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.