Yoga: A Love/Hate Relationship

So it's 8:20 in the morning, my kindergarten kids will be arrive in 20 minutes and I decided instead of getting ready for the day I am going to blog. Hopefully I will not make this a habit. I just really had to tell everyone about my newfound yoga love.
The thing about yoga is, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because it's one of the only times my body gets properly stretched. It makes me feel good, and strong (if it's a good class). Also, I have a secret (well not so secret) desire to be one of those people who loves yoga and is really good at it. Except for one problem, I usually don't love it and I am absolutely horrible at it. I hate it because I am horrible at it and if it's not a good class I leave feeling like I wasted an hour of my life (and no, I do not ever attempt hour and a half classes!). Now when I say I am horrible at it, I don't mean because I am not flexible...though that is true. I don't mean it's because I don't have great balance, my balance is okay. What I am mostly horrible at is the whole "clear your mind" aspect. The only way I can clear my mind is to be productive or doing something fun. The best way to get myself thinking about everything I SHOULD be doing is to get me in a room, sitting on a yoga mat, and telling me NOT to think. So this presents a problem for yoga. The only yoga I have ever found that I really really really loved was at a place called Prana. It is hot yoga and it's really hard!!! However, it actually did help me clear my mind a bit because I was focused so much on trying to do the poses and get stronger. I was always sore after it and I felt like I really didn't have to do anything else (work out wise) that day because I went to yoga. The only problem with that place is that it is also $15 every time you go. This might be okay if you go very occasionally, but if you want to take up a serious yoga practice, this could start to get in the way of your mortgage payment. So I always go back to doing yoga at the gym, hating it and then giving up.
Yesterday I happened to come across this link on a couple of different blogs I was looking at: Yoga for Runners. I tried it out this morning and I loved it. It's only 10 minutes, but it definitely did stretch the areas that felt really tight. Plus I love most anything that is only 10 minutes. The same lady also does Yoga for Healthy Shins and Knees which I am also going to try out because those seem to be major problem areas for me. Kind of similar to yoga, I cannot decide if I love or hate the lady who does the yoga on these videos. She is very peppy and happy. I am going to choose to love her though, because someone has to get me to do some serious stretching after all of this training! Let me know what you think if you try them out.

PS. Thanks for all the encouragement after I posted last night. I decided even if I do come in last, at least I still finish right? Don't worry though, I have no plans to give up just because I stink at biking and swimming. That's all part of the challenge.