Bikram = instant headache

Got out of work today at 10:50am ... just short of 9 hours today but I was riding on "E" all the way from Brooklyn to home.  Ate a PR bar on the ride because lunch would not be an option, fueled up and got home with a half hour until yoga class.  I was able to get dressed, hit the bathroom, and drink 16 ounces of water and make it to class with 2 minutes to spare.

Bikram yoga is hot.  The room is literally over 100 degrees and I quickly realized I had forgotten the one clutch accessory that helped make today miserable ... my Gutr.  As a bald guy I figured out that I needed sweatbands whenever I exert myself - I sweat heavily and without a sweatband it gets in my eyes and burns.  The problem with sweatbands is they are pretty nasty and I guess my acidic sweat eats them up or something because I would use them, wash them and within a dozen uses they would be shot.  So I found the Gutr this rubber thing which I had initially purchased for using with cycling has been my activity sweatband. So today I forget it, and before we have even started Pranayama (the initial deep breathing) the sweat is rolling down my dome and into my eyes.

So much for trying to relax (seriously I can't relax in yoga at all but some of the human pretzels in my class seem to be completely at peace).  Now I look around as class goes on, there is a bank of mirrors and you can't really not look ... today's class had 5 men and 17 women.  Three of the four men wore just shorts, and the ultra yoga dude in the front was wearing a speedo.  Myself, the largest guy in the room, and hairiest (I have been called a gorilla by my children), always wear a tech shirt from a race.  So by the third exercise, "awkward pose" I am a sopping wet mess and already dying to drink ... but wait, wait ... no drinks until after pose four.  I guess other people get in a relaxation zone, I count poses ... 26 in all - 13 is my favorite, corpse pose, when you just lay on your back and melt into your towel for 2 minutes.

Today's group of women consisted of maybe four relative neophytes and 13 diehards.  I am pretty good with the first set of 12 poses and am pleased when I can keep a pose longer than these svelte yoga obsessed ladies.  It's the second set I am not quite as flexible with and today with pose 18 and 19 I was both starving and suffering from sweating so much and then the pain behind the eyes started.  At least for morale boosts I could look at the struggling women and say to myself "take that lady!"  

I hate getting headaches, I don't get them often.  Typically I will get a headache if I am super exhausted - I average 5 hours of sleep, if I get say 4 for three days in a row on day four my body will rebel hit me with a headache which I will have to sleep off.  The other type of headache comes after super exertion, typically on a hot day.  Last time I got a headache like that was after an adventure race that I did not train properly for.  This was the second time I got a "yoga headache" ...

On a good day, I have problems doing Half Tortoise, Camel, and Rabbit poses - today I flopped around a bit on each try gave up and returned to corpse pose.  My towel was holding a gallon of sweat, my had towel for my face was now holding enough sweat to easily fill 2 shot glasses, and my water bottle was empty.  Seriously shot.  I did do the final poses and cut the final corpse pose short just so I could flee the heat.

Head rush, dizziness ... that can't be good!  I sat in the lobby on a bench in a growing puddle of sweat for a good 10 minutes before I stood up again - hello nelly, dizzy as hell!!  Ok dehydrated - over heated, over tired?  Grabbed a Zico and headed out into a nice cooling rain.  Had a Clif bar in the car with my Zico as I drove home and spent the next hour standing in the shower and drinking 2 liters of water.

Finally feeling back to normal by the time I picked up my kids only to have my 5 year old lie to me about a letter in his backpack from his teacher and for the third time this week (and it's only Wednesday) having to have a conversation about the ramifications of bad behavior and potential punishments on the ride home ... and yeah, the headache came back.

Tomorrow - swim and Shoulders and Arms ... 18 days until my next race ...