A few years back Cleveland got a trial LuLuLemon store. IT was set up in a yaunchy apartment complex and was a really small room. Shortly after LuLu graced our town with its presence I scooted myself over there for the complimentary Saturday yoga. For those of you who don’t know, all LLL locations have free yoga on Saturday. How wonderful is that. Generally they rotate various teachers from local studios. It’s a great way to get people into the store to buy their beautiful overpriced goods and it’s a good way to give exposure to the local studios and their wonderful teachers. Well, I went the one time and then I never went back. It was extremely crowded and due to my long run schedule I could never make it back. Eventually they got a permanent store and LLL now resides at Eaton on Chagrin, tucked in the alley between Fleming’s steak house and Pentsky’s spices. For well over a year I have been on their email blast. They send out updates on new products and the weekend Community classes. They also have a lot of special events on Wednesday night. I have always wanted to go. But balancing my life of marathoning, mommying and working and not making my husband feel like our daughter’s full time nanny is a tough job. I have always felt that if he has to wake up early every Saturday and watch Yo Gabba Gabba in jammies with Harper while I am out running for 3 hours, that that should be it for my weekly ventures. He doesn’t make me feel that way necessarily, it’s just the way I feel. But anyway I digress, I have always wanted to attend these events and this week I couldn’t resist – Vino, Vegan, Vinyasa! It was a vinyasa class taught by Parker Bean from Cleveland yoga, who if just a great teacher and very funny, followed by vegan desserts and wine. How can I miss that?

So I met up with my friend Rebecca at 6. Class started at 6:30, but I knew from the one time I had been there before that it gets crowded and I wanted to make sure we got spots next to each other. The new location is almost as tiny as the first, yet they managed to cram 40 or 50 of us in there. You literally have no room, your mat is right on top of your neighbors and you have feet all around you. I am not a fan of feet so being this up close and personal with the feet of others really bothers me, but hey its FREE yoga. Yoga classes are stupid expensive, so I will take what I can get! Parker led an awesome class, she really kicked our butts, lots of chair poses and holding twist for what felt like forever. I honestly haven't done yoga once since August and haven't practiced regularly since last winter. So, I was pleased to know I can still do crow pose, but I still suck at Eagle. Towards the end of the workout she made us do to 100 reps of bicycle. I had just done 500 situps and 100 pushups on my lunch break, so I was having a hard time throughout the class. My muscles were zonked. The classroom got so hot, that it might as well have been a Bikram class. Sweat was literally dropping off my face and my muscles were so warm. Unfortunately heat makes stinky even stinkier. I must have a very sensitive nose b/c I was having a very hard time handling the smell in the room. I could absolutely smell the lady next to me and I had to keep turning towards my friend Rebecca and taking big gasping breathes. It’s not that this lady was horribly stinky, she just had probably been at work all day in heels and her feet stunk. I’m sure mine did too, but I couldn’t smell myself, thank god. The food afterwards was awesome. The chef Amy C runs a vegan catering company and she brought a bunch of desserts. I had a mini pumpkin chocolate cupcake and some sort of flourless chocolate cake. YUMMM.

I cannot say enough nice things about LLL. While I think their clothing is just offensively overpriced, I think what they do for the yoga community is amazing. I would love to be able to afford their clothes b/c they make some really droolworthy stuff. Eventually I will splurge for a pair of their pants b/c I am constantly told by my LLL sporting friend Ilana that their clothes really hold up well wash after wash. I guess maybe in this case you get what you pay for. I would like to start going to the free classes every Sat, but I am not sure how to get past my issues with the smells? Maybe set up my mat in the far back of the room near the door and hope there is a draft!?! Maybe rub some sort of essential oils on the front of my mat? Any suggestions?

And if you have LLL in your area, totally sign up for their email blast, they have so many fun FREE events: