Yoga Splits (for runners)

I think that everyone has been feeling a little bit of the winter blues lately – I know I have! The last two weeks were a bit of a wash – I was living at the dentists and I had a ton of post-work events to attend. I squeezed in a few workouts where I could and did my best to make it to the yoga studio. But alas, last Wednesday I realized that (with the exception of one class) it had been over a week since I last saw a glimpse of my yoga mat. When I don’t get to the studio, I really feel it…I am talking achy, cranky nastiness. It is an awful thing, this yoga dependency.


I had to make some big decisions and, though it did pain me, I skipped a big wine tasting event (for which I had actual tickets) to go to power yoga last Wednesday night…No time like the present right? And it was a FANTASTIC class – I immediately felt better. Thursday was another schedule disaster but I made it to Friday's vinyasa class, I got in another 6 miles with Meri on Saturday, made it to Sunday's power class AND went to gentle yoga last night. That’s 4 out of the last 6 days and man do I feel a million times better. And tonight, I’m going again…and hopefully Wednesday night. Thursday I am taking the day off because I am so not into yoga/step/dance class right now, but I have a vacation day Friday and plan on hitting up Revelation's 2.5 hour yoga block on Friday morning and dragging my butt to power yoga on Saturday. Big yoga plans going on here.

I know what you are thinking “Wait, isn’t she supposed to be running?” Ah, so very true. And I am, for the most part, entirely on schedule with my training plan. Actually, I was finding that the lack of yoga was hurting my running – these muscles need to be stretched! I could feel my hamstrings, glutes and hips tightening to the point where it was painful. Kim must have had some kind of bizarre sixth sense because on Wednesday she suddenly introduced ‘yoga splits’ to our class. What is a yoga split? It’s a regular old split…except if you can’t do it you prop yourself up on blocks, balls and whatever else you can grab from your mat. These splits – though they kind of suck and hurt – are really working on my hamstrings and hips! In fact, I think all runners should be doing yoga splits…though really, I just think all runners should be doing yoga in general!