That hurt.

Yesterday I was going on about how wonderful my first Ashtanga Primary was after a week off, still being able to nail all the full extensions of the poses and fancy transitions. No doubt because it was so fresh and I was feeling good I might have over done it a bit because this morning was a hard slog. hamstrings felt tighter from the start and never seemed to loosen up fully. I felt weak and my will was struggling. I was doing the mantra, split between the inhale and exhale thing, which I've found to focus the mind nicely but from as early as Standing I was hearing whispers of "Perhaps you should forget it for today" or " Hammies are tight, better to rest up no?" and so on at intervals throughout the practice.

I managed to get though it by thinking ahead to the more restful postures " I can rest in a long paschi", "Forward bends will chill me out", " I get to lay down in Supta hasta padangustthasana". I rushed finishing a little and all I could think about in Savasana was my grapefruit. So got through it but it hurt, sure I wont be looking forward to stepping on the mat tomorrow.

I'd forgotten how hard primary can be. Practicing intermediate it's such a pleasure to practice Primary on Friday that the sheer joy of it carries you through, haven't struggled with primary for a long time.

One thing I did notice was my weight. I weighed myself before practice yesterday and I was 77 kilo's. Recently I've been floating around the mid 77's to 78 ( I'd probably dropped a little from the tooth thing and not being able to eat properly although I did put away quite a bit of Ice cream). After practice I weighed 76 dead, so lost a kilo in sweat throughout the practice, that's kind of normal for me though, the time I went to the shala in London I lost two kilo's in one go. This morning though I weighed myself before practice and I was still 76kilos, that was a bit strange, after practice 75.2 that's probably the least I've weighed in twenty years. I think when I lost all that weight on the course and weighed myself when I came back I was 75.4. No wonder I felt weak throughout practice this morning.

In case you don't work in Kilo's

77 kilo is 169.8 pounds or 12 stone in proper weight

76 kilo is 167.6 pounds, 11 stone 9

75.2 kilo is 165 ponds, 11 stone 8

I don't tend to obsess about weight just keep half an eye on it. If I go up over 78 then I wonder if I've been eating to much junk or been doing too many arm balances. 77 is a weight I'm comfortable with but having gradually dropped down to 75 on the course I found it an excellent weight to be practicing a, I felt great and wouldn't mind going back to that but gradually though eating properly rather than being silly. This was too sudden a drop in weight though, feel shattered now and wish i could go back to bed rather than to work. Oh for reference I was 94.5 kilo three years ago when I started the practice, thats 208 pounds or 14 stone 9oz in real money

Oh and on the sweaty topic from yesterday I'm as fresh as a daisy this morning, yesterday must have been a result of the tooth infection (which has pretty much cleared up finally ) rather than the medication.