Namaste, Y'All - Yoga For Running (and life in general)

Anyone follows me on social media – or better yet, speaks with me in the normal world – probably knows that I have gotten my butt back into the yoga studio. I dabbled in yoga here and there over the years but never could afford to regularly attend studio classes. I really got into a routine with when I was pregnant and would go to prenatal classes at least once per week, usually twice. It was an incredible experience emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and I really did think I would be one of those ladies that got through labor with my great breathing exercises. HA. I mean... it helped... but the three tanks of nitrous helped more.

Anyway, I lost touch with all of that during the chaos of being a new parent. I did classes here and there when the stars aligned and someone else wanted to go with me.  Back in the fall Idolyn invited me to a new studio she was trying out, and I’m forever grateful for that. The studio was doing a “butterball” challenge (think turkey - it was November), and if you hit a certain amount of classes in 30 days you got a free 30-day pass for someone else. We were determined to do it and found ourselves going as much as possible. It was hard but I was amazed at how much progress I made in just one month. We have created a routine out of it and I try to go at least twice per week. I cannot express how important it is to have a yogi friend and partner to go to classes with. It makes all the difference.

The stickers were the best part

I recently had my mind blown when we attended a Back to Basics workshop at the studio I went to for my prenatal classes. We have been attending intense heated power vinyasa classes for a few months now but I felt like I could benefit from revisiting the foundations and learning with a new teacher for a day. It helped me develop better muscle memory for poses, where my weight should be, how certain postures should feel, etc. The thing that actually blew my mind was that the physical practice, or Asana, was only one branch of the 8 limbs of yoga. It made sense – every yoga posture ends in the word “asana” and the teachers usually interchange the English name and Sanskrit word during class (for example, Mountain Pose is also Tadasana, Chair Pose is also Utkatasana). I picked up on the fact that Asanas were poses and knew yoga was more than physical practice (do a few solid Ohm’s and you’ll get it). I started doing my own research and ordered a few books to learn more and see how I could incorporate it into my life. For a quick rundown, the 8 limbs of yoga are:

Yama – our ethical standards, how we behave and conduct ourselves in life

Niyama – self-discipline and spiritual observances

Asana – physical practice, what the Western world knows as “yoga”

Pranayama – breath control, which you do practice a lot in a yoga class

Pratyahara – this one is hard to explain, but it’s sort of like a sensory withdrawal and relieving yourself of outside distraction

Dharana – This is like pre-meditation; it is a practice of concentration to focus on a single thought, phrase, object, etc

Dhyana – Also hard to explain, but sort of meditation-y sort of concentration-y… being aware without particular focus on anything. A truly quiet mind with few to no thoughts. Stillness.

So why am I blabbing about yoga? Well, I have miles to go in my full practice of yoga (Asana and otherwise) but I’ve seen immense improvements in my running and any physical activity since committing to a regular yoga practice. Still with me? Ok. Cool.

1.       Cardio improvement and working muscles I didn’t know existed.

I was BLOWN AWAY when I ran for the first time after not running for what felt like forever. I had been practicing yoga for a few months again by the time I start my training plan. I suck at running but I was able to keep up with a steady pace easily, something that took me a long time to do when in the past when I was just running and not doing yoga. 

2.       Drishti.

Drishti is used throughout the practice of yoga and translates into something along the lines of a steady, focused gaze. Drishti is there for you when you’re holding a forearm plank for 20 breaths and your abs are about to explode. It’s awesome for balance poses, too. I try to set my Drishti, my focused gaze, before I even move my body into a balance pose. I equate it to kind of "seeing without seeing" – you are looking at something but at the same time, not really. The practice of Drishti and Ujjayi Pranayama, a particular breathing technique, are what I try to focus on most during yoga practice. Drishti may sound foreign but it’s actually not a new concept in running. Mentally “tuning out” is a common thread among distance runners (of which, I am not). I have been practicing using my Drishti during runs by picking something, setting my gaze on it, and letting my body move me to that place. I get there, I set another Drishti, I go there. During that time I knock on the door of Pratyahara….

3.       Quieting the mind.

“HOW HAVE I ONLY RUN A HALF MILE SO FAR?” Loud minds bring thoughts like this and, to bring in a popular yoga phrase, those thoughts don’t serve you. A lot of yoga practice is to quiet the mind so you can let go of things that don’t serve you and invite things that do. I haven’t quite reached the point of actively inviting things that serve my physical exercise while I’m in the moment, but quieting my mind allows me to let go of the internal chatter (sometimes internal yelling) that can make a run miserable. It is really incredible what you can get through when you let your mind go blank, hear the music you are listening to, and sort of let it all pass through your eyes and ears and out the back of your head without giving any more thought to it. 

4. You may be able to do a handstand in class, but if you’re an asshole off the mat then you’re not really practicing yoga. 

