 4:30am that night, so maybe there's some truth to it!

Weekly Training Recap

After a very long weekend of teacher training with lots of practice teaching and practice-practicing, my muscles were dead when I left for Vegas. I took Monday off from working out. I did search out yoga classes while I was there, but the only ones on the strip coincided with when Dominique was done with her conference each day, so I passed.

Tuesday morning I spent 45 minutes practicing the surya namaskar A and B sequences, as well as the section of the master flow (we're required to teach a specific flow at the end of training) that I had to practice teach on Sunday. I managed to work up a decent sweat in our cool hotel room and realized how easy it is to rely on the stickiness of your mat for various lunging poses instead of really engaging the whole part of your foot. Yoga on carpet is hard.

Then I went and laid by the pool. Ha.

Wednesday was a full travel day full of delays and hellacious flights. Thursday I ended up sleeping in opted to skip the sculpt class I was signed up for, because I wanted to be fresh for another weekend of yoga teacher training (this is our only back to back weekend of training and since it normally takes me ~4 days to recover, I was kind of concerned!).

Friday I had big intentions of getting back to Ashtanga yoga at 5:30am. So much that I was up at 4:45. However, after laying around for 30 minutes with a terrible stomach ache, I just went back to bed.

After work I attended a mandala class. It was really unique and very earthly spiritual, if that makes sense. It was also incredibly hard. I had a hard time focusing on the class, which didn't help.

Saturday we started our day with a yoga flow designed around the psoas. It was incredibly hard because my psoas is incredibly tight, but I felt amazing after.

Sunday we started the day of teacher training with an hour flow from the studio owner's master flow series that she learned back when she was doing teacher training.

And to finish the day we did some practice teaching with our master flow series. And I got to teach a section of it! Whoop. 

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend Two

Our second weekend of yoga teacher training kicked off with a 90 minute astanga practice. This was my first astanga (aka ashtanga, apparently that's the Americanized spelling of it, as that's how it's pronounced) and I was really excited to dive in.



Before heading to class I had about six seconds to come home and change, and I quickly checked the mail in hopes that my new malas had arrived. My last set broke on Valentine's Day and I've been without. Yay for me, they had arrived!



All the malas belong to me!

Astanga was fun and completely different from what I'm used to. I'm incredibly intrigued by the practice and hope my studio starts to offer more classes to get more of a feel for it!

Friday night we spent a lot of time breaking down poses. In fact, we did that the bulk of the weekend. Working on cues, being succinct with those cues, modifications, deciphering the benefits of each pose, learning assists, and sequencing. My.Brain.Is.Full.

Saturday morning we started with a highly anticipated inversion class. I'm super intrigued and terrified of inversions so I was excited to learn more from a master of inversions!



The class was open to all, and we packed the room FULL! Please enjoy this horrendous photo of me. :/

Saturday was more of the same pose breakdown, as was Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we broke up into groups to practice our memorized Surya Namaskara A & B. We were told to memorize the counting in sanskrit, the breaths and the poses. I was thrown for a bit of a loop when it came time to practice and the studio owner wasn't concerned with the sanskrit counting but was with the sanskrit poses. Cue minor panic attack. Luckily I picked it up pretty quickly because I had studied the other stuff so much the night before (thanks Kyle for being my yoga student!).

This weekend marked the 2nd of seven being complete. Now that we have 6 days and 37 hours of training under our belts, I need to focus on the additional requirements of the certification process: 30 hours of yoga practice by approved instructors, 10 hours of yoga observation by approved instructors and another 10 hours of yoga assisting with the approved instructors. If anyone needs to find me the next few months, I'll give you one hint as to where you can find me...... (I think it was a good idea to put running on the back burner this spring, right??).

Weekly Training Recap

Monday I started the day with a BarreAmped class with a new-to-me instructor. 

Tuesday I worked late due to an event, so I got to attend one of my favorite instructor's power vinyasa class in the morning. 

Wednesday I took a rest day and Thursday I went to a yoga sculpt class with my favorite sculpt class. I was lucky that my co-worker Emily wanted to give sculpt a try so I had a buddy! Yay buddies! 

Friday it was straight from work to yoga teacher training which started with my first experience with Astanga yoga. We practiced for 90 minutes with the room set up like a traditional astanga studio with two lanes facing inward with an empty lane in between us. We got to listen to the sanskrit counting and poses that we had been instructed to memorize for this weekend. Eeps.

