Intermediate at 75%

Started feeling a little unwell yesterday evening. Nothing much, just a little nauseous. Went to bed early to sleep it off but still didn't feel right this morning. Wasn't sure whether to practice or not but resting didn't seem to have helped so thought I might as well. Intermediate today and I was kind of dreading it, really not feeling up to the practice. I decided to try and practice at 50% effort, just try to go through the motions if you like. I imagined some kind of video game energy bar above my head that would start to turn from green to red at 50%.

Seemed to work OK through the Sury's and standing and started to realise how I tend to practice full on all the way through, giving it 110% on ever asana, jump back/ jump through lift, twist, bend and bind. Need to chill out more and be kind to myself more.

Harder to reign it in when I got to Intermediate proper, my little game bar flashing at 75% alarms going off as I head up to 90% in Laghu and Kapo. Had kind of hoped that perhaps by not trying so hard with Kapo my body might be a little softer and I might just happen to go in deeper. Didn't happen, only just made my toes. 75% effort through the LBH's and I was beginning to think what's the point but while I wasn't getting into the poses so deeply it was all flowing quite nicely. Didn't make it back up in Karandavasana but landed it nicely. Did notice how much more energy I had for the last third of the series. I'm usually knackered by Vatyanasana and my towel soaked, today I could focus more on the last few poses and enjoy them, even the deadlies. (tend to be a bit impatient with the headstands and have recently replaced them with the headstand subroutine from Vinyasa Yoga).

The whole practice took just under an hour though I missed out dropping back and just my usual three minute Savasana. Turned out to be quite a nice practice, nice flow to it. Perhaps as I get better at Intermediate, I wont have to try so hard.