Sage Rountree: Yoga for Athletes, Training for Running and Triathlon | Blog
Carrboro Yoga Company, March 2010 Schedule
You can find the March schedule I've been busy working on online (where you can read more and even register for classes) or by downloading this PDF file, which you can post on your fridge—or the virtual fridge of your desktop.
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Practicing Yoga at the Studio Desk
Ten days into studio ownership, I can see how this role will be an extension of my yoga practice. Amid all the paperwork, getting up to speed on office systems, lining up instructors for the March schedule, working on revisions to the waiver, finding a working VCR for childbirth classes, cutting keys that will open every door at the studio, and dozens of other details, Lies and I have had to keep track of a lot.
The question throughout: What needs attention in this moment? When I can answer that, I can consider: How will this reflect my intention—to make yoga accessible to the people of our community? And when I ask: Where can I find more energy to be open and share and create?, I find the answer: in recognizing what needs attention in this moment.
The same applies both on the mat and on the trail. What is the need of your body in an asana practice? In breath exercises? In meditation? In an interval? Between intervals? A few times over the course of the day, check in. What needs your attention? Where can your energy be of most use? Pause, listen to the answer, and your next action will be clear.
March 1, 2010 08:23 AM
| Training and Racing, Yoga
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Enjoy the Process
Last night, over Champagne (don't be alarmed by the picture, there were other people present to aid in consumption!), my business partner, Lies Sapp (at right), and I bought the Carrboro Yoga Company from my longtime friends, Rick and Donia Robinson (Donia's at left, and will be familiar to my Kripalu students as my most lovely assistant). But did the transfer happen last night, with the signing of the closing papers, or did it happen when we came to terms? Did it happen when Lies and I formed a partnership, or will it happen when our training is finished and Donia leaves for California?
Similarly, last week, I signed another important contract, for a new book deal. The actual signing took place in a sixty-second trip to my agent's office, between picking up cookies at the co-op for snack and running to meet my children at the door to their school. That was not the moment when I formally began writing this book. Was that moment when the concept came to me? When I drafted a table of contents and sketched out the direction I wanted to go with the book? When my editor and I began talking? When I opened the first chapter file?
Does your "doing" a race—your first half marathon, say—happen when you cross the finish line? The start line? When you think, "I can do this"? When you pay for your race entry? Or does it happen all along the way, every morning as you lace up your shoes, every evening as you head to yoga class?
Yoga practice teaches us to emphasize the process over the result, because the result is always changing. Any process is a linked series of moments, and while there are key moments along the path, none is the definitive one. The more you can stay aware in each, the more fulfilling your life.
February 17, 2010 07:47 AM
| Training and Racing, Yoga
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Delays and Detours
"Delays and detours to my limited vision are actually the perfect path unfolding to a higher eye." —Julia Cameron
I came across that epigraph earlier this week in a funny little book called Blessings, by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. While I liked it enough to post it to my Twitter feed, little did I know how germane it would be to the rest of my week.
Thursday morning, my husband, Wes, and I headed to the Raleigh-Durham airport for a flight to Colorado Springs, where I was to present on yoga for triathletes at the USA Triathlon biannual coaching conference, Art and Science. We parked, checked our bags, went through security, bought a coffee, hung out at the gate, watched our plane come in . . . and learned that the flight to Dallas was cancelled because of snow at DFW. After a scramble to rebook, we found an incredibly patient, good-humored gate agent (kudos to you, Sean Murphy!) who pulled some strings and got us on a flight early Friday morning. But by Thursday evening, as the snow piled up in Texas, those flights had been cancelled, too. With snow across the Eastern Seaboard leading to massive rebookings and demand for the few flights that were going at all, there was literally no way to get to Colorado in time for my Saturday afternoon presentation.