Saturday morning we kicked off the teacher training by doing a 1 hour inversion class. I'm not very confident in my inversion practice so it was great to learn some proper technique and alignment as well as some exercises to get me flipping upside down! I also got to practice with one of my favorite pug owners Mary! She's an awesome yogi, so hopefully we get to play around more frequently! Pug yogi in the dog park has been thrown out... .somewhat seriously. :)

Sunday morning we started our session with a 30 minute yoga session where we focused on deep stretching. It may have been an "easy" flow but my arms were so dead that downward facing dog made me feel like my arms were going to fall off. :/ Throughout the day we practiced tons of Sun A and B salutations, so I feel like I have a few hours of yoga in on Sunday. 

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend One

On March 13th, I began my first night of yoga teacher training. A group of 20+ women met at my favorite yoga studio at 5:30pm for a great end of the week power vinyasa class. The instructor is the owner of Lotus House of Yoga studio of Lincoln and Omaha, and she's amazing. It was the first class I've taken from MC Sweet, and it won't be the last (spoiler alert: two more throughout the weekend!).

After we got our sweat on, we sat in a giant yogi circle and shared information about ourselves and delved into some historical information about yoga's origins. While being a self-proclaimed nerd, I must confess: I hate history. But MC is such a great teacher and storyteller that I was super engaged and enamored.

When training was over at 9pm, I hurried off to pick up some dinner as I rushed straight from an 8:30-5pm work shift, straight to teacher training and was s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g.  Mental note: pack snacks! A beer was the perfect assistant to winding down for the night before we started again the next morning!

Saturday morning started with a power vinyasa flow class open to any yogis in town, and we packed the studio FULL. It was one of the hardest classes I've taken, but it was awesome. The class was focused on the sun, and it was great to enjoy it (=suffer through it? jk) while the sun was streaming through the windows on us. 

After class we broke down a couple of basic poses--plank, downward facing down, and half lift, and we all realized that we're doing everything wrong. WELCOME TO YOGA TEACHER TRAINING, GUYS! It just goes to show that that's why it's called a practice--always room for improvement!

Saturday afternoon was more background information as well as some introduction to sanskrit. Eeps!

Sunday we started with a one hour power vinyasa flow class, and my co-worker Emily got to attend along side of me. The class was milder than Saturday's but we focused on moving very slowly during different poses and also did some intense core work right off of the bat so my abs were screaming for daaaaays.

Once we got back in the studio for training, MC asked us to grab spirit animal cards and share them with the group. I drew the stag card and was stoked because...'arry Pottah.... duh. 

I joked that I hoped there was a pug card, and that surely if there were one, I would've drawn it. And then I jokingly searching pug spirit animal information online after class and came up with this information: 

If Pug is your Animal Totem;

You are attentive to your close family members, have a great deal of charm and are very playful by nature. You enjoy quiet solitude but are also very sociable. You are very clever with problem solving, embrace change quickly and wholeheartedly, and accept things easily for what they are. You have a keen and happy go lucky attitude toward life in general and are an animated story teller. Often you will have friends on the edge of their seat with your tales.

Uh..... spot on? Holy heck.

One of the most profound moments of the weekend was when MC spoke to us about anxiety and depression. She stated that if you have issues with anxiety (hello, hi, I'm Jeri, I worry about how much I worry....) you are likely spending too much time focusing on the future, and if you have issues with depression, you are devoting too much energy focusing on the past. And one of the ways to ease either or both of these sensations is to focus on the present. 

This seems like the most simple explanation I've ever heard, but it was so profound my brain practically splattered on the walls of the yoga studio right then and there.

When I had done my introduction on Friday night, I stated that one of my goals as a person was to be more in the moment, and present, so once MC shared this information, I knew I had to pick up a new mantra band.... be present.

The weekend was amazing, and eye opening, and potentially life changing as silly as that may sound based on the minimal recap. But I'm so thankful I decided to make the leap to do this!

Namaste.

Yoga Teacher Training

As you may have noticed from my spring race plan, my spring is very light on races. This is partly because of my plan to rebuild my mileage slowly while maintaining my yoga classes to keep my strength and flexibility in check (aka I'm sick of being hurt, let's finally figure this crap out, mmk).

But another huge reason that racing is taking a back seat is because I'm starting yoga teacher training this weekend! For seven weeks this spring, I'll be spending my Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays in the studio being a total yogi sponge. And I'm so freaking excited. (Wait, can Ollie come?!?! I'm going to freakin' miss her!)

I've been doing yoga on and off since 2002, and have been doing it almost daily since the Bemidji Marathon, and I'm just head over heels in love. Yoga puts me in such a happy place, and I'm excited to immerse myself in it more fully. I'm hoping that teacher training furthers my personal practice as well as allowing me to spread my love for yoga to anyone and everyone that's interested. I'd love to do some random free yoga classes in the park this summer, or help my running store offer more free classes for runners.

So that's my exciting spring!!

Sidenote: while trying to make the decision about signing up I kept coming across messages on IG that "spoke" to me. This was one of them.