For this yoga makeover, I have committed to practicing yoga four to five times a week for six months (one private lesson, one public class, and two to three home practice sessions each week). And I have a secret! Even though I’ve been a life-long athlete, I am actually quite lazy by nature! So I can’t help but be slightly concerned about my ability to stick with such an intensive yoga practice on top of an existing swim/bike/run schedule. But they say that "if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten." Yoga, besides being a valuable self-care practice in and of itself, can greatly enhance my swimming, cycling, and running so why not dive right into it and see what happens?

Up until now, I have been practicing yoga about once a week for a few months and have already experienced great benefits. It was raining cats and dogs here in San Francisco; the rain sometimes turned into hailstorms. Unable to do many of my outdoor rides or runs, I decided to replace them with yoga classes. I bounced around local yoga studios trying different instructors and found a high concentration of wonderful teachers at The Mindful Body. Then, I came across Jason Crandell’s Saturday morning class.The clarity of instruction, the energy and dedication of the students, and Jason’s light-hearted humor made for the most fun and enjoyable experience. By this time the weather had cleared up and my triathlete friends were out riding bikes every Saturday morning. But Jason’s class was so wonderful I decided to give up the group bike rides in order to attend it. Each week, I discovered a little bit more freedom, ease, and comfort in my body that clearly enhanced my athletic training. In time, a few of my friends were willing to wait for me to ride later on Saturdays, and some even joined me for morning yoga as a pre-ride warm-up!

So you can imagine my excitement when Jason approached me with the idea that Yoga Journal might offer me six months of yoga training with him to see how it could help my athletic performance!!

Well, here we are at Week 1 of my yoga makeover journey. I met with Jason for my first private lesson, where he guided me through a series of beginner-friendly poses and evaluated my areas of freedom vs. restrictions. We chatted about my athletic training schedule and concluded that my biggest area of need was recovering between hard workouts. Also, we must counter-balance the effects of hours on the bike, which often cause an old back injury from my collegiate rowing career to flare up. Next week, Jason will introduce me to a primarily restorative sequence, which will become the framework of my home practice for the next month.