Yoga

The year comes to a close and it is time to see what happened to my New Year Resolutions. Yoga Everyday Well, this didn't go so well. Overall I managed about every second day, though I have done most of it in the first half of the year. But it turned into a habit now, so I tend to do it a few times a week. Cycling Mini Adventures I managed to do quite a few and had fun doing them. GFNY Barcelona Gran Fondo Mussara La Ruta Minera Tour de France weekend in Andorra Long solo weekend trip around Ripoll Geocentrum 2 and a few solo rides to places around Barcelona Draw something every day This turned out to be pretty much a failure. While it was going good at the beginning of the year I just gave up after a while. It was just impossible to find the time or inspiration to draw. Blog once a month Nearly...this should be number 11 for the year. 12 Books It was a difficult start, but then I found some easy to read thriller series and space operas and ended up reading 23 books. Some more goals ... During the year I picked up a few more smaller goals and habits where I have been more or less successful. I had the cycling goal of reach 8000km for the year and achieve all Strava Climbing and Gran Fondo challenges. But an illness in December made this impossible. So I just got 11 of the 12. I also started to do Vegetarian Mondays with a 64% success rate. I found it difficult when traveling or when there were social events. I worked on my Spanish with Duolingo for most of the year and finished all the lessons. You have to keep it up though so you don't loose it again. And I reached my goal weight. The remaining fat has somehow to be replaced by muscles. Of to the next year... I haven't quite decided on anything yet, but I definitely take it a lot more easy :-)

As I have mentioned in my New Year Resolutions 2016 post I have started doing yoga. The main reasons for this are: The meditation part Some of the sessions are so relaxed that you fall asleep and even if your mind is racing at the beginning of a practice, after a few minutes you get distracted by doing stuff. In that aspect it is like cycling for me, getting out of your head and into your body. Breathing exercises are a big part of this. The stretching bit Yoga is mostly about getting into positions your body doesn’t want to be in. At least my body doesn’t want to be twisted like that. Sitting on my desk most of the day and then sitting on the bicycle a bit more has resulted in myself being very inflexible. The result of this is a bad back and problems with all kind of joints. I did some physiotherapy for my back a long time ago and when I broke my collarbone. The exercises are very similar to some yoga poses. So I am just going to pretend that they work. The workout stuff This I just discovered after a few practices. Apparently I should have some muscles I didn’t know about. I am mostly talking about the mystical core one hears about so much. Disclaimer: I am the first to admit that I was not a big fan of yoga. I saw it as something people do that don’t want to do a proper sport and can be done lying down. And it isn’t about yoga, you can have the same result with other sports. But the Kata style helps, it gives you a pattern to adhere to. So how did I start? On YouTube obviously. Because I am not quite up to embarrassing myself in front of a group of pros. One of the cycling channels I am subscribed to had some Yoga For Cyclists videos and it is a good starting point. It also helps that it shows a few inflexible guys in sweatpants trying to keep up with a yoga teacher. ...

It's that time of the year, when everyone makes empty promises to themselves. And I don't want to skip this important tradition. The last one I did was in 2012, which seems like a long time ago. Usually these are along the lines of sporty stuff or loosing weight. I have already stopped drinking alcohol and coffee end of last year and I am doing two hours of activity (as tracked by google fit) already. And nobody will stop me cycling too much anyway. There are also some things I promise I won't do this year: going vegan, stop gluten intake or low-carb. Still, some of these might be unexpected. ...