Morning-After Yoga

Don’t get me wrong: my six-mile run on Monday evening was stellar. It didn’t take me long to warm up and, while it was a slow run, I didn’t tire at all and felt wholly comfortable with the distance. I even took to a 30-minute run at 10:00/mile on Tuesday night after dinner (remind me to stop doing that). It was a much, much slower-moving day than Monday, but it continued to ramp up my confidence for Saturday.

Thinking back to last year, it makes me giggle to think that my biggest fear was not finishing the race. By last March last year five miles was a hike for me; this year it’s just a breeze. I know that I won’t meet the time goals I set for myself late last summer for this race, but my confidence is riding high about finishing. One less thing to worry about!

My training prep ends with a longer run around Cleveland and the Heights this evening after work. I’d like to run for at least one hour and really get in my last set of hills before St. Malachi.

Obviously squeezing in hills three days before the race isn’t going to magically make me a hill-killer, but I’d like to remind myself what a REAL hill feels like before I make that final turn. With all this downtime, it might take a little more than a bratwurst and a finish line to get me to the top!

What will I do in the meantime? Rest and stretch. Cold weather tends to leave my muscles tight after a run—especially the next morning. Sure, I stretch before and after my runs; I warm up and I cool down; I shower cold and I shower hot. Sometimes my muscles just won’t chill when they’re supposed to be chilled.

Over the past two mornings I’ve put together a yoga flow to stretch myself (focusing on calves, quads and back) and walked away feeling awesome. So, I thought I would share. The full walk-through appears below, but here’s the flow:

• Child’s pose
• Cat lift
  
• Cat pose
• Cat lift
• Downward dog
• Swan
• Swan bow
• Downward dog
• Swan
• Swan bow
• One-leg down dog
• Plank
• Upward dog
• Half locust
• Upward dog
• One-leg down dog
• Crescent lunge
• Forward fold
• Chest lift

Combining one breath with each movement, start in extended child’s pose. Inhale into cat lift, hold and exhale into cat pose. Repeat 2-3 times, returning to child’s pose between each lift/pose set.

After the last cat pose, inhale into cat lift and then exhale into downward dog. I like to take 3-4 breaths while stretching each calf respectively, keeping my arms stretched, even and strong as I press down each heel. Once your calves feel evenly stretched, hold downward dog for five deep breaths.

From downward dog, inhale one knee forward between your hands, keeping your back leg extended and stretching back into swan pose. Exhale your forehead toward the floor into swan bow, breathing space between each vertebrae.

Inhale-exhale through 2-3 swan poses/bows, return to downward dog and repeat swans on the other side.

After the last swan, inhale, tuck your back toe under and exhale into one-leg downward dog. Really stretch out your sides, arms and your calf. Hold for five breaths and exhale your leg down. Lower your body, inhaling, through plank position into upward dog. Exhale into half locust, stretching your back and legs. Inhale back into upward dog, tuck the toe on your other side and exhale into one-leg downward dog. Repeat 2-3 times on each side.

In your last one-leg down dog, inhale and step one foot forward between your hands and, exhaling, bring your torso upward into crescent lunge. Hold for a few breaths. Inhale and bring your body forward, lowering your hands and body toward the mat, and then into plank position. Inhale your other foot forward between your hands and repeat crescent lunge on the other side.

Complete your last crescent lunge and bring your feet together at the front of your mat in a forward fold. Hold for two breaths, arch your back and inhale while looking up, and then exhale back into forward fold. Repeat 2-3 times until hammies feel stretched, then lift with a cleansing exhale toward the ceiling, raise your arms into a chest lift and inhale. Then release all your tension with one great exhale and bring your hands into mountain pose. Om…

You’ll want to adjust the flow to your own rhythms and, obviously, modify if it doesn’t fit your needs, if you find something that works better or if my explanation seems to skip something in a bad way. It’s hard to write a yoga flow while sitting in a chair!

But chair-stretching will have to do for now: only three days until the gun blows on my 2008 race season!

Yoga for your Aching Back

Whether it’s age, cold, driving, bad posture, back pain has been the biggest stunt to my running lately. It hasn’t stopped me from running; it’s just made warm-up a little “eek,” “ooh-ooh” and “oww.”

For a few pained runs, it took about a half-mile for my back to warm up and chill out. But what a price to pay! So, on Friday, it was time for something completely different.

I went back to my injury-treatment staple: yoga. What was I waiting for? The pain lived mainly in my low back—almost like a double sciatic pain, but not as painful. And it mostly occurs when I first start running. While I get some sitting pain (my back isn’t fond of sitting still, evidently), it’s the impact in running that really miffs my back.

So, it was time for cat series 3 and cat series 5. These vinyasa cat-pose flows make for stellar spinal warm-ups. I try to focus on my lower back, but if my mid-back feels achy, I lay my focus in those positions and interweave my breath. Works like a dream.

Cat Series 3: Begin in extended child’s pose with your hands and arms reaching, stretching out in front of you. Inhale and push up through cat pose (back arching) and then exhale, flowing into upward dog. Inhale at the top of upward dog and really feel the stretch in your back, keeping your core strong. Then exhale, lowering your forehead to the floor, and push through the back, raise your feet into half-locust. Inhale on your way up through upward dog, stretch your back, exhaling, into cat pose, and then push back into extended child’s pose.

I repeat this exercise five times, intensifying the breath with each flow.

This video of cat series 3 gives a good demo of the flow. I prefer to raise my legs into a low half-locust (as described above) for my lower-back warming, but modify the flow for your purposes.


Cat Series 5: From extended child’s pose, inhale, engage your spine and move onto your forearms in cat bow (back is bowed in cat stretch). Exhale and push through your legs into modified downward dog (downward dog with your forearms on the mat), reaching your heels toward the mat. If it’s too much for you, extend your arms into normal downward dog. Engage your lower back and back of your legs in this stretch. Then inhale, bring your knees back toward the mat through cat pose (onto your forearms with your back). Bow your back into cat bow (the first ‘bow’ has a long o; second as a short o sound), exhale, and then pose through cat pose into extended child’s pose.

I generally do this exercise five times as well, but I will repeat it until my back feels just skippy.

The following video demonstrates cat series 5, but does not extended into child’s pose between flows. Again, modify for your purposes.


So, after completing a couple of cat series flows (if you become a fan, more Kate Potter flow videos are available), I headed into the sludgefest known as Friday morning. It wasn’t too cold outside, and, while it was still snowing, it didn’t make for bad running weather at all.

Too bad the weather wasn’t the issue.

Running in 3-4 inches of thick slush just doesn’t make for a good run. It’s kind of like running through sand, but without the sun, warmth and wavy water. The only thing wavy here was my balance—maybe my confidence too—as I slipped and slid for a whole 25-minute run.

Twenty-five minutes? Well, it felt like an eternity.

I didn’t even have a concept of how far I ran because my normal, measurable routes were impossible to travel and I ended up circling the same set of three parking lots and two streets that were remotely traversable. Yick! And I realized after 20 minutes that my legs were hurting in my places they normally aren’t phased, so my stride must be all off. For another five minutes I tried to focus on running with a good stride, using the right parts of my legs and getting an actual workout. But alas, I failed. I just couldn’t get the footing, the traction, the non-sludge-covered ground to help me run.

Instead, I went inside and did some intense aerobics, which, with the awkward running style, made for some pretty sore legs on Saturday. It’s been really sunny the past two days, and I hope the coming week makes for some quality running days… I’m running out of time!