The First Go at 13.1: Hot Yoga

As I mentioned in my first The First Go at 13.1 post where I talked about my training plan in general, I did a lot of hot yoga during that training cycle. Well, here's an even more indepth story about it.

Near the end of January 2012 I fell in LOVE with hot yoga. Yes, I realize that seems a bit dramatic. But it is true.

I was at school in East Lansing at the time and I knew about a studio (East Lansing Hot Yoga) that had opened up a few months earlier and I had been meaning to try it. I had one day of yoga a week as a goal during training so one day I decided to just go do it.

Where the obsession began...
(source)

Well, they have a special where you can pay $20 on your first visit for 2 weeks of unlimited yoga which is a great deal because you just have to go once more in the two weeks to make it worth it. Then I decided to go "as much as possible" to really get my money's worth in those two weeks and then go once a week after that. That didn't happen. The first class I went to after my two weeks expired I signed up for unlimited yoga with a minimum of a 3 month commitment. Whoops, that's a lot more than once a week.

I think I feel in love with yoga for many of the same reasons I fell in love with running. I saw small improvements each time I went and I just wanted to keep seeing more and more. My overall love and appreciation for yoga (and running) goes far beyond that now.

And this is where I would insert awesome pictures of my doing more "party trick" yoga.. but I have none. I should get some though.

I could continue to ramble on about my love affair with hot yoga (mostly this studio in particular as well as comparing some other classes to it and how it will always be my favorite) but I will not bore you with that. The main point is, I started going to hot yoga a lot and running very little because I was spending so much time going to yoga. The only downside was the decreased running. The upsides however were that I got stronger and fitter and 'semi-flexible' and I increased my endurance. The classes I went to were 90 minutes and usually included a large amount of cardio. I honestly think that it is hot yoga that pulled me through both of my half marathons last year.