It was frustrating, naturally, not only for the missed work opportunity, but for the back-and-forth with my wonderful in-laws (come over to babysit; no, don't; no, do!). After some poking around (Valentine's Day had filled most local hotels), we found a room at the Fearrington House just south of Chapel Hill, where we enjoyed afternoon tea, a wonderful dinner, a cozy featherbed, and a leisurely morning with breakfast by the fire. Best of all, it snowed as we were dining Friday night! The time out with Wes was just what I needed in the midst of this very exciting, full, travel-packed 2010. I didn't bring my computer; I did get to read a novel for 90 uninterrupted minutes while Wes napped at my side. And we had time at home to get things done we'd never have accomplished otherwise.
Next time circumstances frustrate you, consider that your detour may reroute you to just the right place.
Kripalu, February 2010
The people who traveled to Kripalu to study with me in a weekend intensive on yoga for athletes were uniformly lovely. We had the expected array of runners, triathletes, and yoga teachers, as well as a former collegiate rower, now coaching; a seriously competitive Ultimate Frisbee player; and a woman teaching yoga to a university women's basketball team.
The joint was jumping, with many other exciting programs happening contemporaneously. The energetic and beautiful Sadie Nardini was teaching Core Strength Vinyasa; the calm and friendly Mark Allen and Brant Secunda were presenting a workshop based on their Fit Soul, Fit Body. (Mark and I will both be presenting at USA Triathlon's Art and Science of Coaching convention this coming weekend in Colorado Springs.) Some of the sweet people who attended my Saturday evening hip-opening class were there for Retreat and Renewal, couples yoga, and the other awareness clinics being presented. We did a gentle sequence based loosely on my class streamable at YogaVibes.
Along the way, I enjoyed two amazing treatments in the Healing Arts Center: vishesh-shirodhara, with Sadie C., and a great Positional Therapy and deep-tissue massage session with Christopher, who set my SI joint straight, much to my relief and delight. Next time you're at Kripalu, you should seek out these two wonderful practitioners.
If you wanted to make the weekend but couldn't, please consider coming to the five-day retreat I'm leading at Kripalu in May, or to my ZAP Fitness yoga and running spring weekend retreat, also in May. And if you're wondering what we covered in our ten hours together (as well as in the fun 10K we ran through beautiful Lenox, Massachusetts), here are my practice notes, keyed in the most part to The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.
Friday eveningPractice: 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)CorpseKnees to chestOne-legged knee to chest (apanasana)Hip circlesReclining treeKnee-down twistShoulder circles (“disco finger”) from knee-down twistChild’s pose to bolsterProne twist, belly to bolsterCorpse with bolsterSaturday pre-runEngage the core in mountain-pose alignment; warm up the gluteus medius in dynamic tips in and out of Warrior IIISaturday morningPractice: Strength, appropriate for base period; flexibility/restorative practice at the wall, appropriate anytime.The breath in spaceSix 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 stretchTall mountain flowHalf salutesSun salutes with lungesSun salutes with standing posesStatic core (plank, side plank, reverse plank), interspersed with stretches (quad stretch, mermaid stretch)Clock-face stretchesBox pose flow to handstand: down dog at wall, dandasana at wall, box pose (upside-down L at wall), handstand kicking up from down dogWall folds: legs up the wall; central, outer, and inner hamstring; half happy baby, reclining pigeon/figure 4Legs up the wall, reclining cobbler, or corpse, possibly with bolsterSaturday afternoonPractice: 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/locustTree, dancerCamelLunge series, yin style: lunge, groin stretch, twist; pigeon, pigeon with backbendCross-legged reclining IT band twistBlock backbends: fish (blocks to T), bridgeSunday morningPractice: 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 poseMoon salutationsHalf moon at wall, foot to wall, in spaceDynamic core: rollups, rollovers; legs-down metronome twist; bridge with leg liftsIT band flow: cow-face, seated twist (ardha matsyendrasana).Cross-legged reclining twists, tight cross of legs, to both directionsHappy babyCorpse
February 8, 2010 01:21 PM
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