Namaste to you too

So I run about 7.5km 3-4 times a week without much of a physical twinge. On Thursday, I did my first yoga class in a few weeks and my body ached for 2 days afterwards. So much for my fitness levels. We did do enough sun salutations to cause a heat wave and I managed to complete a couple of chatarungas (slow motion press ups), but I got stiff from a yoga class...really?

Until recently I thought yoga was for wimps. It is slow and about as stimulating as watching paint dry. You lollop from one position to another and the most challenging thing you have to do is breathe...as if one usually forgets...

But since I have built some running muscle and have developed a 'core' (albeit shallow), I have discovered what yoga should be. It doesn't get my endorphins going but I am able to spend an hour a week marinating in my muscles. I clench, I pull, I push, I invert...oh yes...and, when I remember, I breathe...

I've also come to view yoga as good training in frustration management. For now, running is a great way for me to 'vent'. I can achieve a few moments of brain emptying, meditative stillness after 30 laps. My face may look like a gasping beetroot, but underneath I am serene and at one with my blisters. But what will I do as I get older? How am I going to manage when I have to be angry and 'still'?

God, or should I say, Krishna, only knows.