Yoga pants (10/17/23 Tue)

Today I had my first yoga session. Erik and Nancy are finishing up certifications to be instructors, and I was a guinea pig.

It was nice to "listen to my body" and have it only complain about my shoulders and neck. Everything else felt really good. I have my normal tightness accross the top of my shoulders and in my lower neck. I suspect these are common sore spots for bikers. Sore neck from holding up a helmet and also resisting whatever wind force exists. Years ago I had an ergonomic assessment of my bike setup with a doctor. It was setup up pretty well, he said the shoulder tightness is often caused by cool air at your neck and the chilled body tensing up. My ride here was in cooler morning and on a cool Texas day.

The standing yoga poses are good balance tests, and my old workouts had components tailored for balance. Balance is great for riders and I was happy that I could do the poses reasonably well. One thing I learned about yoga is that it should be tailored to fit you. Like an exercise routine, you probably want to focus your effort on your specific weaknesses. It's not a one size fits all thing. More like a set of tools that can be applied to various problems. You should probably appretice with a skilled craftsman if you want efficient results.

Besides spending time with wonderful friends, I ran my other errand today. I replaced my lost riding pants for my journey home. A new pair of Scorpion riding pants with liners purchased at the MotorcycleGear.com in Plano, TX. The store staff was very helpfull. I bought the 3dO level 2 upgraded armor for the new pants. And a new pinlock windscreen for my helment. The pinlock is really nice in cold wet conditions. Next weeks weather is still hard to predict for my ride home. The ride to Dallas was a bit chilly, so having the pants to preserve my heat from the relentless highway wind will be necessary as I continue north.

My loose plan is to ride north to Oklahoma, east to Arkansas, south to Louisiana, and east to Missssippi. Then start heading northeast towards New Hampshire, probably through West Virginia and Virginia. All of this will be shaped by weather and what I can uncover to visit.

One more day with Erik and Nancy is needed. A few things we've talked remain undone. Erik wants to see my packed travel items deconstructed and I've wanted to capture and share my gear information here.