I would also add that canned beans, which I grew up on, always taste different than soaked beans because of the added salt. So even when I get the texture right on soaked beans, they still taste funky to me. A bit of salting might help.

I also recently learned that simmer can mean just at boiling or below - I've found that I get a softer texture to my beans (which is how I usually want them) when I go for the low-boil simmer for those 2-3 hours rather than the just-below-boiling simmer.

Hey Meg, I agree with Laura - that trying a beginner class might be a good start. For me, I was used to a strenuous workout so the beginner classes felt like a waste of time. I could tell certain poses were stretching me, but spending an hour to get to those few poses seemed excessive. It took finding a "yoga for climbers" class that happened to be a challenging strength- and flexibility-building class before I could convince myself to attend yoga regularly. It finally felt like I was getting a workout. After regularly attending that class for about a year, I had learned so much about yoga - the poses and the philosophy - that it allowed me to enjoy and value any yoga class I can attend. In other words, for me it took finding the right teacher and the class that was a fit for my needs at the time. Good luck! Yoga's such a wonderful balance to race training!