Yoga and marathon training

One of the hardest things about this round of marathon training, even greater than the more demanding training schedule, is the lack of yoga.  Yoga really forced me to take time to stretch and think about my movements in a very different way from all the running.  Lifting makes me move differently as well, but lifting is a chore to me.  It is something I believe needs to be done, but not something I enjoy doing.  Yoga, however, is an activity I really enjoy.  Even when the idea of fitting it into my schedule makes me a little stressed, taking the time for yoga is so energizing and relaxing. 

 

I didn’t go straight back to yoga after MCM because I wasn’t sure what would be helpful or harmful to my leg issues…so I just opted for rest.  Probably yoga would have been really helpful, especially since the yoga instructors at the place we go are so good and attentive.  But it really didn’t occur to me at the time, ant the restricted running was making me feel lazy even as it also made me feel edgy.  It was odd.  Sadly, when I was feeling ready to motivate myself to go back to yoga, Bennett and I were feeling the need to limit expenses a bit.  So yoga class has not made it back into my weekly routine.

After a 14 mile run on Saturday where my right thigh and hip tightened up in very strange places, I decided that maybe I would try some yoga on my own.  So Sunday night I did some sun salutations, warrior I and II, triangle pose, and side angle pose.  And wow…I found muscles, tendons, and ligaments that were seriously tight that I had no idea were tight!  I finally found a way to stretch this one part of my upper quad that I had been struggling to stretch.  It was such a strange feeling to have my body resists movements that had always been fairly easy for me.  

I have been so focused on specific issues with my leg over the past few months, that I have lost touch with my body in other ways.  I have forgotten how practicing yoga grounds me in the awareness of my own body and how it responds to different movements.  I need to work towards regaining the ease of those simple poses.  I want to strive to practice some yoga on my own, to ground myself in the awareness of my body, breath, and thought.  Even though I feel inadequate at creating my own yoga sequences, trying to do so is better than no yoga in my life. 

My right leg

So, my right leg in particular has been a big focus of mine since the marathon.  I have been very happy that I have not experienced any real knee pain for about a month now!  However, the muscles in my right quad, outer hamstring, and less often my outer calf are still noticeably tightening up on me.  If I get lazy on having Bennett massage my hamstring tendon and forget to use the foam roller a few times a week, I can most definitely feel the tightening trying to take over.  

Last week I got lazy because I was sick.  As a result, rather than my leg feeling tight towards the end of my run, it felt tight during the entire 9 miles on Saturday (no pain though!).  Sitting in my chair right now I can feel the quad muscles tightening and pulling on my hip and knee.  This is very aggravating

 

I am incredibly happy that my knee is not hurting.  I can tell that I have strengthened my hips and butt significantly over the last 2 months.  It’s frustrating though that my muscles in my right leg are retaining the tendency to tighten up.  I hope this is because I started pushing things a little too soon and not something that I will have to deal with forever.  After Gettysburg, I’m hoping that an even steady running schedule will get my muscles back to normal.  My left leg is of course, just fine.

Running with a cold

*Written yesterday

I’ve been dealing with a cold for the past week and a half.  I spent several days thinking I was going to fight it off without getting too sick, but by last Wednesday, the cold was clearly winning.  I was very lucky not to get too sick during training for MCM, and previously, being congested usually meant I’d do something low key at the gym if I worked out at all.  

My experience running over the last week and a half of cold-y-ness has been interesting though.  Over the course of this cold I have had days where running was completely not happening, which is expected.  I’ve had days where my runs were miserable, but these were not the days I felt the worse.  Those were the days I felt like I was fighting off the cold but hadn’t gotten fully sick.  The days I felt the worse, excepting the 2 days I didn’t run, I ended up having really great runs where I pushed through the cold somehow and felt strong and good.  This includes 2 long runs, a hill interval run, and a tempo run this morning.  I haven’t done hill intervals or tempo runs in months since I was babying my right leg/knee.  

It’s very odd how my body has almost set the cold aside on some days to really perform well.  Maybe I was more determined mentally on those days to run my best?  Interestingly, as soon as I stopped running, I felt worse than before my run.  Exercise is such an odd thing…