Yoga teachers always emphasize that it doesn’t matter what you can and cannot do, or even what you did last class or in the last flow or two seconds ago. What matters is this moment and your breath. What matters is that you take the practice of yoga into your everyday life and figure out how it can serve you. How does that apply to running? Well, I have to remind myself that even though I’m never impressed with times or my running style or stopping for breaks, that’s not what really matters. The moment I am in is what matters, and showing up is what matters the most. It’s also a great reminder that using physical exercise (whether it be yoga or running) as part of your spiritual practice and every life means you have to incorporate healthy principles into the other aspects of your life, too. You can be a great runner and then eat like shit, but what does that do for you? You can lose 50 pounds and still be an asshole. You can get ripped and still be unhealthy. 

I know I have yet to see all of the benefits of yoga in my life and with reaching my goal of running a 10k, but the thing with yoga is that you never hit the end of your learning. That's the beauty in it. But also... I may need this shirt:

Namaste, Dudes. 

Week 4: Why Are My Bones Aching?

Week 4 is coming to a close and it has been another successful week despite New England’s Winter Wrath. Move over Maggie Hassan, the Night King is the new boss of New Hampshire.

I’ve been playing with the schedule that works the best for me throughout the week because I most often have to take a different “off” day than what is planned. Funny enough, it’s hardest for me to actually take an “off” day than find a day to go running or have a cross-training day. I’d like to send a formal thank you to Cooper, because without him I wouldn’t have a good reason to go walking every day.

I have two types of runs per week – one that is measured by distance and two that are measured by time. For the distance run I focus on just going that distance and caring less about stopping for walking breaks. The opposite is true about the timed runs – I push myself to keep on running until I hit that specific time. I may be out for a longer amount of time and take a quick walk break after I hit my initial goal, then run again, but overall the goal is to run for that set amount of time. My timed runs went from 20-25 minutes to 25-30 minutes. It’s not a big difference, but running five extra minutes when you didn’t really want to run the first 25 can be a struggle. My first timed run of the week was set for the same day the Night King bestowed an ice shit storm on southern New Hampshire.

Cooper and I sloshed through the sloppiness and mostly ran in the middle of S. Main St whenever possible. Any time a car approached I had to jump back onto the sidewalk, which was literally a sheet of ice, and try not to die. 75% of the run was actually me just shuffling my feet across the ice in a running motion and contemplating the reasons why Cooper wasn’t as affected the by slippy-ness (weight distribution and a lower center of gravity were my conclusions). What I didn’t find myself doing was contemplating why in the sam-hell we were out at all. Chock it up to years of being outdoors in adverse conditions, I suppose, but I was happy that my brain didn’t immediately jump to “WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING THIS FOR? IT IS RAINING ICE AND I’M ABOUT TO FALL AND BREAK A HIP”, especially because all of those things were true. The key is to find the silver lining. Inflate your ego a little bit and be proud of yourself for being the only damn human-dog duo trotting 3.2 miles around the neighborhood in freezing rain.

The second half of the week was a bit rough. I've yet to figure out the best "off" day, as I said, and I found myself taking no "off" day this week .My plan schedules it for Saturday, usually I will want to take it on Friday because I'm tired from the week. I didn't send Cooper to daycare on Friday like I usually do, so I had to take him out for an evening walk. I ended up doing a yoga class on Saturday which isn't normal for me, and then did my first scheduled 5k on Sunday. I was pretty damn sore, but the silver lining is that even though I was aching and exhausted I still broke my PR for a 5k (at least since I started this plan). I'll take it. I'll also take the celebratory gin and tonic I had while watching the Pro Bowl.

Weight: 170.2, total of 8.4 pounds so far! My weight loss slowed down a bit because I wasn't so careful about my eating this week, and I also broke my rule of no alcohol during the week. It made the difference of being just at my calorie goal to 100-200 calories over it, and it reflected on the scale for sure. I'm still happy that I lost almost a pound (I thought I lost nothing!). 

Song of the week: 1957 by Milo Greene - this isn't on my running playlist, but it's just a damn good song that I've been listening to all week long

On to the next!

Week 2 & 3 / 20 - A Slightly Bigger Bust

I started off week 2 of my training plan with an easy cross-training day (aka taking Cooper on a walk), and then got up early on Tuesday morning for a run. I didn't feel my best but muscled through. I went to work and felt progressively worse throughout the day and ended up leaving early. I laid in bed for the next 36 hours straight and didn't fully recover until about Sunday of that week. The worst of the stomach bug took a few days to hit me and lasted a bit longer than Noah and Adam's version. Even Cooper had an upset belly at one point. All that is to say, week 2 was an even bigger bust than week 1. 

I went back to work and back to some semblance of normalcy at the start of week 3 (except Sunday, that was a bust, too). My doctor warned me that the upset belly could continue for 2-3 weeks, though thankfully less intense than what I had been experiencing. They were right, I had some bad cramping and general crummy feelings for the first half of the week but I figured I needed to just work through it. It was a cold, snowy week and made for some challenges. I frequently wanted to say "screw it", especially when it was actively snowing and super icy. I was cursing myself for not asking Adam to set up my elliptical sooner, but I never get the same effect on the elliptical as I do road running. Still... would have been nice to "run" inside instead of through a few inches of snow. Sidewalks? What sidewalks?

