More Sponch!

Reading Joey's comment about how Sponch! is everywhere got me thinking. I have never seen Sponch! anywhere but Texas. With the recent Mexico sighting I really started to wonder.... One Google search confirmed my suspicions - not only did Sponch! originate in Mexico, but the brand it belongs to, Marinela, is owned by Bimbo Bakeries. What is the significance of this finding? Not much except that when Joey, Rachel, Brian, and I drove through Mexico a few years back, I ate a fair amount of Bimbo brand powdered sugar mini donuts during our drive. Really when the only coffee you can get is Nescafe, being picky about what else you eat for breakfast just seems silly. The donuts were actually pretty good and since the ingredients were in spanish, I got to be blissfully ignorant of what I was eating. Besides it's a roadtrip - I always eat junk on a roadtrip. Also, I thought it was really funny that there was a bakery named Bimbo - yes, I am juvenile. My intake of Bimbo donuts became a bit of a joke on the trip, leading to this picture.


I do have to go on record as saying that I will never eat Sponch! - not because it's pink, but because I don't do marshmallow.

Sponch!

It's amazing how the strangest things can bring up a pleasant memory. Joey sent me this pic from Mexico - why you might be wondering? If you were at the Lisa Loeb show at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas sometime in 1999 then this pic is really funny. Otherwise, it's a bit frightening that somewhere in this world there is a factory that produces a pink, sugar-coated marshmallow twinky-like food item.

At the show, Lisa, accompanied by Dweezil Zappa, told a hilarious story about their roadtrip from Dallas and the discovery of Sponch! during a pitstop somewhere in the no man's land between Dallas and Austin. During the show, they raffled off the Sponch! they had bought and the "lucky" winner, Lisa, and Dweezil all sampled some of the Sponch! Eeeeewwwww! It was a superfun show, and now I'm laughing about Sponch! all over again.

Workin'

I'm sure everyone is wondering about the lapse in posts. I know it's been awhile, but I was actually working last week. Don't everyone fall over at once. Yes, it's true I do still know how to work. Summer camp started last week and this summer I am playing the role of van driver for the Field Camps. I'm actually doing more than driving the vans - I'm the first aid person and basically handling all the logistics, and helping with the campers as much as possible. What I'm not doing during those weeks is teaching - oh wait, yes I am, but I'm not required to and I'm not responsible for planning those camps so any teaching I do is basically what happens during the course of the camp. Last week was the Aquatic Field Camp, so I did a fair amount of teaching since I can teach that topic in my sleep. The field camps are all day, 8 - 4:30, and are mostly outside, which is great but also tiring. They are spread out through the summer, though so it's really no big deal.

This week I am teaching a half-day camp in the afternoon, and I only have four campers so it's hardly like working. I am only working 5 weeks total this summer. Last summer I taught all seven weeks of camp. Between planning lessons and teaching, I was a bit fried. Since I'm training for Ironman, I decided to cut back a bit this summer. Working the field camps is perfect. That means I only have to write lesson plans for 2 camps, and one of them is spiders and insects, which I already have tons of lesson plans on the topic. So I'm working two weeks in June, two weeks in July, and one week in August. It's just enough to be fun, but not so much that I'd have to adjust my training schedule.

Before camp last week, Joey told me to have fun being the crazy bus driver. I immediately thought of Ms. Crabtree, the busdriver from South Park, and this particular episode.

On an aside, this episode was titled "City on the Edge of Forever(flashbacks)" Those of you that are Star Trek fans should recognize the title, and in the South Park episode, a kid wearing a red shirt leaves the bus and gets eaten by a big, scary monster. Again, Trek fans will get that reference. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clip of that scene but you can watch the entire episode here

Fear, anxiety, and joy

Since January, I've been teaching a yoga class on Wednesday evening for the employees of the Veteran's Hospital. I love this group! When I started teaching them, only a few had ever taken a yoga class. Most weren't even sure what yoga was - just that it was supposed to be gentle and good for you. I've got a regular group that has embraced both the practice and my ability to teach it. Today I was a few minutes late to class due to parking problems at the hospital and when I entered the room, my class was all sitting in sukhasana - cross-legged pose - and meditating. This is how I start all my classes, but this is the first time I've ever walked in and experienced it. Usually they are all sitting on their mats chatting and it takes me a few minutes to get them to settle. I was so proud!

The past couple of classes I've been having them do more of what I refer to as "power poses". I call them by that name because they require power to do them AND they make you feel powerful when you do them. These are poses that require strength - muscular, breathing, and mental. I explained to them today that we are focusing on these poses because it is time for us to start learning inversions - headstand and shoulderstand, maybe handstand. They all got different looks on their faces - fear, anxiety, concern - so I took a moment to explain how we will go about preparing to invert, and why we would would even want to in the first place. Aside from the physiological benefits, inversions are a huge mental strengthener. Think about it - when was the last time you stood on your head or your hands or put your feet above your head? Really, it's about going outside your comfort zone, and not just surviving it but embracing it. It's the ability to suck it up, although this is not a phrase I use in yoga. That is the true benefit of the practice - the ability to put your body into poses that might feel strange or uncomfortable, and then finding a way to live with it. As long as you can breathe, you can live with it. The physical benefits come from our ability to conquer our discomfort. The longer we can hold a pose, the more release we will get, and the deeper we will be able to go.

I wonder from time to time if my quick learning of yoga was aided by my endurance training or if it's the other way around - or if the mental toughness, the ability to suck it up, is something that I've always had, and I'm drawn to both triathlon and yoga for that reason. It's hard to say, but I do know that the mental focus I get from yoga definitely helps me survive the tough training days, and allows me to truly enjoy the good days. Mentally, there is very little difference between a perfect headstand and an awesome run. FYI - you can get a runner's high in yoga class.

On a side note, I've been working on increasing my upperbody strength, which is a sad shade of its former self. Today we were working on sideplank. My students were doing the modified version, and doing it well, I might add. It's all about baby steps. One of my students asked what the final pose looked like. Sometimes I won't demonstrate the peak pose because it's so different from what we are doing or just so intimidating that there is no value in seeing it. In this case, we have already done all the pieces of the final pose so I was okay doing it. I was thrilled because I was actually able to demonstrate it as shown in the picture below. I couldn't quite get my top leg straight - the hamstrings are tight from biking, and my arm couldn't hold me for long, but I'm pretty pleased. Hopefully the soft, squishy loaves of bread that are my upper arms will soon be a thing of the past.

There and Back Again

It's been over a week since my last post so I figure I should get something up before everyone thinks I've dropped off the face of the earth. I've been in Austin since last Thursday and it was a superfun trip! I will probably do more details in other posts, but here are the highlights. I got to see Jordan play soccer - he has quite a kick. Rachel put together the 6th Annual Team Fantastic X Super Sprint Tri on Friday night. Yay! On Sunday Janice and Maggie were riding 100 miles as part of their Ironman training and Rachel joined them for part of the ride and Joey and I joined them for another part. It was a lot of fun riding with a group - our Ironman group actually - but it was also a little strange for me, since I am used to riding alone. I got two flat tires and had what could have been a bad crash but wasn't - just a few bruises and a booboo on my hand. I used up a lot of good karma on that one, I hope I still have some left. Joey and I had a nice swim in Barton Springs, and there was lots of eating out at the yummy Austin restaurants. It was a fantastic trip and it was so good to see everyone!