Taking running from a runner is almost like taking
anti-depressants from the manically depressed. I didn’t realize how much running elevated my mood until it
was gone. And to think that’s how
most people – those who don’t get to enjoy daily runs – live their lives.
In her book Running
for Women, Olympic marathoner Kara Goucher described a time when she spent
her days sitting around her house eating candy corn, gaining weight, and being
depressed while she was injured.
These past few months I have sympathized with Goucher and realized that
while she injected humor into the situation, being unable to run is no laughing
matter.
While I tried to remain positive, I certainly felt the
effects of the loss of my natural daily upper. However, I was fortunate to still have one thing – my yoga
practice.
Even though it still took me a few weeks to get back to my
mat, I was able to return to yoga much sooner than I was able to get back to
running. And yoga gave me the
opportunity to sweat out my frustration with my injury and refocus my recovery.
In fact, I believe yoga was one of the factors that aided my
recovery. Rehabbing an ankle is
all about balancing poses, and in yoga you have plenty of them! Half Moon,
Warrior Three, Tree, Eagle – all these poses helped me build a stronger ankle.
I will even stretch that statement a bit deeper and state
that I feel like most of the exercises I see out there for runners – whether
they are for rehabbing, strengthening, or stretching – are done in some
variation during my yoga practice.
Thus, as part of my Boston training, I am committing to try to practice
at least twice a week to build strength, stretch, and prevent injury.
Another benefit of my yoga practice and arguably most
important is that it builds pain tolerance. The kind of yoga I practice, hot power yoga at Charlotte’s
Y2 studio, isn’t the breathing and chanting stuff some people conjure up in
their minds when they think of yoga.
No – this yoga is hard. You
are holding poses until your arms and legs shake, doing chaturanga push up
after push up, and doing head stands or crow poses on your “break” all while
sweating out a week’s worth of beer in a 105-degree heated room.
In Jillian Michaels’ Yoga Meltdown dvd, Michaels instructs
the yogis to “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” While Michales was talking about holding a difficult yoga
pose, she could have been talking about running. Half of the challenge with running – especially racing – is
getting comfortable with holding uncomfortable paces. You have to breath the pain in, swish it around your mouth a
little, and swallow it down. You
will feel pain everywhere! If you
are at the end of a marathon and you aren’t in pain, then you’re not pushing
hard enough. And if you never feel
like you are dying during training, then you will never reach your potential.
Some people are resistant to try yoga because they think all
the “Namastes” and “Oms” are weird, and they are afraid that they will be
surrounded by a whole bunch of smelly hippies. Well, the smelly part may be right on target, but I think
most people are just afraid to step out of their comfort zone. And I remember my first few times at
yoga, I felt the exact same way! I
didn’t know any of the names of these poses, and I wasn’t flexible (and I’m
still not), and I felt a little out of place surrounded by yuppies in their lululemon flying their birds high above their
heads (I will never be able to do that!)
But we rarely stretch and grow without stepping out of our
comfort zones. And since I have
committed to making 2014 a year of improving, I have to push it to progress. I
have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
The light within me
honors the light within you.
Namaste.
Boston Experiment Week
3 of 16: 51 miles – all “real”
running. Longest run was a 16-mile
progression run. I’m feeling great
and very thankful to be back!!
This Week’s Beer
Choice: Birdsong Brewing
Company’s Higher Ground IPA
Awwww I feel the love :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll give yoga another shot this year...