A Great Blog

Active Yogi: In the Flow

2012-05-07T16:01:00.001-04:00

My latest for Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, is about finding the flow state. It's a continuation of the series on training your focus. Please click over and have a look and a Like!

Active Yogi: A Twist on Twisting

2012-04-23T14:29:00.001-04:00

This week's post to Active Yogi at Yoga Journal describes a lovely belly-down twist. This is the linemen's favorite!

Q&A with Runner's World

2012-04-12T10:47:00.002-04:00

Here's a Q and A I did with Runner's World about The Runner's Guide to Yoga. They asked wonderful questions!

Active Yogi: 108 Steps

2012-04-09T13:49:00.002-04:00

My latest post for Active Yogi at Yoga Journal describes climbing Old Baldy, the lighthouse on Bald Head Island with rickety steps, dark landings, and a trap door to the top. Intention, form, and breath got me up, along with some goading from my kids.

Slideshow: Yoga for Stress Relief

2012-04-09T08:30:00.001-04:00

The first day back at work after a holiday can be especially stressful. When you get home tonight, pull a pillow or two off the bed and enjoy this slideshow I made for LiveStrong.com: Yoga for Stress Relief.

Meet The Runner's Guide to Yoga

2012-03-28T10:08:00.000-04:00

My latest book, The Runner's Guide to Yoga, is hitting bookstores now. (Please scoot over to Amazon and order yourself a copy!) This book isn't a replacement for The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, but it does make a nice complement to that book. My intention for this book is to give runners specific tools from the yoga system that can improve their experience both on and off the course. Instead of containing an exhaustive catalog of poses or exercises, The Runner's Guide to Yoga presents streamlined poses and exercises for a runner's body and mind. You'll find details of yoga poses for the hips and thighs, the lower leg, the core, and the upper body, an extensive section on finding balance in the body, as well as chapters on breathing and meditation exercises. The book also combines these poses and exercises into routines to practice before, during, and after your run, whether it's a tough track workout, an easy base run, or a long race.

And the book is not just for runners, it's written by a runner and uses models who demonstrate the way these poses look in a runner's body. The male model has run a 14:45 5K and will run for Stanford in the fall; the female model was on the distance medley team that won the 2000 Penn Relays; I was training for the Mt. Mitchell 40-miler during the photo shoot. We appear super comfortable in some poses and show less than "ideal" form in others. But this is the way real runners' bodies operate. We carry sport-specific tightness. The goal of our yoga practice isn't to eliminate it but to keep it in balance so we can stay injury-free and fluid. Beyond that, our yoga practice gives us tools to remain calm, focused, and purposeful no matter what comes our way.

Please have a look at the book and let me know how you like it. I'd love a review on Amazon, as well. Thank you!

Active Yogi: Pinwheel Pigeon

2012-03-26T13:29:00.001-04:00

My latest piece for Yoga Journal's Active Yogi blog details a variation on pigeon that's helpful for folks with tight hips and bum knees. We've been enjoying it in class lately, and you can see it as part of the "Christina's World" set of hip stretches at YogaVibes.

Handstand Inspiration

2012-03-19T10:33:00.001-04:00

My younger daughter, Vivian, who has no history of gymnastics lessons, has decided to master an unsupported handstand. She's already pretty great at doing it against the wall—something she watches me do in my home yoga practice sometimes—but this drive to handstand in free space is impressive.

A few times each day (including, to the chagrin of my stomach, immediately after dinner), she heads outside and practices. Saturday, I filmed her practice and asked her to narrate. The sound is poor, but the highlights are these:

"Hi, I'm Vivi, and I'm going to show you how to do a handstand. I might fall, but I'm OK."

"Here's the key. You have to sorta stay balanced and don't, like, move your legs around. And you have to breathe in and out."

"Don't be afraid when you fall backward. Try to land on your back or on your feet. Those are the two best places you can land on. Don't land on your head."

As one of my running buddies pointed out, "I might fall, but I'm OK" is a fantastic mantra.

I've invited Vivi to come to class next week and guest teach kicking into handstand! I hope her persistence inspires you.

