I still remember how exciting it was to get my shipment of The Athlete's Guide to Yoga. Working on this new book was like having my second child: I knew what to expect, it was less work to bear, and it brings pleasure equal to the first. It's more colorful than the first book, a little smaller, and—unlike my second daughter, Vivian, who lives up to her lively name—it lies flat and still.

While The Athlete's Guide to Yoga explains the benefits of yoga for athletes, outlines how to get started in yoga, describes poses in detail, and lays out my approach to periodizing yoga for athletes, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga gives specific routines appropriate for various points in the training cycle. If The Athlete's Guide to Yoga is a how-to-cook book, The Pocket Guide is a what-to-cook book. Read more about it on my site. You can find the book at most major bookstores, select specialty shops, and online. If you're ordering online, you can use the store on my site, though it will disappear in the next few weeks due to a soon-to-be-passed North Carolina tax law. Remember, if you buy from my store or directly from Amazon, you can then give the book a glowing review on Amazon!

If you'd like to see a sample routine and get a glimpse of the book's beautiful new pictures, you can download a PDF here.

In every race, there is something that goes very right, and something that could be improved next time. I expect to encounter some, perhaps many, of each type of lesson in Coeur d'Alene, and to find some unexpected joys and obstacles, as well.

As a parting reflection, here are some pictures Wes caught of my bike dismount at the Over the Mountain Olympic-distance tri, a training day I thoroughly enjoyed at half-Ironman pace. I got this dismount just right, and it balanced out my inglorious tip-over at White Lake. There are good parts and bad parts to almost everything. It's always changing. And we keep rolling on.