Friday evening

Practice: Relax and shake off travel. This is appropriate for anytime, including after a hard workout, race, or game; on a rest day; or before a competition.

Supported reclining backbend (knees bent, straight, or cobbler pose)

Corpse

Knees to chest

One-legged knee to chest (apanasana)

Hip circles

Reclining tree

Knee-down twist

Shoulder circles (“disco finger”) from knee-down twist

Child’s pose to bolster

Prone twist, belly to bolster

Corpse with bolster

Saturday pre-run

Engage the core in mountain-pose alignment; warm up the gluteus medius in dynamic tips in and out of Warrior III

Saturday morning

Practice: Strength, appropriate for base period; flexibility/restorative practice at the wall, appropriate anytime.

The breath in space

Six moves of the spine, prone (cat-cow; lateral child’s pose; threading the kneedle twist)

Rolling like a ball, including coming to squat and dropping knees to the floor/toe stretch

Tall mountain flow

Half salutes

Sun salutes with lunges

Sun salutes with standing poses

Static core (plank, side plank, reverse plank), interspersed with stretches (quad stretch, mermaid stretch)

Clock-face stretches

Box pose flow to handstand: down dog at wall, dandasana at wall, box pose (upside-down L at wall), handstand kicking up from down dog

Wall folds: legs up the wall; central, outer, and inner hamstring; half happy baby, reclining pigeon/figure 4

Legs up the wall, reclining cobbler, or corpse, possibly with bolster

Saturday afternoon

Practice: Focus, appropriate for peak period or anytime, at least 24 hours removed from competition.

The breath in time: Ratios of inhale 6 (or 4, or 8) : exhale 6, in 6 : pause 1 : out 6 : pause 1, 6:1:8:1.

Child’s pose inchworm flow: inhale to cow/exhale to child’s pose, inchworm, inchworm with cobra, inchworm with lower body backbend, inchworm with cobra/locust

Tree, dancer

Camel

Lunge series, yin style: lunge, groin stretch, twist; pigeon, pigeon with backbend

Cross-legged reclining IT band twist

Block backbends: fish (blocks to T), bridge

Sunday morning

Practice: Flexibility, breaking out of forward motion. Appropriate in base and build periods and, practiced carefully, toward start of peak for maintaining, not gaining flexibility.

Nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing)

Six moves of the spine, leg extended: cat-cow, threading the needle, gate pose

Moon salutations

Half moon at wall, foot to wall, in space

Dynamic core: rollups, rollovers; legs-down metronome twist; bridge with leg lifts

IT band flow: cow-face, seated twist (ardha matsyendrasana).

Cross-legged reclining twists, tight cross of legs, to both directions

Happy baby

Corpse

• Form and breath. Continually come back to the most efficient form you can muster, and breathe as deeply as you can in the circumstance.
• Push it down, scrape it back, lift it up, kick it forward, Disco Lady.
• Don't stand 80 percent of the time. Stand 8 percent of the time, or less.
• A sprint doesn't last for minutes on end. It's a true max effort. A nice workout is to put on some music you like, then sprint the breaks between the songs (presuming they are 8 to 12 seconds or so).
• You're either a masher or a spinner; spend some time working on your weakness, and we can meet in the middle, near 90 rpms.
• The more you think you need a hard workout, the more you probably need to have an easy workout.
• Even if studies show the cool-down isn't that important, it helps you feel closure. We liken it to choosing "Shut down" for your computer, rather than simply unplugging it.
• Tuesdays, do pushups. As many as you can with good form. Eight is enough for me.
• Thursdays, do core work. Planks are good, but change it up occasionally.
• At least once a year, listen to a full hour of ABBA. If you like ABBA, it will be a treat; if you don't, it will be a great way to develop equanimity.

1. Timing and terrain are key.
2. You may need to improvise.
3. Be open to what comes.