Active Yogi: Yoga Shines through on Race Day

2012-03-12T14:52:00.002-04:00

My latest on the Active Yogi blog at Yoga Journal is a revisitation of the Mt. Mitchell Challenge from a yoga perspective. Please enjoy!

Retreat: Kripalu, Labor Day 2012

2012-03-09T08:56:00.001-05:00

I'm very excited to expand my usual Yoga for Athletes weekend workshop at Kripalu into a long-weekend format. The two extra sessions will allow us to add a second strength-building practice and to explore yin yoga together. If you have been thinking about visiting Kripalu, join us! This is sure to be a fantastic time together. The trails are wonderful, and the lake may even be warm enough for a hardy open-water swimmer.

Click here for details and registration for Yoga for Athletes: Strength, Flexibility, and Focus.

Practicing What I Preach

2012-03-07T08:06:00.003-05:00

After running the forty-mile Mount Mitchell Challenge ten days ago, up and down the highest peak in the eastern United States, I’m in recovery mode. And it’s very tough! As author of The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, I know just what I ought to be doing, but I’m finding it very tough to be patient with my body, which is ready to get back into the swing of swimming and riding—if not yet running. Here are some ways I’m approaching recovery.

EATING AND SLEEPING

Proper recovery technique: sitting on the couch
Vivi (standing), Lily, Kathleen, and Tara, post–40 miler

To hasten recovery, I ate well before, during, and after the race (hush puppies, anyone?). Just after my postrace shower, I put on my 2XU recovery compression tights and propped my feet up on the back of the couch. Two days after the race, I got a postrace massage, even though delayed onset muscle soreness was peaking—my quads were incredibly sore to the touch after all the downhill miles. I’ve allotted extra time for sleeping and even returned to bed last Monday morning after getting up and seeing my children off to school. They came home the next day, in fact, to find me asleep on the couch, which was a little alarming to them as I rarely nap.

RETURNING TO TRAINING SLOWLY

Figuring I was ready for some low-impact movement, I put my pool bag in the car Thursday, intending to knock out an easy thousand yards after teaching yoga. But when, in the course of my private lesson, I realized I was still more sore and tired than I realized, I came home instead, thinking, “I’ll walk the dog.” Turned out I was too tired for that, too. Then I was too tired for my usual power flow yoga class, and instead enjoyed some restorative poses. (I got an unintended workout when my scooter battery died, and I had to walk home two miles with my groceries. Happily, it was a lovely spring day in the upper 70s.)

Friday I managed a half-hour easy spin on the trainer, barely breaking a sweat. I wasn’t up for riding on the road, worried that I’d discover too late that I didn’t have the juice to make it over hills. Saturday, my husband and I walked 5K with run breaks (I refused to run on the uphills or downhills, and our last half-mile was on the middle school track). Sunday, I spent a little longer on the trainer.

By this Monday, I was up for a track workout—run/walking with a six-months-pregnant friend. And yesterday, I swam for the first time in months. It left my arms limp like noodles, but it felt great.

TAKING TIME

You’d think not training would be the easiest thing to do, but it isn’t. It’s tough to lose the stress release, the social experience, the ritual. But I’ve got to listen to my body’s cues and take the time to allow for deep cellular recovery. While the soreness is almost gone, there’s still a lot of healing that has to happen. As I feel stronger, I can add intensity in the water, then on the bike; eventually, I’ll be back to my normal running.

Do the same as you return to training after your peak race. It takes faith and patience, but allowing for complete recovery sets you up for success in the next training cycle.

Feature: "How Cyclists Can Benefit from a Yoga Practice"

2012-03-05T10:08:00.000-05:00

The kind folks at USA Cycling interviewed me for this feature on how yoga helps cyclists and everyone.

Sage Advice: Frequency

2012-03-05T08:39:00.001-05:00

Leticia, a runner, wrote to ask how often she should practice yoga to see benefits. This is covered in detail in The Runner's Guide to Yoga, which should be available almost any day now, but here's my answer.

I'd say consistency across the week is more important than how long you practice each day. One longer practice each week, on a rest day or an easy day of running, in either a studio class or online/DVD, plus three or four shorter (10-20 minute) sessions after your runs should start to show you progress. It's good to study with a live teacher to learn alignment, then make a point of being consistent in your practice at home. You should see some progress within a month or six weeks if you're consistent about it.

