I wanted to draw your attention to a group I started on Facebook: Yoga for Runners. My intention here is to build a community of runners and yogis, and especially those people who are interested in developing a yoga practice that aids their running.
I’ve been doing both of these activities for years, but it was only this year that I went all-in with the running as I trained for a marathon. Yoga played a huge role for me, both during training and while I was recovering from the race.
For four months, my only physical activities were running, yoga, walking, and once-a-week pilates. I’m usually a cross-training fool, so it was unusual for me to be completely devoted to only a few activities.
Any time you’re doing one type of exercise extensively, you put yourself at risk for overuse injuries, and I was very conscious of that throughout the process. Yoga was an important part of my training. It kept me balanced and limber, and it kept me strong since I wasn’t lifting weights during the training. It gave me time to focus and mentally prepare.
Still, I did end up with an IT issue, that I had mis-self-diagnosed as a knee issue, after the race. The last half of my marathon was all downhill, and that that probably got it to flare up. I’m taking care of that with cross training and…lots of yoga.
I hope you’ll join Yoga for Runners and share your experiences, suggestions, questions, and ideas for training on the trails and on the mat.