andrew scott jensen

It’s the last day of November and this is only my second update on my yoga/run challenge month!  I haven’t had much time to sit and reflect on what has been happening this month due in large part to my very busy work schedule.  Working two jobs for the past 6 weeks has been very difficult on my time management.  In short, I haven’t had much time to do anything outside of working.

I realized very quickly that maintaining this work schedule would be too much over the coming months home in Ottawa.  I’ve stepped back my work at the restaurant and I’m happy with my full time hours at lululemon.  Freeing up more time will allow me to put in the proper effort on hitting balls indoors and maintaining an intense fitness regiment.

As for the yoga/run challenge…it was great.  I averaged 3 classes a week for the month which in total is more yoga than I have done in my life leading up to November.  My flexibility has increased dramatically! I’m very happy with where I’m at, but still looking for improvements!  My cardio endurance has increased a great deal as well.  Thanks to the breathing techniques form yoga, I can run for a longer period of time and stay focused on the stride as opposed to getting caught up on how many minutes I have left to run.

The month was great but it certainly re-opened my eyes to the words of my trainer from back in ‘07; “there isn’t one sole way to go about getting in great shape, we need a combination of it all”.  This was very apparent when I worked out with him this past Thursday.  My muscle endurance fell off a great deal thanks to no time in the gym and too much time in a yoga classroom.

Looking back, the objective of the month was met, along with many things learned and re-learned about myself and my off course training.  From here on out, I’ll take 2 yoga classes a week, mostly yin classes to work on flexibility in the connective tissues of my muscles.  My gym routine will get back in motion along with a more diverse cardio routine.  I’m very excited to use the coming months to see just how fit I can get in preparation for the 2010 season, which kicks off on the Can Tour in April in Mexico!(more on that later…)

I hope this blog finds you well,

I’m 12 days into my November routine and things are going great!  The dive into nothing but yoga has been both very fun and very challenging.  Last week, after 4 straight days of yoga, my body and mind gave up on me and yoga was the last thing I wanted to do.  I wouldn’t have expected that to happen so quickly but surprisingly enough it did.

Looking back, I’m glad the burnout hit me so quickly because it’s forced me to dig deep already and stick this out no matter what.

I find that doing nothing but yoga is great but I still need to work on upping my core strength in order to get through some of the more intense classes and postures.  So the plan is been re-vamped slightly so that I’m still working on my core at the gym on the days I’m working through my running program.  This is all for the better because it’s forcing me to really increase my attention to a total fitness makeover.  After this month I’ll have laid a great foundation to work on building more strength throughout my swing in Dec-Jan.

Back to the present… I’ve done 2 classes so far this week, and hope to do 2 more.  I’m looking to keep up the 4 classes a week routine, just spreading them out a bit more.  So far, I’ve noticed a huge increase in my flexibility, I can get deeper into certain postures that have really challenged me in the past.  It’s great overcoming minor milestones with each class because it shows me that things are moving forward.

Ultimately the goal of this is to aid my journey toward greatness on the the golf course, and every step forward is very encouraging even if it’s in a yoga studio.  Mental and physical breakthroughs are just parlayed into motivation for the golf game work coming in Dec-Jan…very exciting stuff!

It’s November, my off-season is officially underway.  Part of paying my dues and grinding through the process of making it to the PGA Tour is working “real” jobs in the off-season.  This winter I’ll be working two jobs; one retail job at Lululemon and a serving job at Boston Pizza.

The job at Lulu has given me greater access to the yoga culture that I was introduced to this past January.  This leads me to my latest endeavor towards improvement as a golfer.

This November I will devote all of my fitness work towards yoga and focused run training.  I want to switch it up to see how my mind and body can benefit from a total change of pace.  Yoga has been amazing for my flexibility, core strength, and most importantly my mental strength.  I’m hoping that a concentrated effort with yoga over this month will  add to my growth as a player.

The running kick is an effort to increase my stamina and endurance.  I’ll be training with the help of the Podrunner Interval podcast with specific goals in mind.  If I commit mentally to reaching these endurance goals, it can only help my mind and body when it comes to staying strong over the course of 72 long holes in a tournament.

I’ll still lift once a week to maintain my muscle mass, but I’m not at all focused on increasing my strength through weight training but solely through yoga.

To keep myself engaged and keep my blog active, I’ll blog my way through this experience.  I’ll be open and honest about what I can notice happening throughout this process, stay tuned…