Race Report: Mount Mitchell Challenge 2012

2012-02-28T14:04:00.002-05:00

Later this year, I'll turn 40. To celebrate, I ran 40 miles Saturday. But not just any 40 miles: 40 miles of rocky, icy trail up and back down Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States at 6,684 feet. It was a long day of exercise, and it was very hard. Here are some thoughts for those who are considering doing this race in the future, or who, like my father, want to know "Why?!?"

THE RACE
The race itself, the Mount Mitchell Challenge, was wonderfully organized, and the volunteers were kind and enthusiastic, even—especially—at the higher elevations, where the wind was gusting and the drinks were freezing. This year, race organizers instituted a lottery system. My best friend and two of my former coaching clients all put their names in the lottery, and all four of us got in. Coincidence? Not sure, but it made for a fun group. We rented a cabin that was a little ways out of Black Mountain, where the race started and finished. I'd suggest staying in town if possible. It's a lovely downtown with shops and restaurants, and the Monte Vista hotel, where packet pickup was held, was cozy and charming.

THE TRAINING
I trained by running lots, of course. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, I ran at least a mile a day. I spread out my long runs so they were at least nine days apart, and my longest run was 30 miles. (I ran those from home, accompanied almost the entire time by various compassionate friends, and felt good enough to put high-heeled boots on over my compression socks and go to a wine tasting that night.) Most of my running was on singletrack in the Carolina North forest, though I did a few runs at Umstead State Park, where the singletrack more closely mimicked the Mount Mitchell trails and the bridle paths simulate the up- and downhill grades of the Mount Mitchell Race.

While I was at Kripalu earlier this month, two of my students and I ran three miles up and down a mountain trail covered in ice. It was very tricky, and it shook my confidence about my ability to negotiate what I knew would be icy terrain up the mountain. Most troubling to me was the idea of breaking a wrist, which would hamper my typing, driving, and downward-dogging abilities for a month or more. As the race organizers let you downgrade to the marathon, run at the same time, at the marathon turnaround point, I remained open to the idea of not heading up the summit if the preceding trail was exhausting.

THE RUN

Tara, Kika, Dave, and Guido

Ultras are wonderful for their low-key starts. We gathered in downtown Black Mountain and headed out right on time. Here are my friends at the start: Tara, Kika, Dave, and Guido. Dave has run the marathon and the 40-mile challenge in previous years; Guido has run the 40 miler every year, and he ran with me to mile 16. That was a real blessing; he knew the ins and outs of the course intimately, and he told me which hills to walk and when to keep chugging.

The course is a string of various grades and terrains. The first few miles are on pavement through town, heading through the pretty campus of Montreat College, where a long, steep hill leads to a beautiful trail through the rhododendron. This was a lovely section, soft and lush, with reasonable footing and grades. Soon we entered the Toll Road, which is no longer a road but a long, double-wide trail with plenty of roots, a steep drop to one side, and lots and LOTS of rocks. Many, many, many rocks. This trail brings runners to the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the marathoners turn around and the challengers continue up Mount Mitchell. By this point, the air is getting thinner. Entering the state park, we moved onto a relatively flat, smooth trail that traverses the mountain horizontally, crossing frozen streams along the way. The trail that leads to the summit, by contrast, is almost vertical, and I needed to use my arms to help as I picked my way around the ice floes that covered the boulders on the trail. The summit is worth the work, though—we emerged into the howling wind and spectacular views, and it was very exciting to have reached the peak.

There's no time to linger at the top, and many more miles to run. After checking in at the one warm aid station in the ranger hut, I started back down the mountain, via a trail so steep and rooty I often stopped in my tracks to consider where to put my foot next. This tricky section then feeds into a gravel road that heads, cruelly, back uphill for a mile or so to the paved road. While pavement is a nice change of pace, the road is so canted that it's tricky (plus, there was ice), and the wind was really roaring. The course reenters the trail at the Toll Road, which seemed to have grown some rocks over the last few hours, then emerges on a very, very steep downhill to run through Montreat and along a creek before finishing with a long loop of Lake Tomahawk, back in Black Mountain.

EQUIPMENT AND FOOD
The weather was cold but dry, which worked out fine. When I arrived at the top of the mountain, it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit with 20 mph winds—tough, but manageable—and when I arrived at the finish, it was probably about 50 degrees and pleasantly sunny. There was less ice on the trail than I feared, and it was always on rocks, not the soil, which meant the Yaktrax I carried wouldn't have helped. It was cold enough to keep on my warm jacket almost the whole time, as well as my insulated mittens. On my feet, I wore wool socks and Brooks Cascadias, which did a wonderful job on the trail and left me without a single blister.

I carried 70 ounces of Power Bar Endurance sport drink in my Nathan Intensity women's-specific vest. (Big thanks to Nathan here: my original bladder for the pack sprung a hole, and they worked hard to get it replaced in time.) I drank it all on the way up and refilled with another two liters of water at the summit, which I drank completely just before the finish. At aid stations, I grazed on trail mix, chips, and graham crackers, as well as hot soup at the Parkway station. And I ate four Power Bar gels, each with caffeine.

THE PROCESS

With Dave at the finish

My intention for the race was to finish smiling, and I certainly did. My secondary intention was not to get hurt. To that end, I walked every time I felt like I was losing control, which meant I wound up walking a lot of the downhill. That was definitely not the fastest approach, but it kept my mood even and was a major factor in my feeling good at the end. While I stumbled a few times, I never fell, and my wrists made it out unscathed. While a brave runner could have a serious negative split in the race (there are 4,000 feet to descend in the second half!), I ran up in about 4:30 and finished in 8:26.

There was very little drama in my head. I got cranky about the rocks, but when I did, I'd eat a gel and walk till I felt my feet were back under me. A few times, I exclaimed in joy at the views and in wonder at the treat of being able to run all day. Generally, I remembered my intention (finish smiling), mustered up my best form, and breathed.

That said, the race demanded a very high level of focus. It was much harder than Ironman Coeur d'Alene, for example. In the Ironman, especially the swim and the bike, you've got to focus to be safe, but not in the moment-to-moment way you must when running technical trails. And the Ironman run looks like a cakewalk in comparison to barreling down icy rocks after 35 miles of running—compare the one-mile-apart aid stations with music, a buffet, and enthusiastic fans with running five miles alone on trail before coming upon a few kind hunters at a table with Tang and trail mix. I liked them both, but I found this run much more challenging, and more quietly rewarding.

THE RECOVERY

Compression!

Downhill running fries your quads. That's what makes Boston such a challenging marathon—the 15 miles of descent from Hopkinton to Newton demand eccentric contractions in your quadriceps, which really tears them up. The soreness is quite bad, worse than post-Boston, worse than post-Ironman. But it's a little better today than yesterday, typical of DOMS.

I've generally followed the guidelines I lay out in The Athlete's Guide to Recovery. First, I ate and drank well before and during the race, so my stomach never bothered me, and I refueled well post race, too. (Hush puppies! Mocha pound cake!) After showering, I put on my compression socks, as well as some recovery tights 2XU sent me for review. We lounged in the cabin, watched Spinal Tap, and went to bed very early. It's tough to sleep, though, when you've had to sustain such a level of focus for so many hours. And it's tough to sleep when the pain in your muscles means you wake yourself up every time you roll over! The soreness is fading now and should be gone by the weekend. I expect a second wave of fatigue to hit around then, as it does post-Ironman.

During those many hours on the trail, I thought about the appropriate amount of time off post–A priority long-distance race, and I developed a new rule of thumb to apply for recreational/age group runners like me. (Competitive/elite runners can shorten this, especially those with more experience at the ultra distances.) If X is the number of hours you're running in the race, you should take at least X days without running post-race. That holds true for a three- or four-hour marathon, and I bet it's true for an eight-hour trail run, too.

WHY?!?
All these details, and no concrete answer to "Why?!?" Just because.

Active Yogi: Movement Patterns

2012-02-28T09:38:00.003-05:00

My latest piece for Yoga Journal describes the ways yoga shines light on our movement patterns.

Sage Advice: Yoga Teacher Training vs. Marathon Training

2012-02-24T11:11:00.000-05:00

Jessica wrote with a fascinating question. She's about to start yoga teacher training but is also signed up for the Chicago Marathon. Would it be wiser, she asked, to focus her energy on the teacher training and postpone the marathon for now? I told her that it would depend on a few factors:

1. Your running background
2. Your goals for the race
3. The rigor of your YTT program

If you're going from 0 to 26.2, I'd say to postpone, but if you have a few years' distance running experience and have successfully (read: happily and without injury) completed a few half marathons, I think you'll be fine.

If your goal for the race is to qualify for Boston, or even to run a specific time, I'd say to postpone, but if your goal is simply to finish (ideally, happily and without injury), I think you'll be fine.

If your program requires attending a lot of studio classes each week, especially if they are in warm or hot studios, I'd say to postpone, but if your program allows for home practice and modifications, I think you'll be fine.

Another consideration will be balancing your long runs with the YTT. Is it a weekend program? If so, can you do your long runs on Tuesday or Wednesday?

She's pondering—and I'm super impressed that she wants to learn as much as she can about what her future students, athlete/yogis, go through in their training. Kudos, Jessica, and run fast!

Sage Advice: Prerace Nerves

2012-02-23T13:48:00.003-05:00

I've gotten a host of good questions from readers this morning and hope to cover them in the next few posts. One, via Twitter, is especially germane for me today, as I approach a challenging trail race on Saturday. Ainhoa asks, "Do you have something for managing stress, let's say pre-race for instance."

Yes! Both before and during the race, I come back to intention, form, and breath. First, I get clear on my intention for the race. This can be as simple as "have fun" or "keep pushing." Once I'm clear on intention, I can make decisions that align with it. Next, I notice my form. Am I using the right amount of energy for what's happening now? Pre-race, for example, am I tensing my hands, shoulders, or jaw when I start to think about the race? Where could I relax more? During the race, I check my form: standing tall, stepping quickly, relaxing everywhere I can given the demands of the pace. Finally, I watch my breath, using the breath that serves the moment. Pre-race, that can mean deep, full breaths with long exhalations. During the race, that can mean synching my breath with my footsteps.

Intention, form, and breath correlate to the first four limbs of yoga. Intention covers yama and niyama; form is asana (it should be steady and comfortable, the sutras tell us), and breath is pranayama. Once we've got these four limbs down, we're ready to work on the next four, which are devoted to sharpening our focusing skills by turning our attention inward (pratyahara), focusing on one thing (dharana), focusing on many things simultaneously (diyana), and achieving blissful connection (samadhi).

Back to the practical: I also notice what I'm scared of. Is it weather? Weather is out of my control. Is it forgetting to pack an item I'll need, like my Yaktrax? That's in my control. I focus my energy on the things I can control, and I practice not getting uptight about the things I can't control. Then I come back to intention, form, and breath.

Stress is not the enemy; stress is a catalyst for change. If you weren't stressed, you wouldn't grow. Pre-race nerves are a good thing, a sign that the upcoming task has meaning. If you're feeling blasé about your race, you aren't going to achieve a peak performance. Embrace the stress, but look to balance stress with rest. When stress is coming strong from one angle—be it physical or psychological stress—meet it with special attention to rest and recovery. Eat well, hydrate, sleep more, get a massage. (I've just come from my pre-race massage, in fact.) These techniques are outlined in my book The Athlete's Guide to Recovery.

Yoga for Athletes Teacher Training and Certification

2012-02-21T10:08:00.000-05:00

I've just scheduled a weeklong intensive, June 25–29, 2012, for teachers who want to hone their skills in working with athletes. This is perfect for yoga teachers, personal trainers, and PE teachers. If you've completed a weekend intensive with me, you'll find the weeklong to be a valuable expansion of the weekend workshop, with in-depth explorations of physiology, the system of yoga, and modifications for various sports and injuries.

The week, held at my home studio, the Carrboro Yoga Company, will be video recorded and incorporated into an online course, to be available in summer 2012. Participants in the weeklong training will receive free access to the online version, which will grow through the years. In addition, I'll offer a certification for teachers who are already at the Yoga Alliance 200-hour level or have comparable experience, pass a take-home exam, and submit a teaching video for critique. I'm very excited to work with you, my colleagues, on increasing the amount of quality yoga teaching for athletes and everyone.

Full details are below; sign up here.
As more and more athletes credit yoga with taking their performance to the next level, the field of yoga for athletes is growing in exciting directions. Specializing in yoga for athletes allows you to share yoga's benefits with a new, receptive population. Sage Rountree, a pioneer in the field, has multifaceted experience as a coach, athlete, and teacher working with endurance-sports athletes and collegiate teams.
This five-day intensive on yoga for sports training is designed for yoga teachers interested in working with athletes of all sports; it will also be useful for coaches, PE teachers, and personal trainers. In lecture, group discussion, led yoga sequences, and practice teaching, we will
discuss the needs, abilities, and limitations that athletes bring to a yoga practice
survey exercise physiology relevant to yoga asana practice
investigate ways to modify classes for athletes of various sports and levels of experience
design sequences appropriate for specific needs and points in the training cycle
explore the pedagogy and business of working with athletes
Participants will gain a new awareness of the parallels between yoga and sports training and will leave feeling empowered to teach yoga to athletes in studio, gym, team, or one-on-one settings. Upon completion of a take-home exam and submission of a teaching video, participants who are already teaching at the Yoga Alliance 200-hour level or have comparable experience will receive a certification in teaching yoga to athletes. The workshop may also be used for CEUs and CECs; contact us for details.
Recommended reading: Sage Rountree, The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, and The Runner's Guide to Yoga. These are all available at the studio or on Amazon.
This intensive will be video recorded. In addition to a printed manual, you'll gain free access to the forthcoming online version of the course, which will contain updated resources and specific sequences for working with different sports and needs, as well as ongoing support from Sage and your colleagues.
Our lodging and hospitality page gives options for accommodations. We're located just above the wonderful local co-op, with a hot bar, extensive salad and sushi bars, and bakery.
Schedule: 9:00–noon and 1:30–5:00 daily.
$699; $649 if paid before May 15.
Register here.

Active Yogi: Explore Your Hamstrings

2012-02-13T14:27:00.001-05:00

When you focus on stretching your hamstrings—something I hope you do, if they are tight—be sure to think globally. The outer and inner edges of the backs of the thigh need attention, too, as I explain in my latest post for my Yoga Journal blog, Active Yogi.

Active Yogi: Stress and Rest

2012-01-31T07:14:00.002-05:00

Greetings from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Rest, where I am leading an intensive on teaching yoga to athletes. Yesterday, we talked about progressive overload—the proper application of stress and rest. And fittingly, that's the topic for the latest blog post at Active Yogi at Yoga Journal. Please check it out.

Yoga Shelter Grosse Pointe Recap

2012-01-24T16:29:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful group of yogis practice at Yoga Shelter Grosse Pointe! I had an absolutely wonderful time with all of them. As I promised them, here's a recap of what we did.

I hope these practice notes will help jog your memory. When there are online depictions, I've included a link. Underlined sequences appear in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.

Friday Night: Restoration

Child's pose/prone corpse
Lateral child's pose
Cat/cow
Prone twist
Pulsing lunges:
-low lunge
-psoas stretch (back-leg side's arm lifts overhead)
-psoas stretch w/twist (look under raised arm)
Wild camel
Reclining twists: reclining figure 4, half Lord of the Fishes, cow-face, eagle-leg twist in both directions: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2009/9/24_Reclining_Twists.html
Bridge articulations
Corpse

Saturday Morning: Strength and Flexibility

Supine single-legged warmup
Rolling like a ball
Tall mountain flow
Arrow lunge: Arrow lunges: http://www.yogavibes.com/videos/watch/carrboro-sage-rountree-vignette-1-010810/ and http://blogs.yogajournal.com/activeyogi/2011/05/dynamic-warm-up.html
Planks/core: Static core/alternate with stretches, and table core, both described in detail here: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=1795128332860940338 and illustrated in part here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2007/7/19_Core_and_More.html and here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/8/11_Quick_Fix.html
Backbends
Inversion
Corpse