Cooper leading the way!

At least it made for a pretty run

This week I ran the same route for every running day, so it was neat to see the small improvements day over day. It may have been only 10-30 seconds faster per mile, but any small advancement seems huge to me right now. It wasn't a particularly pleasant week, but we finally got an entire week of the plan done! 

Not only does it suck to exercise when you feel like crap and it's winter in New England, but it's also a huge challenge to stay comfortable while doing cardio in subzero temps. It took a few tries for me to figure out the best layering system. I thankfully have every item of clothing and gear you could imagine from my time working at REI, but it's been a hot minute since I last ran in 10 degree snowy weather. I started having flashbacks to people frantically coming to the store the year it was 40 degrees and rainy for the Boston Marathon. Runners were asking me how they would stay dry and warm for the race. They were pretty bummed when I told them that if they intended to run 26.2 miles in the rain that they would, in fact, not stay dry and there was no magic layering system that would do that for them. Sure, you could wear a rain jacket, but even a $500 Arc'Teryx jacket is going to make you sweat your ass off if you run for 5 hours. Pick your poison - wet from your sweat or wet from the rain?

I DIGRESS. I finally figured out the best layering system, and for me that is - midweight synthetic base layer, midweight performance fleece, high-visibility midweight cycling jacket (we usually run in the dark), synthetic tights, standard fleece sweatpants, and wool socks. I usually also do a headband as opposed to a hat because I would get too damn hot with a hat on. I wear midweight gloves by Outdoor Research. I still sweat with that on but I'm a sweaty runner no matter what. 

As much as running sometimes sucks, it's better than constant diarrhea. 

Song of the week - My Number by Foals 

Weight check in - 172 as of 1/16, total of 6.6 pounds. Thanks, stomach bug! I anticipate some of that will be coming back now that I can eat real food, but I will take it for now. 

Week 1 / 20 - A Total Bust

Off to a terrible start. 

Yup, that's right. My training plan is off to a horrible start. It was supposed to be a relatively easy week. I intentionally made the first month-ish that way so that I could ease back into running, especially in the dead of winter. I like being outdoors in the winter, but NOT for running. Skiing? Snowshoeing? Sledding? Hiking? Sure! Running? Pass.

I was blessed to get an elliptical for Christmas but unfortunately it hasn't arrived yet. I was pleading with the Gods of UPS/FedEx/WhoeverShippedIt that it would arrive this past week so I could do my running indoors instead of in the arctic. No such luck, but it should be here this week. 

Day 1!

There's January's plan above, and as you can see week 1 is quite easy. I decided January 1st wasn't the best day to get back on MyFitnessPal, as we had only leftovers to eat in our house and needed the day to put ourselves and our house back together before reality hit us again. I did commit to still doing our XT/Walk day, because why not? Easy enough. The only bummer was that that the 'feels like' temp was -8 degrees when we went out, but Coop & I bundled up and did a short walk nonetheless. We also stuck to the plan on Tuesday, our first running day. I was nervous that it was going to be totally miserable between the ice, the fact that it was -12 with the wind chill this time around, and because I hadn't run regularly in months. I was pleasantly proven wrong! I haven't done much true cardio for a while, but I have been doing hot yoga 2-3 times per week for a few months now and it's been a great mix of cardio, stretching, and strength training. It helped immensely and 25 minutes of running wasn't really a challenge for me. Hallelujah!

I did my usual yoga class on Wednesday, which I will be using for most of my XT days. Thursday - Sunday was an absolute BUST. We got a huge blizzard on Thursday, and that's a late day at work for me anyway. There just wasn't a good time to leave the house while we were getting 2-3 inches of snow per hour at some points. I thought "well, I'll just use this as my "off" day" (I get one of those per week). That was a nice thought until Noah came home puking on Friday afternoon and we began a weekend of horror at my house. The sickness hit Adam will full force, I thankfully escaped the worst of it but was still laid up with a migraine, super nauseous, and unable to eat or drink much for a solid 24 hours. Special shout out to my mom for coming in as backup in the early hours of Saturday morning. I was feeling very crappy, Noah had been asleep for a few hours but hadn't eaten or drank anything for close to 10 hours. I knew he would be up soon (but didn't know if he could keep anything down). I heard Adam sprint to the bathroom and thought "WE. ARE. DOOMED." Grammy came to our rescue and sat up with Noah-boy for a few hours while we laid in our death beds. Everyone is slowly on the mend now, but certainly not 100%. It's the first stomach bug that has hit our house (and hit us all in some way), and it was the absolute worst. 

The good news? I lost 3.3 pounds without really trying too much. I would not recommend a household of explosive diarrhea, vomiting, and a raging migraine as a weight loss method, but it does work. My current eating plan is structured for losing 1 pound per week, and I totally crushed that goal.

 Look on the bright side right?