Saturday Afternoon: Focus (Yin Yoga)

For more on yin yoga: Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers
Dragon
Sleeping swan
Dragonfly
Wide child's pose/frog
Saddle/sphinx/seal
Shoelace
Twisted roots
Pentacle

Sunday Morning: Core Fun/Wall Fun

Child's pose
Inchworm flow/alternatives to the standard vinyasa: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=6187322280526524089
Core plank series
-swing leg forward/balancing crescent lunge
-swing leg to opposite elbow/ITB stretch or side plank variation
-swing leg to same-side elbow/lizard or tripod twist or quad stretch
Half moon on knee (table core): http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/8/11_Quick_Fix.html
Wall folds: http://blogs.yogajournal.com/activeyogi/2011/08/multitasking-recovery-for-hips-and-hamstrings.html
Legs up the wall or corpse

Grosse Pointers and everyone: I'll be teaching a weekend of yoga for athletes at Kripalu for Labor Day weekend—registration will be online soon.

Active Yogi: Set up for Success

2012-01-16T13:50:00.005-05:00

In my latest post for Active Yogi at Yoga Journal, I consider mat placement. Where do you set up and why?

Active Yogi: Train Your Focus, Part 3: Mantra

2012-01-06T14:37:00.001-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi is on mantra. You probably use it already, whether or not you have thought of it as official.

Thoughts on the RW Run Streak

2012-01-02T14:07:00.004-05:00

As the author of a book (The Athlete's Guide to Recovery) and a column (Serious Recovery) on recovery, I take rest seriously and hold my rest days as sacrosanct. But as a coach, I like to try out various approaches to see how they feel. With an open mind, then, I joined my colleagues and readers for the Runner's World run streak (#RWRunStreak), and ran at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Some days I ran exactly one mile, others I ran 22 or more. But I got out there every day, however I felt. (Happily, I wasn't sick or hurt during this period.) Some highlights:

I knew I was going to run every day. Not going wasn't an option. This was appealing.
I got to try out different shoes on the short-run days, some of which I'd never wear for a typical hour-long run. A favorite are the Brooks Green Silence, which were perfect for a jaunt around the block with the dog.
The dog really liked these runs! A mile was just right for her to burn off some energy but not be exhausted (a terrier mix, she has short legs and is decidedly not built for distance).
A mile of running would break a light sweat, just enough to make clothes nominally dirty. Reticent to add to our wash load, I found myself heading out in interesting outfits, from preworn workout clothes to street clothes from the hamper. New Year's Day, I wore my pajamas.
On the first Sunday of the streak, I headed to the middle-school track a block away to knock out a token mile. My daughter Lily came along, planning to run with me. We found the infield was the site of a soccer tournament, and the track and bleachers were full of the families of the players, all Korean. Wearing the minimalist Merrell Gloves, I was determined to do my run on the track anyway, and to Lily's horror, I wove through the crowds, high-fiving the toddlers and drawing confused looks from everyone else.
One of the best runs was in 38 degrees and pouring rain. I'd have hit the bike trainer if it weren't for the streak, but I went out anyway and really enjoyed feeling tough. (By the end of the day, it was sunny at 60 degrees.)
A mile run makes a lovely warmup for yoga, weights, or riding the bike. Usually, we run off the bike in triathlon training (though duathletes will run first, too), but starting with the run feels good, especially when the weather is cold out.

Today, I dressed to run and took about a dozen steps before bailing. The bruises from my fall during Saturday's long trail run are really blooming, and I obviously used my right quads to brake my fall. While I shuffled through yesterday's finishing mile without too much pain, the DOMS has set in two days postrun and post-fall, and I was happy to stop my watch, come inside, and hit the yoga mat.

Now it's back to my usual five runs a week, and Sundays will resume their privileged spot as the day of total rest—just in time for the NFL playoffs.

Active Yogi: Balancing the Lower Legs

2011-12-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi is on balancing strength and flexibility in the lower legs. Please click through and check it out at Yoga Journal! I included this video: