Sage Rountree: Yoga for Athletes, Training for Running and Triathlon | Blog

Practice, Practice, Practice

F Minus

Most of what I do—and, I'd bet, most of what you do—all day is filling in the spaces left out in success-story montages. It's the work necessary between setting a goal and reaching it. Much of it is tough, much is repetitive, and the progress comes in fits and spurts, rather than following a linear path. (And there's no 80s music playing while we put in the work, is there?)

That makes it extra special when you can enjoy the work itself. Today, it struck me that after six months of getting up to speed in my new role as co-owner of a yoga studio, I'm really having fun with all the small moments of the job. I like checking students in for class. I like writing our newsletter. I even like filing our student waivers and copying our paper schedules. Can you find some joy in your routine today?

August 31, 2010 01:23 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Recovery Video Series: Part 1

In March, I spent two lovely days in sunny San Diego (stay classy!) filming a video series on athletic recovery and hanging out with two fantastic and inspiring role models: the preternaturally prolific fitness writer Matt Fitzgerald and the lovely, fiery, and fun yoga teacher/attorney Ingrid Yang. (You can find Matt's books here and Ingrid's classes at Prana Yoga in La Jolla and online at YogaVibes.)

Here's the first of the series. I could have gone with brighter lipstick and glitzier earrings, but I think it's beautifully produced. What do you think?

If you're interested in learning more about recovery and you'll be at USA Triathlon's national championships in Alabama next month, please join me for my two-hour presentation on Friday morning, September 24. If you can't make that, download my hour-long webinar on the subject and read my column at Lava Magazine.

August 26, 2010 06:18 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Enhancing Recovery—When You Need It

Age Group Nationals for USA Triathlon will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the end of September. For many athletes, this is the A race of the year—the big one. Whether it's your big one or just another weekend in your racing calendar, you'll need to focus on recovering well after the event.

I'll be giving a presentation for USAT on the morning before the race covering what recovery is, how to measure it, and most importantly, how to enhance it. Elite age groupers are at particular risk of underrecovery, as their busy lives don't allow much, if any downtime. Join me for the presentation, and you'll feel fully justified in doing less—less volume, less work—in the service of more—more sleep, more energy, and more impressive race results.

Details and registration here.

August 19, 2010 06:02 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Recovery Webinar

Tuesday, August 17, I'll be leading a webinar on my new pet passion, recovery. There'll be CEUs offered for USA Triathlon coaches, but the content will be useful for all athletes—not just endurance athletes. Those who attend the live webinar can ask questions. If you can't make the time (it's 6 p.m. EDT), you can still register and you'll be e-mailed a link to download the webinar after it finishes. Please join me!

You can register here. The full description:

A USA Triathlon Webinar

Topic: Enhancing Recovery

Presenter: Sage Rountree

Date: Tuesday, August 17

Time: 4-5pm Mountain, 3-4pm Pacif, 5-6pm Central, 6-7pm Eastern

Cost:

USAT Member or Coach: $24.99 (0 CEUs)

USAT Coach: $34.99 (1 CEU)

Non-USAT Members: $39.99 (0 CEUs)

All the hard work put into training is useless if the athlete doesn't take time to recover, absorb the effort, and grow stronger. USAT Level II coach Sage Rountree explains the physiology of recovery, describes ways athletes can track their own recovery, and explains methods to ensure athletes recover fully between workouts and races. These methods include everything from ice baths to compression socks, power naps to powerful massages. You'll learn which methods are proven to aid in recovery, and which aren't worth your time and money.

If you cannot attend this webinar at the specified date and time, you can still register in advance and the complete webinar recording will be automatically emailed out to you after it is completed.

August 9, 2010 10:58 AM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

A Wheel within a Wheel

From the beautiful little book A Wheel within a Wheel, by Frances Willard, which my fantastic athlete Julee gave me a few years ago, a lovely thought on learning and progress:

Once, when I grew somewhat discouraged and said that I had made no progress for a day or two, my teacher told me that it was just so when she learned: there were growing days and stationary days, and she had always noticed that just after one of these last dull, depressing, and dubious intervals she seemed to get an uplift and went ahead better than ever. It was like a spurt in rowing. This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time.

July 26, 2010 09:44 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Postmatch Recovery

Day three of the amazing Isner-Mahut match at Wimbledon, and I'm fascinated to hear commentators' take on recovery techniques (my passionate interest this year). John McEnroe said this would take six months out of the players' careers, because the recovery will be so long. A BBC commentator said, "Two massages a day for two weeks and they'll be ready to play again in three weeks." Both might be right. The science of recovery is still murky and everything depends on the individual.

Ultimately, time is the best thing you can do for your recovery between workouts. Beyond that, sleep (which correlates closely with time) and nutrition are key. Everything else is gravy, but sometimes the gravy makes the meal. The perceived benefit of massage or whatever other techniques these players might enjoy might give a psychological edge that lets them return to court 18 feeling slightly fresher. And in an endurance event like this tennis match, that can be huge.

For a fun read on the physiology of the match, visit today's Science of Sport blog.

June 24, 2010 10:12 AM | Training and Racing, Recovery | Permalink

Wheel Theory

This morning, my local paper ran this interesting story about Duke professor Adrian Behan's constructal theory—basically, the concept that wheels exist throughout nature and serve as an underlying mechanism for our motion. (Read much more at constructal.org.) It's interesting stuff applicable both to yoga and to endurance sports, where efficiency is everything and where an off-balance system is doomed to eventual failure.

I'd take exception, though, with Bejan's statement that "taller runners run faster." Perhaps it's out of context and refers instead to taller runners in evolutionary history, but I'm sure we all know shorter runners who demonstrate more efficiency than their taller peers. Sometimes, you can almost see the wheels in action.

Check out the article for some interesting ideas about how nature reaches compromises, finding the balance between apparently competing needs.

June 21, 2010 05:49 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Overhead Is Served from Underground

A power company sign spotted on my run this morning: OVERHEAD IS SERVED FROM UNDERGROUND. This made a wonderful meditation. First, on the importance of a quick and efficient footstrike in running, and on the importance of a steady base in yoga poses. And broadly: how much of what we "think" with our brains comes from somewhere deeper. Our strong roots serve and inform our intentions. We draw from a deep underground well of experience, and what we imagine with our minds is always an expression of what's below.

May 10, 2010 08:46 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Speaking with Intention

In spare moments over the last month, I've worked my way through Nick Morgan's book Trust Me, on public speaking. It's full of interesting information about the interaction between the verbal and the nonverbal conversation. Morgan explains that the nonverbal conversation dominates; if there's a conflict between body language and spoken language, the audience will default to body language, believing the speaker's movements and gestures over the speaker's words.

At the heart of the book is the message that you must form an intention before speaking. When you are firm and clear on your intent, your body language will convey your message. You won't even have to direct your body language; that would make it seem forced. Instead, know exactly what your intention is, and move from there.

As a yoga teacher, I love this idea. We set an intention before every class, just as we do before every workout. As you begin some task today—your run, your practice, a meeting, lunch with a friend—take a moment beforehand to consider your purpose. What is it you want to convey? How do you want the task to be resolved? What emotions will be in play? Form an intention, repeat it to yourself, and if you can remember, check back and align with it a few times during the task.

And let me know how it goes.

April 19, 2010 08:54 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

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 | Permalink

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 | Permalink

Powerstroke DVD

Snowed in at home, across the street from our closed pool, I finally made the time to watch my colleague Marty Gaal's swim-technique DVD, Powerstroke: Speed through Force and Form. On the disk, Marty, head coach of One Step Beyond Multisport, gives a clear, accessible discussion of good form, along with illustrations; this was useful review for me as an athlete. The second section contains shots of swimmers both from the deck and from underwater. This was my favorite feature as a coach, since I got to hear Marty's analysis of swimmers' strokes. Then Marty explains the Powerstroke approach (which emphasizes a very strong pull) and outlines how to practice it correctly, including various drills. The disk finishes with some stretches and strength exercises to practice. Marty has some seriously flexible shoulders—my linemen yoga students, who break into a sweat trying to bring their elbows together in garudasana arms, would be aghast!

Now I'm eager to get in the water and try this approach out for myself—and to bring along my waterproof camera and see just what's going on in my stroke, frame by frame.

Now is the point in your season to improve your stroke. Technique is essential in the swim; you can't fake it in the water, as you sometimes can on the run. Putting effort into improving your technique is the single best investment of your swim training time, and Powerstroke is a great resource both for reviewing good technique and for learning how to safely apply more force in the water. Check it out! Marty and his wife, Bri, lead clinics in which they teach this approach hands-on. (One got snowed out this weekend, in fact.) Find the DVD here and clinic information here.

January 31, 2010 04:39 PM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

On Indoor Cycling

At the end of this week, I'll teach the last of the indoor cycling classes I've led every Tuesday and Thursday for almost four years. It has been a wonderful experience, because my students have been so special. Most came to the class from other indoor-bike classes, expecting a rip-roaring workout, and sometimes they got it. But usually, we went through a workout with more complicated goals and more subtle effects.

Not everyone who dropped in realized it, but the regulars knew that we were going through periodized cycles, laying an aerobic base in the winter, building on it in the spring, riding hard in the summer (we had lots of fun with Tour de France–inspired workouts), returning to base in the fall, and having a blast each December with themed playlist and greatest-hits workouts from the year. Each day was part of a bigger picture, and once students grew used to the rhythm of my teaching—and comfortable with the idea that you don't have to go hard all the time—we had a full class of great people. (I do the same thing in yoga, periodizing the practice, and spending more time encouraging students to relax than I do exhorting them to work harder.)

Best of all, many of my students have been inspired to buy road bikes, or dust off their old ones, and have begun participating in charity rides and races. Who could ask for more as a teacher? At some level, teaching is planned obsolescence. We impart the tools so that students can implement their own practice. (Obviously, this obtains in yoga, too.)

In just the last week, two students who'd taken classes when out of town reported on what a different experience it was. Both had been encouraged to turn extremely high cadences—120 and up—without any breaks. This may be exercise, but it isn't true to cycling, unless you are training for short track races in a velodrome! Jennifer Sage has written a nice e-book, Keep It Real, and created a whole site around this concept: indoor cycling should mimic workouts for outdoor cycling. If you ever ride on a spin bike, or if you teach indoor cycling, you should check out her work.

In pondering my retirement, I reflect that these have been my main points, week in and week out.

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.

How nice to retire feeling like my work in the cycling room is complete. I'm moving on to other exciting projects, on which more here soon, and looking forward to riding my bike outside during the week!

January 25, 2010 11:57 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

My First Ultra

My site now has a race report from my one (and likely only) foray into the land of the ultramarathon. Spoiler alert: it's boring.

Here are my conclusions:

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

For more, click on through.

January 13, 2010 01:46 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Cross-Legged Twist

If you're a member of USA Triathlon (which you should be, if you race triathlons!), you'll soon receive a copy of their nice magazine, USA Triathlon Life. [Addendum: See it online here!] The winter 2010 issue includes a piece I wrote on yoga for triathlon. If you look very closely at the cross-legged twist instructions and photo, you'll notice they don't quite mesh. While the instructions cue you to cross right leg over left and roll to the left, the photo shows that cross of the legs with a twist to the right. Obviously, this is just a mistake of composition, but it gives me a chance to tout the virtues of twisting both ways with the legs crossed.

Here's a depiction of what's illustrated:

And here's what's called for in the text:

Same cross of the legs—right over left—but two different poses. Both do stretch the IT band, the outer hip, the spine, and the chest. But the first one, in which you twist right, works the lateral quads and the iliopsoas on the left, while the second, in which you twist left, gets much deeper into the right-leg glutes, tensor fasciae latae, and IT band.

Try them both, and you'll feel the difference. Together with a squat for the quads and lower back and a forward fold for the hamstrings, these twists would be part of a complete postrun routine. These twists appear in Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga and in the Reclining Twists episode of my Sage Yoga Training podcast, available free at iTunes and streamable at YouTube. We also do them regularly at the studio, and they're featured in my YogaVibes yoga for athletes class. Enjoy them both!

January 6, 2010 08:05 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Hey, Bird Dog

To my delight, Runner's World's Best of Running list contains a favorite yoga pose (which appears on page 2, just under Best Training Advice: Value Rest, on which I plan to write much more in 2010). To my surprise, that pose is Bird Dog, in which you're on your hands and knees, with one arm (say, the right) reaching forward as the opposite leg (say, the left), reaches backward. (You can see an illustration on page 34 of The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, searchable by using Look Inside the Book on Amazon.)

I'm often asked to choose one yoga pose every runner should practice. Usually, I say "mountain pose" or "low lunge." But when you think about it, Bird Dog is an essential pose for runners. First, it mimics the contralateral action used in running: as one arm is moving forward, the other is moving backward, and the core has to hold it all together. Along the way, the hamstrings, glutes, and hip stabilizers must engage to help with the extension of the leg, and the hip flexors have to release to enable this action. This corrects imbalances between weak hamstrings and glutes and tight hip flexors, which I discussed in this blog post.

Second, the position in relationship to gravity helps to strengthen the muscles that support the spine, as the musculature of the core—both front and back—must kick in to hold the midline of the body steady.

Third, you'll need to engage your rear shoulder muscles to hold your scapulae in place even as your arm extends. The upper back is usually quite weak in both athletes and desk workers/drivers/sitters/Westerners, and this is a good way to begin strengthening that area.

Kudos, Runner's World, for the great choice.

December 30, 2009 03:54 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Your Dream Running and Yoga Retreat

As this year wraps up, I'm planning my 2010 teaching schedule. I've reserved the fabulous facility at ZAP Fitness in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for two weekends, May 14–16 and October 22–24. It's a wonderful place to spend the weekend doing yoga and running (and eating, and sleeping, and hot-tubbing), and my 2008 and 2009 retreats were both wonderful.

Here's where I need your help: what would you most like to see as a theme for these retreats? Are you interested in more running, more yoga, or an even mix of the two? Do you want to spend some time in meditation? Are you dying to master handstands, headstands, or some other particular pose? Would you prefer to have some formal instruction in planning your training? This year, I offered complimentary video analysis of each of the runner's gaits, which was fun for everyone. Would that interest you? In May, weather may be good enough for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway—would expanding workout options to include cycling be an inducement? We have the option to add a third night and begin the retreat on Thursday—what do you think? Ladies, are you more likely to attend an all-women's retreat, or, guys, are you more comfortable when you know there will be some other men around?

Please share your ideas with me for your own dream retreat, whether or not you think you could make it. You can leave comments here, send me a Tweet, post on my Facebook page, or simply write a good old-fashioned e-mail. (If you wanted to get really creative, you could post a video on YouTube.) I really hope to hear from you.

December 21, 2009 04:14 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Coffee Table Yoga

Today was my last trip of the season to teach yoga to the UNC football team. They've had a good season, which officially ends next Saturday but which will continue to a bowl game. My role is as part of the lift-and-flush workout, in which they do some light weights and running, plus yoga. It's always interesting to see the progression as the season continues. Last week, for example, instead of the usual chatter about who went to what club the night before, I heard some guys talking about who blew what assignment; others were comparing stats. How cool to see a team hit its stride!

Today, we did a variation on the Wall Folds routine from The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, using the team's lockers. These have a seat-height bench covered in a pad, and they're deep enough that players can rest the entirety of their lower legs on the pad. The bottom of the bench is solid. At home, you can use your coffee table (or, if you're tall, your sofa), then move to the wall for the supported twists. The bent-legged position you take as home base for the sequence is very nice on the lower back and knees—much less stressful than a full straight-legged viparita karani/legs-up-the-wall position. Your legs get the draining effect of the inversion; your back is held by the floor, which keeps it from rounding; your chest gets a gentle stretch; and your whole system—body, mind, and breath—gets calm.

Here are some ideas for you to play with. Sure, this could be yoga for football players, but it could also be great as a relaxing sequence after travel, or after a tough workout.

Come close to the coffee table, calves to its surface, back on the ground. Bring your bottom as close to the table as feels comfortable. Take your hands to a position that feels good: inverted V, goalpost arms, "Touchdown!" arms, "Safety!" arms, or a V overhead. Stay here for a number of breaths, getting settled.
Take your knees closer over your torso and rest your heels on the edge of the table. You'll be in the shape of a squat on your back. Hold for five breaths or more.
From here, shift toward baddha konasana/cobbler pose legs, taking the knees wide into a diamond shape as the soles of your feet come together. Support your knees without forcing them toward the table. Five or more breaths.
Unwind and rest your calves back on the table. Straighten your left leg, reaching your left heel toward the ceiling and your left toes toward your head. After a few breaths, gently circle your foot in one direction, then the other, to stretch the lower leg. Repeat on the right leg.
Lift your left leg, point the left knee to the left, and cross your ankle over the right leg, so that the outer ankle is to the right of the right leg. If you need more stretch for the outer left hip, slide your right knee toward your chest. If your bottom lifts off the ground, scoot your whole body away from the table, so that your entire backside stays in good contact with the floor. Stay for five to ten breaths—a longer hold helps the piriformis release—then repeat for the right leg.
Bring your heels to the edge of the table. If you trust the table will not slip, push into it with your feet and lift your hips in the air. You'll be in a high bridge pose (drawbridge?). From here, you can walk your shoulders toward each other behind the back. If any of this feels iffy for your neck or back, skip it. Otherwise, five breaths or so should do.
This one is for those at a solid couch or with a blocky coffee table; alternatively, move to the wall or a door. Slide six inches or so away from the prop, then drop both knees to the right, taking the soles of your feet to the prop. Open your left arm to the left, and turn your head that way, too. (The players really liked this one; it gives you a slightly deeper twist than the usual knees-down reclining twist in the middle of the room.) For less, move further from the prop; for more, scoot in toward it. After five breaths or more, move to the other side.
Finish as you started, calves to the tabletop, back neutral, chest open. Breathe.

Let me know what you think!

November 22, 2009 02:54 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Early Bird Special at Kripalu

Kripalu is offering an early-bird special of a 10-percent discount off my February weekend workshop. If you're wondering, "Who or what is Kripalu?" the answer is that it's a lovely yoga center in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, not far from Albany or Hartford. The grounds are beautiful, especially covered with February snow, and you can see ice fishermen on the lake in the distance as you eat the amazing food and sip hot tea.

My workshop description is as follows:

Improve strength, flexibility, and focus
Increase physical and mental endurance and balance
Avoid injury and recover faster
Many athletes are turned off by yoga because it’s too hard, too easy, or out of sync with their training. Over this weekend, coach and teacher Sage Rountree will demystify yoga and explain exactly how it fits with training and competition. Yoga’s emphasis on form and breath will translate to increased efficiency and focus in your sport and your life.

In this weekend workshop, appropriate for all levels of yoga and athletic experience, we’ll learn poses to increase range of motion and flexibility, especially in the hips and hamstrings. We’ll spend some time cultivating sport-specific core strength and playing with balance, and we’ll examine yoga as mental training, learning how incorporating yoga’s approach to the body and mind can make us better athletes.

Discover how to include yoga in your annual training plan, choosing sequences to complement your training both in season and during the off-season. Practicing the poses and techniques you’ll learn in this workshop will increase your flexibility, core strength, stability, balance, and physical and mental endurance, while lowering your recovery time and risk of injury.

Weather permitting, we’ll head out for a run one or both mornings. Recommended reading: The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga and The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga, both by Sage Rountree (VeloPress, 2008 and 2009).

This past February, I had the pleasure of joining a wonderful group of yogis and athletes for the first version of the workshop. There were teachers of yoga for athletes, gym teachers, some hardcore runners who'd never done yoga, some fans of gentle yoga who'd never felt very athletic—a wonderful mix of the full range of experience (from much to none) with sports or yoga. If you're wondering whether you'll fit in: yes! You will. You'll learn a lot about your body, mind, and spirit over the weekend, and you'll get to enjoy the wonderful feeling of being on retreat, where someone else takes care of the cooking and the dishes, and where when you are done with practice, you don't have to rush to anywhere.

I hope to see you there. Sign up by January 3 for that early-bird special. (It'd make a great holiday gift for yourself or a friend!) Register via this link.

November 19, 2009 02:02 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

More Yoga for Athletes in NYC

I had a blast at the New York Marathon—not just during the race itself, but for the whole long weekend. There's a full report at my site, mostly pictorial. Marvel at Joan Benoit Samuelson, the bunny-head runner, and the crowds! Thrill as I pose pretentiously in front of banners! Sigh at the cuteness of my children in Halloween costumes! Find it here.

My workshop at the beautiful Om Factory space went very well. I led the group through eight restorative postures, where they were able to focus on form and breath to prepare for running the race the next day. I was delighted to see my student Emilie Smith there, a reunion after our weekend at Kripalu this February. She's teaching a workshop for athletes at the Reebok Sports Club near Lincoln Center on November 14. The flier's below. Please visit her—she's a lovely person with great energy.

November 5, 2009 02:50 PM | Training and Racing, Family, Yoga, Media | Permalink

The Art of the Race Report

I have my athletes write race reports after each event, both for their own benefit and to share with each other. There's no hard-and-fast rule on structure. Usually, it's a narrative detailing what happened when, how it felt, any strategy deployed, and conclusions about what worked and what can be improved on next time. Sometimes there's a course description. They're always fun to read, and they always teach something: about how to race that race, about coping with intensity, about the athlete.

This year, I've gotten some reports that follow a different template.

On a mile open-water swim, third in a series, in a lake with a lot of vegetation, a haiku:

A weedy surprise;
With two hundred fifty friends;
Four minutes faster.

On a 10K, run through (and back again) as part of a long run, a limerick:

There was a small race called the Mashpee
That rolled from the ocean to the town green.
I held marathon pace
in a "where's-the-pack?" place.
At the finish line the beer was free!

On a marathon, a "review" in the style of Booklist, written by a librarian (there is a novella of a narrative to match; this is simply the précis):

Ruffin Powell has finally made the leap into the long form with her new marathon novel, Marine Corps Marathon 2009. In 26.2 chapters of running, Powell traverses all the challenges of the training cycle, starting out with confidence and unwarranted speed in the first 11 miles of a crowded course and ideal weather. The middle chapters trace her journey through the Washington Mall, cold with self-doubt in the shadow of Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration hat. As she is released from the fugue of footfalls in the 20th mile, Powell finds again her voice and rhythm, familiar and transformed by perseverance. Her smiling (if shaking) acceptance of the medal and the “oohyah” commendation of the Marines are pitch-perfect. The frequent, supportive meetings with her husband Jeremy and calm in intensity indicate her growth as an athlete since her shorter works, such as Canton 10K 2007. The McGyver-style creativity replacing a lost piece on her Camelbak with a bit of cork is not to be missed. Powell truly fulfills her project in the quest for self-knowledge. Highly recommended.

October 28, 2009 08:41 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

ZAP Retreat, 2009

My husband, Wes, and I are back from our annual visit to lead a yoga and running retreat to ZAP Fitness, the wonderful training center in the Blue Ridge Mountains. (Wes's title is "cruise director": he keeps the conversation flowing, he provides the drinks, and he models how to listen to your body and make things easier whenever you need to.) Just like last year, it was great. A cozy space, with a lovely rainstorm all Friday night that let up in time for a Saturday run up to the Moses Cone mansion off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Our practice included yoga nidra, play with inversions, and plenty of hip openers, including reclining twists and yin yoga. Here's a picture Wes got of me leading the Saturday afternoon practice. Fittingly, it's focused not on me but on the super cool AlterG treadmill ZAP has for the season. We got to see this machine in action and observe the way it modifies a runner's stride to reduce impact. We shot some video of Frank Tinley on it, and it's fascinating to see him almost floating (especially when, for our amusement, he took it to 40 percent of his weight).

I'm already looking forward to visiting again next year, and perhaps you'd like to join us! I'll post the dates once they are set.

Meanwhile, if you or anyone you know is going to be in New York City on Saturday, October 31, please consider my pre-marathon yoga workshop. It will be very mellow, and it's appropriate for anyone, athletic or not, running the marathon or not. There's still space!

October 26, 2009 04:47 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Consistency and Variety

Last night I gave a presentation to Team UNC Wellness, our local multisport club, on training for the run. As we head into our North American off-season, it's a good time to move focus to running. Weather often precludes more than maintenance riding, and that's OK, because bike fitness comes around pretty quickly in the spring. Depending on your swimming background and goals, one or two swims a week can hold your technique in line. But running demands greater devotion, because it is an impact sport.

I framed run training in light of two principles: consistency and variety.

First, you must establish consistency. Run regularly, three to five (or, OK, six) times a week, with mileage that doesn't jump by more than 10 percent per week (and a long run that doesn't grow by more than ten minutes per week). This is the sine qua non for running. You have to be consistent to see progress.

Once your consistency is established, though, you must introduce variety in order to see progress and avoid plateaus and boredom. Variety operates across space and across time. Vary the terrain on which you run; don't include only road or only treadmill running. Trails are ideal, and the track is good, too. Hills afford variety while building strength and lightening the load of impact (running uphill, at least). Variety plays out over time on levels from the huge to the small, from your lifetime running career to what you're doing in a moment.

Here's the breakdown, as I see it.

Variety over your career includes choosing progressive goals, from getting through your first races, to getting faster at short distances, to moving to longer races, to getting faster there, and so on.
Variety over the course of a year (macrocycle, in Joe Friel's terminology) includes one or two cycles targeting peak races.
Variety over the course of a month (mesocycle) includes weeks that build on each other progressively.
Variety over the course of a week (microcycle) includes workouts targeting various energy systems: endurance, neuromuscular efficiency, strength, speed, race pace.
Variety over the course of a day includes a warm-up/cool-down run at a pace easier than the rest of the workout, and may include other paces according to the workout's goals.

Variety is the spice of life, and, combined with consistency, the key to progress in running (and in many other areas).

One of the athletes asked me to explain "neuromuscular efficiency." Here, I mean any run whose goal is to improve economy of form. These include:

Cadence runs, where the goal is to teach yourself to take 180+ footsteps per minute, timing twenty seconds and counting steps with one foot, with a goal of hitting thirty.
Strides, on the track or on a grass field, for 100m or diagonally across the field.
Pickups in an easy run, each lasting twenty to forty seconds, or simply thirty step cycles.
Short hill repeats of ten to thirty seconds.
Drills, drills, drills.

If you are looking for progress in your run training, review your training log for signs of consistency and variety. If one is lacking, work to improve it this fall and winter, and you'll be running stronger by spring.

October 19, 2009 08:03 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Pigeon Pose and Its Variations

Athletes have a love/hate relationship with pigeon pose. Most who hate it at first do so because it hits all the tight places in athletic hips. Once those release, folks learn to love it. But in its traditional orientation, facing downward, pigeon pose can be far too intense in an athletic body, causing more trouble than it solves. That's where changing the pose's orientation to gravity can be really useful. Practicing the leg action of pigeon (external rotation and abduction) from your back helps you target the stretch while holding your back in neutral alignment. It's much safer for your knees, since—provided you move into it safely—it doesn't transfer any tightness from the hip directly to the knee joint.

On this video, just posted at Competitor.com, I discuss and demonstrate how to safely get yourself into pigeon pose. If you like it, feel free to add a comment at the video's original site.

October 15, 2009 03:58 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Pre-marathon Yoga

My cardinal rule in yoga for athletes is that the intensity of the athlete's training and the intensity of the athlete's yoga practice must be in inverse proportion. That is, the closer you get to your peak competition, the more mellow your physical practice should become. Hence power, flow, Ashtanga, or hot yoga have their place in the off-season or early base period, not later in the season; gentle and restorative classes suit the bill as athletes' training builds to a peak.

What, then, should a yoga practice look like on the day before a marathon? Very, very mellow. Remember the rule of "nothing new on race day [or the day before]." But even if your yoga experience is limited, it's more restful and productive to move slowly through a gentle restorative sequence than to tour a noisy city, to pace back and forth at the packed race expo, or to sit in a crowded theater.

If you're going to be in New York City for the marathon on November 1, join me at 2 p.m. on October 31 at Om Factory for two hours of pre-marathon yoga, and see what I mean. If you're not running the race, you're still quite welcome. This will be a simple, doable practice suitable for anyone and everyone. Registration and a full description are available at the Om Factory site.

October 5, 2009 03:31 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Reclining Twists

It's been a year since the last episode of Sage Yoga Training, but at last I have put together a new episode, and I have more on deck for the coming months. The podcast is a series of brief routines, generally under ten minutes, for practice after a workout or on their own. You could string them together to create a longer sequence, of course. They are presented in slideshow format for reference, and I measure how long each pose is held so that they're quantitatively even. You might prefer to hold these poses longer, so please use the routines as a starting point, and customize the practice to suit your own needs.

This episode features some reclining twists to stretch the hips, spine, and chest. These are some of my favorite poses, and you can find them elsewhere, too:

You can find all of the podcast episodes in many places:

On my site
At the RSS feed
iTunes
YouTube (this includes only the episodes under 10 minutes long)
The Sage Endurance page on Facebook (please be a fan!)

I welcome requests and feedback!

September 25, 2009 09:24 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Do You Need a Wedgy?

For a few months, especially since my Ironman, I've been struggling with sacroiliac pain. If you don't know what this is, consider yourself lucky! SI joint issues are common among yoga practitioners. Roger Cole and Judith Lasater have both written clearly on the subject for Yoga Journal, and it's becoming a hot topic in triathlon circles. Mine gets out of whack when I run on trails (which I do as much as possible), in certain poses, and when I do stupid (and fun) things like trying to flip off the diving board.

I've gotten a surprising amount of relief from a little wonder called the Sacrowedgy. (This is an unpaid, unsolicited endorsement!) As its name implies, it fits under your sacrum to support it as you lie back and relax, allowing the sacrum and ilium to slip back into proper alignment. Whether the tool itself makes the fix or the time spent lying on the floor does the job, it's been great, and my plantar fasciitis, knee pain, and shoulder niggle all disappeared after a few days' diligent relaxation with the wedgy.

My husband's reaction has been much more exciting. He liked my pink lady wedgy so much that he ordered his own blue male version (the male sacrum is narrower and longer). It's done wonders for his back issues, most of which stem from a herniated disk (L5-S1, a classic), and he takes it to and from work religiously. In fact, we've become evangelists for this little piece of rubber, spreading the good news to anyone who'll listen. It's noninvasive, it encourages you to relax and to be still (which I love both as a yoga teacher and as a type-A athlete), and for $30, it's really worth a try.

September 23, 2009 12:39 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Teaching Teachers

I spent a weekend in the wonderful company of a group of teachers interested in working with athletes. Walking them through my approach to the subject helped me crystallize my own thoughts, which once again come down to this:

Yoga for athletes is not necessarily athletic yoga. Yoga should complement training, not simply pile on more stress. When sport intensity and the intensity of yoga practice are in inverse proportion, yoga can buoy the athlete by improving strength, flexibility, balance, and focus.

We discussed what to teach (teach what will benefit the students in the room), how to teach it (in a way that comes from personal experience and authority), business, and pedagogy. We practiced poses that target core and hip strength, as well as hip flexibility, and we enjoyed some gentle inversions and supported backbends that help balance the demands of sport training. Then we put the theory into practice, as I brought a dozen student teachers with me to work with the UNC football team. This was a smash success: the teachers enjoyed seeing the variety of bodies and abilities, while the players loved having so many hands to offer adjustments, and so many models demonstrating the poses. I snapped a picture of the teachers as we left the stadium.

I'll be repeating this workshop in Carrboro next year, and I plan to take it on the road as well, with stops in NYC and Southern California in 2010. If you're interested in studying the topic of teaching yoga to athletes with me, please sign up for my e-mail newsletter or contact me directly, and I'll keep you in the loop.

September 21, 2009 08:50 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Lunging in Three Parts

Here are three stretches based on a lunge, designed to get your hips open and balanced. Benefit: increased range of motion, yielding a greater stride length. Plus, they feel good. Remember: static stretches should come after a run, not before.

For a full series of postrun lunges, see the "Lunge Series" episode of Sage Yoga Training—you can view it as a slideshow at the podcast archives or on YouTube. And for a book full of routines for practice before and after your workout, please check out The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.

September 1, 2009 06:03 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

YogaVibes

Please check out my instructional vignettes and class for athletes at YogaVibes.com. The vignettes, available here, include my take on yoga for athletes, an explanation of ways to access the hamstrings, and more. We had a great time filming the class, which focuses on hips and hamstrings and is appropriate for athletes (and nonathletes) of all levels. From now through September 30, you can use the code sagevibes2009 for 20 percent off streaming a class on the site.

August 27, 2009 08:00 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Downward-Facing Dog

Try as I might, I couldn't quite tie the preceding post into this video! Here is my take on downward-facing dog for runners. You do not need to get your heels down, now or ever, for this pose to work. In fact, you don't even need to get your hands down; try taking the pose against a wall (or a boulder), which will be kinder to your hamstrings and will stretch your shoulders nicely.

August 6, 2009 02:16 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Changing the Toner Cartridges

I spent a half hour this morning changing the four toner cartridges in my color laser printer. The process required deciphering illustrations, some interpretation of verbal directions, physically reasoning out how things fit together, and not a small amount of patience. In other words, it was a lot like figuring out yoga or a sport: at first, hard to understand, but increasingly easier and easier to execute. I know the next time I do the task, it will be smoother still.

In my classes this week, I taught the Table Core sequence (available in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, now in bookstores everywhere!), which can be tough to learn. It looks easy—as does replacing one toner cartridge with another. But it's actually pretty hard—as is fitting a used cartridge back into the package so it can be shipped off for recycling. By learning how to perform the task, though, we deduce ways to make it more efficient next time. These deductions can be mentally or physically reasoned; the physical process, a neuromuscular pathway being activated, may be very subtle. This is how we improve at sports, too: sometimes it's a mental breakthrough, sometimes it's a physical shift. These shifts don't happen without our trying various approaches, though, so don't be afraid to mess up. As long as you are paying attention and breathing, you can't really fail.

August 6, 2009 02:03 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

On Breathing

Here's a video that just went up on Competitor Running, part of a series I'm doing for the site. Check it out: Matt Fitzgerald, one of my favorite writers, is doing a great job loading the site with interesting information, and another of my favorite writers, Kristina Pinto, has moved her blog to the site. You'll hear my take on breathing during running, and you'll also hear my neighbor's very loud standard poodle barking in the background. If you've wondered about the location of the rock I love so much, now you know: it's directly across the street from my house.

Up here in Colorado Springs, I find myself out of breath climbing the stairs to my dorm room at the Olympic Training Center. My running this week is all very light (as it should be anyway, as I continue recovery from Ironman Coeur d'Alene). But my yoga practice seems to be unaffected by the thinner air, which makes sense. While my practice has a lot to do with breathing, it has very little to do with cardiovascular exertion.

Getting to know your breath across your various paces isn't hard. You can get a handle on it in five minutes' time. But it is a powerful tool, one that will stay with you even when your heart rate monitor battery dies or your GPS unit refuses to work on a trail. Go study your own breath, and let me know how it affects your running.

July 21, 2009 07:49 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Down with OTC

Birds fly over the outdoor pool at sunset at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. You can see the athlete center behind the pool, and the Front Range behind them.

I'm here for the next few days working with USA Triathlon. Today, I taught a lovely group of coaches how to incorporate yoga in endurance sports training. We had a practical session in the Judo/Tae Kwon Do gym, which was great for yoga, no mats needed.

The campus is hosting some interesting groups this week. I saw junior boxers, blind athletes, and a group of South American fencing coaches at brunch; a car with a skeleton (sledding) sticker on it in the parking lot; and synchronized swimmers at practice in the main pool. I'm looking forward to the sights tomorrow will bring.

July 19, 2009 09:18 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Colorado Workshops

Later this week, I'll head to one of my favorite places, Boulder, Colorado. It's like Chapel Hill dehumidified, amplified, and slammed up against a beautiful mountain range. I'm looking forward to leading some of my book models and Twitter friends in my workshop on yoga for athletes at the Flatiron Athletic Club on Saturday, July 18, 2–5 p.m. If you live in Boulder, please consider joining us (and if you have friends there, send them my way). I think folks can be intimidated by the idea of a three-hour yoga workshop. No need. Only a small portion of the practice will take much energy, and even then, I'll show modifications. You don't need any previous yoga (or heck, even sport) experience. Just bring a yoga mat or a towel, and I'll take care of the rest.

Details and registration: http://flatironathleticclub.com/yoga.htm

The next day, Sunday, July 19, I head to Colorado Springs for a stay at the Olympic Training Center. That afternoon, I'm leading a clinic for coaches and athletes on incorporating yoga as part of training. We'll review the various styles of yoga, discuss athletes' particular needs, learn how to periodize yoga so it complements training, then move to an easy practice so we can feel some of the ways yoga makes athletes better. USA Triathlon and USA Cycling coaches will receive continuing education credits for attending, but you needn't be a coach to come and learn. We're meeting in the OTC aquatics building, 1–5 p.m.

Details and registration: http://www.active.com/page/Event_Details.htm?event_id=1755946

July 13, 2009 07:43 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

The Bodhisattva at the Bobbi Brown Counter

Wes and I stopped by a makeup counter at a department store in Charlotte over the weekend. The clerk was a wonderful man, very easy to talk to. After only five minutes, in talking about his job, he voiced an issue I consider often.

"It feels great to make people feel good about themselves," he said, referring to giving women makeovers. "They leave here happy. But sometimes I think, 'Come on, lady—there are people starving all over the world, and it takes you twenty minutes to choose a lipstick!'"

This is another expression of the question that underlies my Ironman Coeur d'Alene race report, now posted on my website. Are my actions performed out of self-interest, or am I serving others?

July 6, 2009 04:48 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga

While my trip to Ironman Coeur d'Alene* has occupied most of my thoughts in the past week, another project that's taken a lot of work has reached fruition: The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga has been released! We arrived home from Idaho late, late Tuesday night (actually, early Wednesday morning) to find my shipment of books.

I still remember how exciting it was to get my shipment of The Athlete's Guide to Yoga. Working on this new book was like having my second child: I knew what to expect, it was less work to bear, and it brings pleasure equal to the first. It's more colorful than the first book, a little smaller, and—unlike my second daughter, Vivian, who lives up to her lively name—it lies flat and still.

While The Athlete's Guide to Yoga explains the benefits of yoga for athletes, outlines how to get started in yoga, describes poses in detail, and lays out my approach to periodizing yoga for athletes, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga gives specific routines appropriate for various points in the training cycle. If The Athlete's Guide to Yoga is a how-to-cook book, The Pocket Guide is a what-to-cook book. Read more about it on my site. You can find the book at most major bookstores, select specialty shops, and online. If you're ordering online, you can use the store on my site, though it will disappear in the next few weeks due to a soon-to-be-passed North Carolina tax law. Remember, if you buy from my store or directly from Amazon, you can then give the book a glowing review on Amazon!

If you'd like to see a sample routine and get a glimpse of the book's beautiful new pictures, you can download a PDF here.

*There'll be a full multimedia race report coming soon. Meanwhile, I've put up a few pictures, and Mom and Dad have weighed in.

June 25, 2009 01:40 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Heading to CDA

I haven't written much about my training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene here, in part because it went pretty much without incident. The whole experience was just . . . well, it was what it was. I did it, I thought it was a silly amount of training, I felt crummy for being too tired to do housework or think of a menu beyond pizza, I had a few really satisfying long rides and a number of fun races along the way—Valle Crucis, White Lake, and others—but in general it just was. I think the daily meditation practice I undertook throughout was much more powerful than I realized. Or, on the other hand, I may be in complete denial about what I've committed to (maybe that's why I haven't packed a stitch, even though the taxi is coming in 14 hours). I'll have all day Sunday to ponder the enormity or triviality of the undertaking.

In every race, there is something that goes very right, and something that could be improved next time. I expect to encounter some, perhaps many, of each type of lesson in Coeur d'Alene, and to find some unexpected joys and obstacles, as well.

As a parting reflection, here are some pictures Wes caught of my bike dismount at the Over the Mountain Olympic-distance tri, a training day I thoroughly enjoyed at half-Ironman pace. I got this dismount just right, and it balanced out my inglorious tip-over at White Lake. There are good parts and bad parts to almost everything. It's always changing. And we keep rolling on.

June 17, 2009 03:18 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Decisions, Decisions

Triathlon, with all its equipment, offers a range of decisions. Road bike or tri bike? Ironman-branded race or not? Pool swim or lake swim? As I trained through the White Lake Half, I had to make a number of little decisions that cumulatively affected my day.

First, of course, was the decision to race at all. The race has grown so big that it's now split across two weekends: same course in eastern North Carolina in early May. There was no choice between weekends for me, since my daughter was running a 5K on the first weekend. There was, though, a choice to be made between racing and leading a retreat; I chose the race, reasoning that it would be important practice as I build to Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

Too bad I couldn't choose the weather. Where the first weekend of the race was overcast and moderate in temperature, the second weekend saw 90 degree temperatures under relentlessly sunny skies. Here's a shot of the venue, which is quite pretty. This is about as shady as it gets at White Lake.

With the water temperature at 77, just below wetsuit legality, I had to decide whether to wear my suit or not. Since I'll be using it in Coeur d'Alene, I wore it here, for practice. Had I targeted White Lake as my spring goal, though, I'd have gone without, in the hopes of keeping my core temperature down early.

Another decision: shoes on the bike in T1 and T2, or running in bike shoes. Again, I chose to simulate my goal race, so I put on shoes in T1 and clopped out with my bike. On the way back, I deliberated again: should I get my feet out, as I usually do, and run barefoot through transition? I decided against it, since I didn't want sand or grass on my feet before I put on my socks. There's enough discomfort coming in the run, I reasoned; I might as well have clean feet. Bad choice. I couldn't get one of my shoes unclipped (it'd picked up some sand when I took a quick potty break by the side of the road!) and wound up ingloriously tipping to my side at the dismount line. Jon Van Ark, who took these great pictures of me, was a gentleman and didn't snap any of me lying on the ground under my bike.

It was very hot by then, and I was glad to have chosen to run with my Fuel Belt. I'd also debated between a hat and a visor. Since the aid stations were supposed to have wet towels, I chose a visor, thinking I'd drape the towels over my head. But there were no towels, just ice that could be scooped into a hat.

I cleaved to my decision to walk though each aid station, which helped keep me moving forward and feeling good between walk breaks. This was a good choice; I kept my form together and felt very strong between mile 3, when I finally got my legs under me, and mile 11, when I decided to pick up the pace and get it over with.

Here I am at the finish—note my skinned left knee, a T2 casualty.

Each of these decisions supported my larger goal for the race: to practice my IM pacing, nutrition, and mental plan. I want to go at a pace that lets me really enjoy what is happening. This is a hobby, and it should be fun. Choose to make it a positive part of your life, not a source of more stress.

Thanks, Jon, for the pictures!

May 28, 2009 08:23 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Stealing Coffee

The goal of sports training is to apply stress to the body and elicit supercompensation—a refilling of the well of energy, as it were, but with the well getting fuller than it was before. It's like pruning a fruit tree so that it grows back more productive. You stress, rest, and become stronger.

Rest is a critical portion of this equation. Consider the automatic ice maker in your freezer. Once you have used all the available ice, it's simply gone. You've got to wait for the machine to make more.

As I wrap up the bulk of my Ironman training, I feel like the ice maker lever's broken. In our model, there's a handle that rests on the top of the fresh ice. When it drops below a certain level, the machine begins making more ice. My self-regulating lever is stuck in an "up" position and I'm running low on ice. Happily, my taper begins soon, and my ice tray should be full on June 21.

There's still a little energy in my well, though. I realized this week that I have energy for my workouts—at least the first one of the day—and my meditation practice (probably because it requires very little physically), but that's it, no more. No energy to plan a menu beyond cereal or pizza; no energy to really focus on work; certainly no energy for housekeeping. (I'm writing from my couch—no energy to sit at my desk—with boxes of PowerBars towering above me and a growing collection of sweatshirts that haven't yet made it upstairs working as de facto blankets.)

The energy I have for my workouts feels good. It's like the cup of coffee you impatiently take while waiting for the full pot to brew: easily accessible, tastes fine, gets the job done. But the energy I bring to the rest of my day is like the remainder of the pot once you've stolen that first cup. The hot water has been on the grounds a little too long, and the whole thing feels slurry and slightly bitter.

May 21, 2009 04:36 PM | Training and Racing, Food | Permalink

"It Is What It Is"

Training for what I continue to insist will be my one-and-only Ironman has been a matter of waiting for the shoe to drop. Even as I diligently put in the miles (very long, very slow), I've been expecting something catastrophic to derail my plans. To that end, I haven't even bought our plane tickets yet. What's come along so far hasn't been hugely dramatic, but it's taught me some lessons in dealing with what life presents me. First, I managed to roll my ankle for the umpteenth time ten minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour run—not even on trails, but on a curb!—but, as there's really nothing left to sprain in there, it's been manageable and is now mostly healed. The lesson there, learned once more, is to appreciate staying upright; it's never a given.

Friday night, as I was making guacamole (stone-cold sober!), I botched the glamorous thwack-the-avocado-pit-with-the-butcher-knife move I've done for years and instead thwacked my hand. (As the triage nurse pointed out, a teaspoon works just fine for removing avocado pits.) While I felt like I had plenty of presence of mind—staunch the flow, assess the severity, find a neighbor to watch the girls while we head for the ER, put on shoes—I was surprised by my physical reaction once I saw the wound: waves of heat, beads of sweat on my face, an inability to walk unassisted. What can we control? The motion of the hand holding a knife? The sympathetic nervous system? Nope. Just our reaction. I tried to find the best form and breath, relaxing everything but the thumb that pressed against the cut, breathing slowly and intentionally.

The staff at the emergency room were wonderfully capable and efficient, and we were in and out of there, four stitches later, in two hours flat. In fact, when we returned, we found the avocado was barely browning, so we added it to the guacamole.

In the five minutes we spent with the nurse who splinted my hand, he repeated at least four times, in reference to his own life, "It is what it is." This lesson must be constantly presented to frontline workers: It is what it is. This is the situation. This is the emergency. This is the pressing need. This is the present. Notice what is happening in this moment.

No swimming for me this week, but if all goes well, I'll get to train through the White Lake Half on Saturday. Since my hand really doesn't hurt, I rigged the splint over a cycling glove and rode, as intended, a lovely century ride yesterday. Here's another upside to the stitches: I had to stay in my aerobars, no drafting, virtually the whole time. And another: now that the splint is out, to keep my finger from overextending, I'm holding it in jnana mudra.

How grateful I am for my husband, my access to health care, my tolerance for pain, my yoga practice. It is what it is, and it is good.

May 4, 2009 01:28 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Valle Crucis 15 Miler

With my running group, I enjoyed the Valle Crucis 15 Miler on Saturday. The course had beautiful views, because it quickly led us up a mountain before descending and finishing along the Watauga River. That meant five miles up, five miles down, and five miles gently uphill. On the first long uphill, my Garmin auto-paused twice, either because I was running so slowly or because the GPS couldn't hold the satellites on the switchbacks.

This terrain was perfect for focusing and being in the moment. You can run only so fast uphill, and you can run only so slow downhill. The last third of any run requires some extra focus and attention to form. As I began the descent around mile 6, I felt a jubilant sense of gratitude and presence, going so far as to say "Thank you!" aloud. By mile 13, that had given way to a sarcastic "Thanks a lot."

Here, for your amusement, is the elevation profile and map. Look at the elevation gain and loss listed above left—could that be right? On the top right graph, the green line is elevation. You'll see the five up, five down, and five flattish miles there. You'll also see, from the red line indicating my heart rate and the blue line showing my speed, that I held myself in check until the last five miles, when I sped up, ready to be done. (There's another elevation profile on the bottom, with distance measured in kilometers.) After the race, I enjoyed not one but two ten-minute bouts of sitting in the cold river, which felt wonderful.

April 27, 2009 07:15 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Plan the Work, Work the Plan

It was deeply satisfying to track my coaching client Stacey G. as she ran the Boston Marathon yesterday. Stacey, a former division 1-A collegiate track runner, hired me to train her for this race after she'd been plagued with overuse injuries in her previous marathon training. Her plan involved a lot of focused running complemented with strength training, plyometrics, drills, swimming, and a weekly ride (now that Boston's done, she's making a transition to triathlon, which I know she'll love). She consistently nailed her workouts, and while there were days when she felt sore and tired and a week when her foot hurt, she made it to Hopkinton free of injury.

Better still, Stacey lined up with a very detailed race plan. Her plan was based on what had worked for her in training, from clothing to nutrition to pacing. I asked her to write out the plan based on the prompts you see below. She provided specific answers to each of the questions, and her writing, whether intentional or not, revealed her faith in her training and her ability. It was full of "I will . . ." statements ("I will hold back at the start"), which made me feel even more confident in her readiness.

Yesterday, she followed the plan to the letter and wound up with a five-minute PR of 3:17. Pretty impressive!

You can do the same. As your peak race of the season approaches, take the time to write out a race plan of your own. Follow the outline here as a starting point for your own document. (You can even grab a Word file with the prompts in it on my downloads page.) If you're a big list-maker, you might then make a packing list and a schedule for your race weekend. The more you reflect on your training and think through how you want things to go, the more likely it is that they'll work out as you planned.

GOALS
List your conservative goal:
List your public goal, what you’ll tell friends and coworkers you hope to do:
List your private goal, what you’ll tell your best friends you’d like to make:
List your super-secret radical goal:

GEAR
What are you wearing?
What if it’s really cold?
What if it’s really hot?
What’s your anti-chafing plan?

PERI-RACE NUTRITON
What do you plan on eating for dinner the night before?
Breakfast on race day?
Afterward?

RACE NUTRITON
Please list exactly what you plan to eat and when (either by time or by mile markers).
Ditto for hydration.

PACING
What’s the plan?
How will you hold yourself accountable to this plan? (E.g., pace chart tattoo from the expo, stopwatch, GPS, etc.)
How will external factors such as terrain or crowds affect this plan? How will you alter the plan in response?

MENTAL STRATEGIES
What mental strategies or tricks do you plan to use in the race?
List your fears about the race, and how you plan to cope should they materialize. Mark each one as either “in my control” or “out of my control.”

Include any other contingencies that seem relevant.

April 21, 2009 12:55 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

DO Try This at Home

Last Sunday, I enjoyed visiting the Hillsborough Sportsplex Tri Club to lead a session on yoga for triathletes. At the end of the practice, one of the participants said, “I know it sounds silly, but it just struck me that I could do yoga on my own at home.”

Yes, you can! While it’s useful to study with an experienced teacher at first—and periodically thereafter, so you have a knowing eye checking your alignment—the real work of yoga happens when you follow the needs of your own body, choosing poses that help you, that challenge you, that comfort you, and holding them for however long feels appropriate at that moment.

This doesn’t mean you need to do a ninety-minute routine with space music playing, candles burning, and complete seriousness. Why not include a few sun salutations as a dynamic warm-up, then slot a few minutes of lunges after a run? You can use some of yoga’s challenging core poses to shake up your usual core routine. Breath exercises can be practiced at your desk. It doesn’t have to be a big deal to get in some yoga every day.

Your home practice is the subject of my forthcoming book, The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga, which will be available this July. The book contains more than 50 routines appropriate for an athlete’s—or anyone’s—home practice. You can find some of them on my podcast, Sage Yoga Training (I’m slowly bringing it over to my new site and fixing the link to iTunes, but you can get directions on where else to find it here).

If you want specific pointers on how to include yoga in your training, complete with adjustments appropriate to your personal needs, and you’ll be in central North Carolina on Saturday, April 18, come to my workshop Yoga for Runners (and any athletes!) at the Carrboro Yoga Company from 2 to 4 p.m. I’ll break down five sequences that correspond to episodes of my podcast, so you can feel completely confident about practicing safely and productively on your own.

March 28, 2009 09:22 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Going Long

I'm on day 23 of the Big Sit, a meditator's version of the 100 pushup challenge. (Here, though, you dive right in to twenty minutes of seated meditation each day.) It continues to go very well and repeatedly confirms the parallels between meditation, a physical yoga practice, and endurance sports.

Most days, I settle in about 1:45, leaving myself time to get my wits back about me before beginning the walk to pick up my daughters at the 2:30 elementary school dismissal. My iPhone timer works nicely, playing a soothing harp sound at the end of the alloted time. In three weeks' practice, I've come to get a pretty good sense of how long twenty minutes lasts and of the physical cues that show it's almost time to finish. Today, though, I realized I was feeling impatient for the session to be over. I swung between wondering if something was wrong with the timer and falling deeper into meditation (or, perhaps, toward nodding off). Eventually I decided I would count ten rounds of ten breaths, then finish sitting. By the fourth round, I heard the 2:20 timer on the computer sound a thunk and my dog begin her Pavlovian reaction to the alarm. Hmm, I thought. As I opened my eyes, I saw a message on the phone: "Timer done." The harp had never played.

Whatever went wrong (maybe the phone abandoned its timer duties to tune in to the OS 3.0 preview), I'd been still for over thirty minutes, half again as long as I'd planned. It's a big leap. We are capable of much more than we expect. Diligent practice sets the base, and serendipity—getting lost out on the road or trail, being persuaded by friends to keep going—can show that our limits are nowhere near where we expected.

March 17, 2009 03:04 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Best Trainer Movie Ever

I'm trying to minimize the effects of my Ironman training on my family. This means doing my long run midweek (a good idea for anyone in IM training who can swing it, in fact) and, until it gets too long to fit in logistically, my long ride on Friday while the kids are in school. With the sudden return of winter to North Carolina—39 and drizzling today, with a forecast of gloomy weather through the weekend—this meant I put in an epic ride on the bike trainer today.

While I can't stand four minutes on a treadmill, I can stand four hours on the trainer. Maybe it's my experience in indoor cycling classes. Riding the trainer is easier than teaching: I don't have to talk. I get to zone out and watch movies. Today I watched two. The second was Definitely, Maybe, and it wasn't bad, but it certainly suffered in comparison to the first one, which has got to be the Best Trainer Movie Ever, American Flyers. (Thanks to my friend Hollis for the loan—she loves this movie so much, she owns the DVD.)

What does American Flyers have to offer you? I hopped off the bike to grab a notepad, so I could enumerate its virtues.

Racing. Lots of racing. Before the actual racing, there are races with a steamboat, a dog (enjoy the clip below), and cowboys on horses. In each of these race scenes, I'd glance down to see my power and HR numbers had gone up.

A sports performance lab with athletes sporting 80s hairstyles and workout clothes
A treadmill graded "torture test"
Both male and female nudity (including Kevin Costner's fanny)
Jennifer Grey in a funny bit part (they do put Baby in a corner, metaphorically)
GOAT Eddie Merckx and references to his nickname in the antagonist rider
Cold War drama, including a rider resentful of the boycott of the 1980 Olympics, and a Soviet rider with bulging muscles and a bushy beard
Lines like, "Enough of the Sunday stroll. Let's hurt a little bit!"
Rae Dawn Chong (she can change a rear wheel like a master!)
Dramatic crashes, including one near-wreck that had me flinching, crying, and screaming at the TV, glad to be safe in my living room
Hilarious phallic imagery in an implied-sex scene set to the national anthem
Touching family drama

Seriously, the family drama was touching, if overdone. I do tend to cry at both televised sports and schmaltzy movies, so I was a goner. I went through a lot of tissues (and a few during movie number two). Here's the scene from my saddle by the end of the ride.

March 13, 2009 04:30 PM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

Boston Marathon Pacing Strategy

Last year, as I prepared to run the Boston Marathon, I was disheartened to hear the conventional wisdom that your first Boston time is fifteen minutes slower than your qualifying time. While anecdotal evidence from my friends bore this out, I really didn't want to prove it true myself. Five minutes, I thought, was plenty of time to add to my qualifier, and that would keep me under my requalifying time. It worked out well, as my race report explains. (I usually err on the side of starting too slowly, as my last mile split often shows, and this is no different. Happily, that's a good approach to this course.)

One of my athletes is preparing to run Boston (she just posted an almost-four-minute PR at the half marathon!), and we've been discussing pacing. I'm giving her the same advice my editors at Runner's World gave me: be measured and careful across the entire first half of the course. Don't blow up on the hills. Once you finish the hills (there's a you-gotta-be-kidding-me little rise just past the official crown of Heartbreak), if you have some juice left, you are rewarded with a descent for the last six miles, so be sure you have something to give there.

Here's a very clever chart that takes the course's topography into account. It gives you some leeway to be faster on the downhills, but here's one of the two areas (parenting is the other) in which I'm conservative. Less is more here. You'll get time to run fast downhill after mile 21.

If you're running, congratulations and good luck! Veterans, do you have anything to add?

March 9, 2009 08:50 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Goggle Quest 2009

With my increased swim yardage, a once-annoying problem has grown more pressing: goggle woes. It's a long and boring saga, with a few high points. These include the time a few years back when Wes took me out to a Valentine's dinner. I sported two black eyes I'd inflicted on myself by racheting the tension on a new pair I was trying out to blood-vessel-bursting levels. I can't count the many sideways glances and actual "What's wrong, you look tired" remarks I've received even hours after a swim. Trying to preserve my eyes, for the last three years I've been swimming in the completely uncool Aquasphere Seal and Seal XP, models that follow the styling of a scuba mask. They afford good visibility, and they don't leak too much, but they just transfer the eye problem and wind up lining my forehead, cheeks, and nose. This last issue is really getting to me; I have a semipermanent red mark on the bridge of my nose that requires artful application of concealer each day, and I'm sick of it.

I picked up two new styles this week, and neither is working for me, at least not yet. One is the Speedo Hydrospex, a model similar to the Aquasphere Kaimans that Wes loves (even he, who proudly lugs my pink pull buoy to the pool, won't accept these as a hand-me-down, declaring them "too pink"). The other is the TYR Tracer, a minimalist (but not Swedish) model that is promising, if I can just figure out which of the five nosepieces to use.

Next on the list:

Blue Seventy Elements
Sable WaterOptics 922
Barracuda B-300
Speedo Air Seal XR
Speedo Vanquisher (this last one looks a lot like the TYR Tracer)

What a first-world, silly, selfish problem to have. If I had the seed money and business skills, I'd start a custom-goggle business (I'd happily pay $50 or more for a pair that really works!), make oodles of money selling to triathletes, and use all the profits to support worthy causes. For now, though, I'm stuck with trial-and-error.

Do you have any recommendations or fitting advice? How did you find your magical pair? Or is there simply no such thing?

February 19, 2009 01:35 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

CycleSafe.org Fundraiser

Are you glued to coverage of the Tour of California? If so, you might need some yoga about now! Try standing, breathing deeply, and circling your arms up as you inhale, down as you exhale. Then keep both arms up and lean into a side stretch each way. Spread your feet a little and twist side to side, letting your arms swing along with the action. Better already! While you're up, tack on whatever feels good: the figure-4 glute stretch with a hand on the desk, a quad stretch, calf stretches (I love a tight squat with my hands holding a railing; it's great for the back).

Also on the topic of cycling and yoga, here's the flyer (click to enlarge) for a free class I'm teaching in Winston-Salem, NC, in a few weeks. It's a fundraiser for CycleSafe.org, which teaches bike safety and produces some fun races, including the Hanes Park Classic, a fast and hot criterium in the middle of a humid southern summer. We'll talk a little and try out some yoga poses. No experience needed. Donations are welcome and appreciated!

More details on my Workshops page.

Speaking of workshops, I've been processing the wonderful experience of teaching a weekend on yoga for athletes at Kripalu and plan to write about it soon. If you miss me here, come see me on Twitter; you'll get either the raw, unedited (OK, less edited) version of my thoughts or distillations of would-be blog posts. It seems all my best writing is happening while I'm out on the bike or watching that black line at the bottom of the pool (and I'm spending more and more time in such activity). What seemed so pertinent and useful then is less interesting when I'm at the computer. So it gets reduced to 140 characters and slapped on Twitter.

February 17, 2009 05:14 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Best Local Running Secret

Those of us in central North Carolina are fortunate to have an extensive trail network, with options including Umstead Park, the southern, cinder-dust portion of the American Tobacco Trail, and the amazing trails of Carolina North.

In today's Chapel Hill News (article here), Randy Young reveals our best local running secret: the Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail, a former NASCAR speedway that's now abandoned and overgrown by trees. The trail network includes a mile or so of singletrack along the banks of the Eno River, and an oval-shaped track of 1400m or so, the remnant of the mile track where the stock cars used to race. You can see trail information and directions here, and a history of the races here. It's such a cool site—a great place for diehard trail runners to sneak in track workouts.

Do you have a favorite secret trail near you?

February 4, 2009 06:32 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Yoga ON the Bike

Last week's webinar presentation was an interesting experience. I shooed Wes and the girls out of the house and sat at my desk, facing my computer, talking to people I couldn't see or even receive a reaction from. (This last point is not necessarily true of all webinars; because I work on a Mac, I had some limitations.) It felt a lot like my former work as a radio announcer, and I found myself clicking back into some of the habits I developed over those six years. I tapped my foot slowly to help slow down my speech; I turned away from the mike to clear my throat or sip water. I did not, however, put on a twenty-minute Ornette Coleman tune so I could duck out and smoke a Camel, as I used to do!

At the end of the hour, I took some questions from the participants. One of the many good questions was whether there were yoga poses appropriate for practice on the bike. Indeed. I like to do a clipped-in version of pyramid pose by standing on the pedals and hinging forward from the hips. This yields a hip and hamstring stretch in the front leg and a calf stretch in the back leg if you drop that heel (carefully, and of course all of this depends on your pedal system). I used this picture, the mock cover of my forthcoming book, to illustrate the pose. Caution: do not attempt this arm position on the bike!!!

It struck me only later that cat-cow, articulating the spine, is also a good, safe bit of yoga to do on the bike. You can try it sitting or standing: just tip your pelvis backward and spread your upper back for cat, then move in the other direction—tailbone high, belly and chest forward, shoulders low—for cow.

And naturally, a mindful approach to what's happening in the moment is useful, even critical on the bike, as is breathing. Both of these are important elements of yoga.

Anyone have any other recommendations of on-the-bike yoga?

If you missed the webinar, I'll be giving a repeat presentation of it at a time that should be more convenient for those of you on the West Coast: 8:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 19. You can read more about it and find a link to sign up on my Workshops page. While there, check out the other offerings I have this spring: next weekend's retreat to Kripalu; a newly-added Yoga for Runners workshop in Carrboro (at which we'll break down five short post-run yoga routines, so folks are really confident in practicing them on their own); and a workshop on how to relax for peak performance, tied to correspond with the MAP Triathlon outside Charlotte, NC. If you'd like a monthly description of my clinics and workshops, please sign up for my newsletter by using the form in the sidebar.

February 1, 2009 10:16 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Yoga Lessons from the Masters Swim

This month, I finally faced my fear of failure and began attending the masters swim at UNC. While there have been some moments of failure, I've gotten in lots of yardage and received many good tips. I've seen improvement in my stroke, naturally, but I've also gained new insight into the finer points of being a yoga teacher and a yoga student.

Here are some of the parallels I've found thus far.

Knowing where to go and what to bring is key.

I enlisted my friend Alex to take me to the first practice, which allayed my anxieties about parking, meeting the coach, finding the locker room, and choosing a lane. My favorite yoga studios are those that clearly explain the logistics of getting there and setting up. These questions alone can frighten students off. Ask a friend to take you if you feel self-conscious; you'll be much more comfortable from the beginning.

Play with equipment.

In swimming, equipment is used to pinpoint, exaggerate, or highlight part of the stroke. Similarly, in yoga, props can help you focus on a particular action. Sometimes, they make a pose accessible where it wouldn't otherwise be. (Various teachers place different emphases on props. One of my clients calls an equipment-intensive workout I prescribe "Iyengar swim.") In both swimming and yoga, you might as well haul out every available prop, saving yourself the trip to the equipment closet in the middle of practice.

Be where you are.

I've written about the importance of not comparing your yoga with what you see on adjacent mats. This holds true in the water. If I felt like I had to swim like the three professional triathletes or the nationally ranked masters swimmers in the lanes next to me, I'd quickly blow up and sink to the bottom of the pool. It's nice to see beautiful swimming modeled, but I have to work with the form I currently have, at the intensity and speed that are right for me.

Enjoy the beautiful design of a good workout.

It's incredibly gratifying to see the structure and planning of these masters workouts. (Kudos, NCAC!) I put a lot of work into building themed, symmetrical, balanced sequences for my classes, and I adore dropping in on someone else's class that uses the physical sequences to help crystallize a point. At the same time, it's simply a treat to do a workout someone else wrote!

Listen for the right metaphor.

Coach Griff today described the "swim over a barrel" point by evoking a keg. Combined with a visual cue, this metaphor seemed to work. ("Beer. Got it.") Listen for the words that bring a point of form or philosophy home to you—you'll know you've found the right teacher for you when the metaphors ring clearly. (I enjoyed this experience yesterday in a fabulous yoga class with OM Yoga teacher Sarah Trelease, who used a great set of images to illustrate her points.)

You have to push a little to see change.

Every sport teaches us this, but it's true at masters, too. When I feel my aversion to swimming 400 all out toward the end of a 3,000-yard workout (and I'm doing the B-level yardage!), I take a breath, let it out, take another, and see what I can do. Same thing goes on the mat. We need to recognize but not engage with that original recoiling from a pose—provided we are practicing it safely, of course—to see what progress can be made.

Learn perfect mountain pose alignment, and come back to it often.

Memorize and continually revisit mountain pose. Everything in swimming and yoga comes back to that original alignment: neutral spine, balanced distribution of weight, engagement along the long axis of your body.

Return to form and breath.

Of the three sports I practice, swimming places the most emphasis on form and breath. Cycling and running need it, too, but if you're flailing in the pool without precise form and planned breath, the water will seem to gel around all your inefficiencies. Constantly scan your form in both swimming and yoga. Where could you relax more? Where is energy best spent? Be sure you fully empty your lungs in preparation for each inhalation; otherwise, you're depriving yourself of the opportunity to take in fresh air quickly. (Pranayama, yoga's breath exercises, are especially useful here.) If it starts to get too intense, stop and breathe.

Let it go if it is beyond your current skill set, but don't be afraid to lay the groundwork for future progress.

I avoid butterfly like some of my students avoid arm balances. (Actually, folks who swim fly are usually pretty great at poses like crane/crow and handstand.) I've never had the coordination or the drive to learn the stroke. But by taking small steps that teach the form, I can get there someday. It takes some humility to do something that feels unfamiliar and looks foolish, but that friction is necessary for growth. Today, that meant two-armed backstroke. In the studio, it might mean asking for assistance or deciding that falling is OK.

Which leads me to my last point:

Keep your sense of humor.

I had an especially inglorious moment last week, when I tried—and failed—to heave myself out of the pool via the starting blocks. I tried to parlay it into a calf stretch, but it would have been obvious to anyone watching. It's also probably been obvious every time I fell out of headstand or snorted or let other air escape from my body in the studio. We're just human. Despite all the self-imposed intensity of training and racing, and despite all the lessons sport teaches us, it should be fun. Keep your sense of humor about it.

January 26, 2009 03:15 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Yoga for Strength

I enjoyed leading a workshop on yoga for strength yesterday. Now, when we Northern Hemisphere endurance athletes are in the base period, is the time to amp up your yoga practice. (When your training is less intense, your yoga can be more so: keep them in inverse proportion to maintain balance.)

We started and ended the two-hour practice nice and mellow. In between, we played with balance and momentum, rolling into and out of mountain pose; moved through some gradually intensifying sun salutations; played with Warrior III, Chair, and Crane; and worked many varieties of plank poses along with the table-based core moves you can find in the Quick Fix episode of my podcast. Much of what we did will appear in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, to be released this summer.

Where do yoga and strength training coincide? You can use yoga as a dynamic warmup before lifting; you can bring asana alignment to your squats and lunges (knees and toes agree, click back to mountain pose in your pelvis and torso); you can draw on yoga's many wonderful core strengtheners to avoid the monotony of gym crunches.

My husband, Wes, was interested to know what core moves we did. "I want a new core routine," he proclaimed. It struck me that routine is a problematic word there: better to avoid routine and keep your muscles challenged and guessing. Yoga is a great way to add moves to your repertory, so that you can break out of a sense of routine and instead enjoy playing with ways to increase your core strength. Better still, approaching the moves mindfully sharpens your focus and keeps you safe.

January 25, 2009 07:24 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Answer the Phone

Wes got the last copy of USA Today at the Wellness Center paper box this morning. I'm hoping that means a lot of people read today's paper, because I'm quoted in it, in an article on figure skater Sasha Cohen and her yoga practice.

When the reporter called last week, I was busy pumping my bike tires and didn't answer my cell phone. Heading into the house to fill a bottle, I saw "USA TODAY" on the home phone caller ID and reasoned, "telemarketer." Not so! Wes says this proves that I should always answer the phone. He may have a point.

January 13, 2009 12:21 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Yoga Webinar Information

Registration is now available for the hour-long webinar on yoga I'll be giving Tuesday, January 27, at 6 p.m. EST. What's a webinar, you ask? It's a seminar delivered on the Web, in this case using software called GoToMeeting. You'll see a slideshow and hear my voice, and you can submit questions for me to answer at the end of the presentation.

The topic: incorporating yoga in a training plan. I'll lay out yoga's benefits for athletes, explain the various styles of yoga, detail what to look for in a teacher, and chart how yoga should complement training in base, build, and peak cycles. While the presentation is hosted by USA Cycling (and counts as CEUs for USAC coaches), you need not be a coach or even a cyclist to gain benefit.

Sign up through USA Cycling. You'll need a free account at the USAC site, usacycling.org; once that's set up, you'll go to My USA Cycling, then choose USA Cycling Coaching Clinics. Cost is $25 for USAC coaches, $35 for USAC members, and $50 for non-USAC folk.

Here are more details, plus a PDF explaining the technical process.

If you're not in the U.S. but would like to attend the webinar, let me know; we can get you registered manually.

January 8, 2009 11:04 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Receiving Assistant(s)

My weekend at Kripalu is full enough that I'll need to bring an assistant. I'm delighted that Donia Robinson, owner of the Carrboro Yoga Company, has agreed to join me. Donia is a whiz at using props, which comes in very handy for athletes. She has taught a class called "How to Cheat at Yoga," a title that amuses me despite my aversion to cheating. (Ask Ford's head of social media about my Twitter response to the F-150 ad that implicates the viewer in cheating in high school science class!) The point was that props can be a shortcut to "success," inasmuch as success is our goal in asana.

Donia's approach will help students see how to make the poses work for them at home, without needing someone to move them into each pose. In general, I'm pretty hands-off as a teacher. While I've been given some wonderful adjustments by assistants in workshops—most notably, by the very capable staff of Yoga One in Charlotte at last year's Baron Baptiste immersion—I feel athletes, especially endurance athletes, don't want to be touched much. Beryl Bender Birch gave me a great quote on the topic in an interview on teaching athletes: "It’s very easy to injure an elite athlete by coming on too heavy handed in the hands-on traditions. They’re strong and very tight. It’s like a guitar string that you tighten up and tighten up to get the highest possible resonance. But then you just turn it the tiniest bit and it explodes. It’s the same thing with hands-on work with athletes."

One place adjustments are universally great, in my opinion: savasana. And in the context of a three-day weekend, it's especially sweet to get some aid settling in. Kripalu-goers, expect deep relaxation!

I am also planning to offer a sampler class on the evening of Saturday, February 7, 7:30–9:00. So if you are at Kripalu for another workshop, or simply live nearby and would like to check out my teaching style, please come!

Donia will assist at my workshop on yoga for strength January 24, 2–4 p.m. at the Carrboro Yoga Co. Please join us there, or at Kripalu in February.

And let me know: how do you feel about adjustments in class?

January 8, 2009 08:18 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

New Year, New Site

Happy new year! I've spent much of my holiday downtime working on a new Web site, which I've launched today. If you have bookmarks to my pages, most of them will work, but some won't—most notably, the podcast pages. I'm working on moving the RSS podcast feed to the new site, but it might take a week or two. Meanwhile, you can see the podcast episodes at iTunes and on Facebook. (When I get that squared away, I vow to make a new episode of reclining stretches, appropriate for practice in bed, at the gym, or on a grassy field near the finish line.)

Please check out the new site and let me know what works and what doesn't. You'll notice that there's a feed of this very blog running there, too, and beautifully in line with the rest of the site. In fact, you might be reading this there now, which is satisfyingly meta.

Other new features:

a sidebar with menus, a search feature, upcoming workshops (remember: Kripalu, February 6–8!), and newsletter signup
a sponsorship page announcing my new affiliation with Athleta, about which I'm very happy
some new pictures
testimonials from my clients and students—I'd love to have more, especially from yoga and cycling students and you, my readers
an updated price list for 2009 (as the cocktail napkins Wes gave me read, "Born free . . . now I'm expensive"—but I'm worth it, and so are you)
a growing page on others teaching yoga for athletes
a sneak peak at my forthcoming book!

I'm very interested in your feedback on the site, which I've done all by myself using RapidWeaver. Now that I have much of the container in place, I'm ready to fill it with more content. What would you like to see?

January 1, 2009 03:40 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Barking Back

Under some duress during today's ride, I realized that my "NO! NO! NONONONONONO!" probably sounded like barking to the three country dogs who were chasing me. To them, I must have looked like a pink leopard with horns. On the plus side, I hit a new max wattage, 581. (Please do not laugh. This is coming from a woman who averaged 111—yes, you're reading that right—on a dead-flat HIM course. Guess what my resolution for 2009 is?)

When the next pack, this one of an Australian shepherd and his pal, gave chase (or, given the shepherd's instinct, herded me), I spaced out my "No. NO. NO!" It worked much better.

Soon afterward, I passed a house with a sign reading BAD DOG. I didn't stop to get a picture, but I did pause to snap the one above. I like the sign, but apparently someone with a gun does not. I was tempted many other times to stop: I passed R FAMILY LN, RABBIT HARE RD, a wild turkey, and soon after, tame turkeys living in a pen with goats.

I was traveling a familiar route in reverse. Having underestimated the distance considerably, I had a lot of time to wonder why I didn't see the dogs when I passed their homes every Friday in September and October, and to think about how things come in threes. When I spied the third dog, I was ready to sprint. He never even looked at me as I passed five feet away.

Got any good dog-versus-bike stories?

December 30, 2008 04:45 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Yoga for Strength, Yoga for Focus

I've been booking some fun workshops for the new year, aimed at showing how yoga can aid your training and racing in various ways.

One workshop: Yoga for Strength at my home studio, the Carrboro Yoga Company, on Saturday, January 24. We'll look at how yoga complements strength training in the base period. You can read more at the studio's site, and to sign up, you'll need to call the studio (919-933-2921) or register online by clicking on "Buy Classes," then the "Workshops" tab—it's a frame site, so I can't link to it.

Another workshop: Yoga for Focus at Urban Bliss in Cornelius, NC, which is just north of Charlotte on Lake Norman. It's on Saturday, March 28. If you're racing at MAP the next day, you'll want to come to this workshop. While the yoga will be gentle, we'll be looking at ways to relax for peak performance, placing our focus on focus. We can head to packet pickup en masse after the workshop.

Both of these workshops are two hours long and cost $30. You can also see these workshops listed at YogaTag.

Much more to come with the launch of my new Web site in a few days. If you have a testimonial about my teaching, coaching, or writing, I'd love to have it for a page on the new site.

December 27, 2008 09:46 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Christmas Cross-Training

Merry Christmas, everyone! We've had a great day, and, as in any great day, I learned something new: how to ride a Trikke. Here's my father-in-law, Jeff, coaching me—doesn't he look coachly?—in the finer points of the motion involved, which involves pushing, pulling, turning, and leaning. It's a blast going downhill, and a lot of work coming back up.

Here's hoping your new year is full of fun descents and worthwhile climbs.

December 25, 2008 05:09 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

Eyes on Your Own Paper

I had the pleasure of attending a class at Yoga Pod in Boulder with Malachi Melville, one of the models for my next book. Not only is her yoga gorgeous, she is beautiful, too. And while we're supposed to leave competition out of the yoga studio—I've heard this pithily described as "keeping your eyes on your own paper"—I could plainly see, from my position a row behind Malachi, everyone sneaking a glimpse of her spectacular pigeon backbend. How were they to know she's been on the cover of Yoga Journal?

Last fall, I led a retreat to ZAP Fitness, a training center for elite runners in the mountains of North Carolina. (Join me there next year!) Some of the athletes gamely joined us for an afternoon yoga practice. Unbeknownst to them, one of the retreat participants had quite a pedigree: she's the daughter of the most famous male dancer around. I saw their stricken expressions as she moved gracefully from pose to pose, taking her body far deeper than their runner's bodies would go. But just that morning, we yogis had been running in the park. The same boys passed us effortlessly, in their element, moving like a pack of deer through the woods.

We all have our strengths—and our limitations. They'll be dictated by your history, your anatomy, your genetics, your sport. At the studio, don't worry about what your classmates are doing; focus instead on how your yoga practice feels. You never know when you might be next to a ringer.

December 16, 2008 05:21 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Icy Hike

I'm in Boulder, Colorado, where I have spent the last three days shooting pictures for my next book, a practice guide, about which more later. It's been a treat to be in a place whose beauty is so different from that of my native North Carolina. Yesterday, I ran on a semi-icy bike path toward the sunrise, then turned around and ran back toward the mountains, lit by the dawn. Today, remembering my previous experiences with altitude, I didn't even try to run. Instead, when the shoot wrapped, I ate a hot bowl of spicy tomato-tortilla soup, then headed to Chautauqua Park for a hike on the icy trail into the Front Range.

My running shoes weren't designed for such surfaces, so I trod carefully. It was just the focus I needed, looking at the very immediate picture, after spending these days looking at a group of bigger pictures and how they'll fit with the book (and, by extension, my career). Each step had to be both heavy enough to sink in and light enough to not overcommit my weight to an icy patch. Periodically, my mind flashed to other images: my athlete Dave, who has just gained entry to a 100-mile trail race; how to fall gracefully; peeks of the spectacular view; "Ice Walkin'," set to the tune of the Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'." But it kept returning to the now, this step, and this, and this. A great yoga practice for the day, one of many.

December 11, 2008 05:24 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Speaking of DVDs

Now that I've mentioned the availability of my yoga DVD on Amazon, it's backordered! You can always order direct from Endurance Films. While you're at it, order a copy of the Rides: North Carolina DVD (trailer above).

This DVD was a lot of fun to work on. I assembled a group of my clients and friends to ride the course of the Carrboro Classic Duathlon (formerly Powerman North Carolina). The producers filmed the riders as I drove ahead of them—very closely, and very slowly—in a rented Sebring convertible. There are also some fun "helmet cam" shots mixed in. The workout starts with some hills, then segues into three long tempo intervals, making it great for triathletes. We added a brief series of standing stretches after the ride.

You can choose whether or not to listen to my voice-over, which makes me glad. I can hardly stand to hear my voice on the trailer, so I can't imagine doing the workout more than once with the coaching track playing.

November 24, 2008 07:50 AM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

DVD in Stock at Amazon

Just in time for the holidays, The Athlete's Guide to Yoga DVD is in stock at Amazon—and for 10 percent off. It makes a great gift, especially in combination with the book. (Take it further: add a yoga strap and an eco-friendly yoga mat.) And when you buy from Amazon, you can then post a (glowing) review on Amazon.

November 21, 2008 11:02 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Scenes from the Locker Room

Sundays this fall, I've been teaching yoga to the Carolina Tar Heels football team. Each class is full of interesting moments—like the time the entire defensive line (average weight: 302 pounds) challenged one of the players to back his claim that he could do a full split, or the time another player went straight from crane to handstand, just after I'd proffered, "This pose is about balance, not upper-body strength," or the time my suggestion "You might rest your fingers on your chest so you can feel your ribs" was greeted with chuckles and a good-natured call of "Maybe you can feel your ribs."

I added some extra centering to last Sunday's class. The boys had just returned from a loss that meant their goal of playing for the ACC championship was out of reach. Numbers in each of the four groups I see (O-line, D-line, specialists, and receivers/secondary) were low, as many players visited the sports-med office instead of doing the recovery workout. As the students lay on the floor, I talked them through some breath exercises designed to help them relax. (They love this and ask for it each week.) Fresh off reading Kelly McGonigal's nice description of the nervous system in November's Yoga Journal, I expounded on the parasympathetic nervous system and ways to tap into it through breathing.

"When your parasympathetic nervous system is in control, you feel relaxed. When your sympathetic nervous system is in charge, you're ready for 'fight or flight,'" I said, as I walked around the room, "and that's where you spend much of your game. Our work is to amp up the relaxation response and the parasympathetic nervous system."

One of the players cracked an eye open. "What if stretching makes me feel 'fight or flight'?"

It was another light moment, but a good question. The obvious answer is that it shouldn't. Yoga, especially, may sometimes—by design—bring you close to the edge of panic, but the goal is to use your breath and your awareness of the present to keep things steadily in the camp of relaxation. For some of my students, that situation comes in handstand, or a yin hold of pigeon; for linemen, it comes in trying to connect fingertips behind the back. No matter how you get there, you're given an opportunity to practice staying calm in the face of intensity. This skill is invaluable across everything you do: sports, driving, parenting, living, dying.

November 19, 2008 01:53 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Richmond Races

This weekend, I traveled with my running group to Richmond. Some of us ran the 8K, some the half marathon, some the full marathon. It was brutal weather: storms overnight, weird barometric pressure, 30 mph gusts, and eventually sunshine to warm the humid air to 70 degrees. Almost everyone overheated over 26.2 miles. But they all finished, which is quite an accomplishment in itself.

There's been a fascinating series on the Science of Sport blog about thermoregulation. The gist is that you slow down before you even begin to overheat, in anticipation of the event. But the weather Saturday started coolish and humid and turned very hot and sunny, so that runners didn't have a chance to adjust their paces until it was probably too late.

Running the 8K gave me a chance to stamp my season DONE. After not running out my training at Beach2Battleship, I needed the closure. Cheering at the race was the real highlight of the day, as I witnessed my running partners and other friends slogging it out. We stationed ourselves at two points, around 13.5 and 23.5, so we got a chance to see runners twice. How telling their form was at the later stop! Form and breath, form and breath.

November 18, 2008 08:04 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Do the Du

My five-year-old is lying on my office couch, facing the bookshelf. She just asked a question that demonstrates her keen intellect and sharp perception (wherever did she get that?): "Mommy, why do you have a trophy that says RUN-BIKE-RUN?" That gave me a chance to explain the difference between triathlon—the swim-bike-run combo familiar to Vivi—and duathlon. (Don't confuse duathlon with biathlon, which is a combination of cross-country skiing and riflery.)

Earlier today, I got an e-mail exhorting that members of Team USA work to get 1,000 athletes at duathlon nationals, which will be held, as they were last year, in Richmond, Virginia, in April. It's a great idea, and while part of me wants to keep this race a secret so I can send my athletes there to qualify for worlds with less competition, of course everyone should know about and consider doing the race. Details are at duathlonnationals.com.

November 13, 2008 03:29 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

The Pinpoint and the Panorama

The night before Saturday's race, I walked my athletes through the complicated logistics of the day, from what to put in which bags to where to turn to what to expect out on the run course. The last turn of the course, 50 yards from the finish, was onto grass, and just after the turn there were a number of thick roots sticking from the dirt like the backs of thick sea creatures emerging from the water. I told folks that toward the end of the race, they'd get tunnel vision, with the area of their focus shrinking further and further until it was very narrow. The end of the tunnel is the finish line, and when you can literally see the finish, you aren't looking at the rooty ground under your feet. I passed through the tunnel in April: it was wide in Hopkinton and narrowed over 26 miles so that it obscured all of Boylston Street.

Robyn had the pinpoint vision; I knew it when she almost missed the next-to-last turn on the course. I had the opposite experience. From the top of the final bridge on the course, I saw everything laid out before me: the Cape Fear leading to the ocean on my left; the ugly industrial part of town behind me; an ebullient Katy to my immediate right, framed by the historic downtown and the imposing battleship; the downward slope to the finish before us. It was panoramic.

In yoga, we'd call Robyn's experience a form of pratyahara, sensory withdrawal, which led to dharana, intense concentration. Mine was a taste of samadhi, blissful connection and awareness of everything simultaneously. And it only took six hours of exercise to get there!

November 3, 2008 12:54 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

B2B Quick Report

A quick report from the beach, where five of my clients did the Beach2Battleship half-iron race and another, Marne, ran the anchor leg of a mixed relay (3rd place). What a great race, and a beautiful day to enjoy it. The current swept us to a quick swim; the bike was flattish; the run was scenic.

My own race was mediocre. I started fine on the bike but soon realized I had little to give. My average wattage was laughably low; I couldn't hit the numbers I made in training. I don't know if I am getting sick or slightly misfit on my bike, but it wasn't happening. Instead, I settled in to enjoy the day and play the role of sweeper.

By the time I hit T2, two of my clients had passed me and another was changing next to me, so I wound up running with them. I presumed Derek was out on the run, but it turned out he was just behind us: having gotten hypothermic in the ocean, he took a long T1 to warm up. So I thought I was the last of our group out there, and I decided to help everyone in. What a fun way to approach the run! It's much less self-sacrificial than it sounds; I loved every minute of it, because I felt wonderful throughout and still do now. (Morning update: both knees are very tender; I should have listened to my bike fitter, who said, after raising my saddle to a hypothetical new spot, "Lower your saddle and move it to its intended position slowly." That's the price of my laziness and stubbornness, and probably explains my trouble producing power and staying aero on the very flat course.)

I started with Julee, who eventually won her age group by passing two women in the last mile. We were sporting matching outfits and hairdos, and caused quite a stir as we ran through downtown Wilmington ("Go, girls!"). We saw Dave on his way to an eleventh-place finish in 4:40-something. When we caught Robyn, Julee went on and I ran alongside Robyn, but she was battling her stomach and didn't want to hear me chatter. Then we caught up to Katy, sent Robyn on, and Katy and I had an absolute blast: we chatted, walked as she wanted to, and enjoyed interacting with the fabulous aide station workers. When I noticed there was grass in my socks, I stopped to shake them out. When Katy's stomach felt gassy, we walked until she let a belch loose. We frequently commented on the pretty scenery and how exciting it is to finish a race of this distance. It was revelatory! I've never walked in a race before, and now I see its appeal—it was so fun. When we ran, we ran a conversational, happy pace. My goal for the race was to learn something, and I did: I gained perspective on the journey.

I've put a few of the many pictures my client Natalie (on crutches in the pix) took online here, and at some point I'll work up a full race report page on my site.

November 1, 2008 10:36 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

On Yoga and Running Shoes

There's a nice introduction for athletes on how to get into yoga—appropriate for both women and men—in November's issue of Her Sports magazine. (Apparently, it's also the last issue under the Her Sports name; the periodical has been rebranded as Women's Running.) It's also available online here.

I was happy to be interviewed for the piece, because it gave me a chance to riff on a simile I've had in mind for a while: choosing a yoga class is like choosing a running shoe. Occasionally, you'll grab the first thing you see, or something on sale, and it's a great fit; more often, you have to get some expert guidance in finding the right class/shoe for you. As I say in the article, a yoga studio might help you find the right fit, just as a specialty running store can be a great resource.

Some folks need more support in their teachers and their shoes; some need more cushioning, or less; a lighter touch, or a slightly off-kilter approach (asymmetrical lacing, maybe, or the funky postings of the Newton). Sometimes you stick with one model for years; other times, you evolve and need a new model. Tweaks or upgrades made to the teacher's style or the shoe's components and fit can make the class or shoe even more useful and productive for you, or they can render it incompatible with your needs. Et cetera.

Tune in for the next episode of Sage Unpacks a Simile, wherein I'll belabor my points that choosing a bike is like choosing a mate, and that bikes are like newborns, not nearly as fragile as they look!

October 24, 2008 01:00 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Eve Carson Memorial 5K

Those of you with Carolina ties who'll be in Chapel Hill on November 15 should consider running the Eve Carson Memorial 5K, which starts at the reasonable hour of 10:00 a.m. on the beautiful Carolina campus that Eve loved so much.

October 23, 2008 10:21 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

D.C. Report

Vivi and Wes strike catalog poses at the Washington Monument, overlooking the Lincoln Memorial

My family joined me on my business trip to Washington, D.C., this weekend. This was the girls' first trip there. They loved the Museum of Natural History and the zoo; they were perplexed by the freeze-dried ice cream sold at the Air and Space Museum, the food of one of my fondest childhood memories; and they found the Metro too loud (these children love taxis).

The city was very beautiful this weekend, with a perfect cool breeze rustling the colored leaves. The only bad part was my treadmill run, done to avoid sidewalks and to be efficient. What was I thinking? I had to force myself to continue ("C'mon, Rountree, you're on the Runner's World advisory board, you've gotta gut it out!"), but at least it made a good mental training session.

I adored visiting Circle Yoga, where I presented a workshop. It's a wonderful studio with a nicely stocked boutique (you can find my book and a few copies of my DVD there) and a warm and friendly staff. The students were great, too, and we had a fun session looking at form, breath, economy, and mountain pose—all of which apply in yoga and in sports.

If you'd like to have me offer a similar workshop at your favorite yoga studio, please let me know. And if you're up for a more in-depth exploration of yoga's benefits for athletes, come spend a weekend with me at Kripalu, February 6–9, 2009.

October 20, 2008 03:17 PM | Training and Racing, Family, Yoga | Permalink

Moon Salutations

This week in my yoga classes for athletes, we're working moon salutations. You'll find many different flows labeled moon salutations—I don't claim that this is the original, the only, or the "right" way to do them; it's just a great routine for athletes, especially those who are still a few weeks from their peak fall competitions (such as runners prepping for a fall/early winter marathon). I learned this sequence from a handout I received in teacher training, and from a version taught by my colleague Ann Archer, and I've put a few spins on it for symmetry.

Here's the full sequence in video, taken from my DVD. You can also find an article about the sequence as I teach it, the rationale behind using it, and a slideshow for reference on Rodale's iYogaLife site.

So much of endurance sports—power yoga included!—involves moving forward. It's extremely useful to spend time moving side to side (and twisting) to help balance that work. Remember, yin and yang together.

October 14, 2008 04:34 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Yin in Yang, Yang in Yin

I spent a very busy day (with major gratitude for my wonderful husband) working. All morning, I worked on my athletes' training plans. At 1:30, I met the Carolina football team for recovery yoga; at 3:00, I led a two-hour clinic for the Ramblin' Rose women's only triathlon to be held next weekend. While posting to my Twitter page, I realized that not only does the yang of working with the football team (in their locker room, no less, as hypermasculine an environment as I've ever been in) balance with the yin of working with a group of rookie triathletes. There's also the yin of yoga versus the yang of triathlon. So the balance was in place: the heat of football is tempered by the cool of yoga; the silver light of women trying a new thing is toned by the golden light of physical exertion.

This is why, for me, work is fun. Every day my life includes these two poles: the soft love of mothering and the tough love of coaching (and often the reverse), the head space of writing and the body space of moving, the simultaneously intellectual and physical process of teaching yoga, a balance buoyed by the work's spiritual fulfillment.

October 12, 2008 05:38 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Yoga and Running Retreat Report

Here are the participants in last weekend's yoga and running retreat at ZAP Fitness near Blowing Rock, NC. What a perfect weekend we had: we enjoyed yoga nidra, a long run, a long afternoon of practice, a yin yoga session combined with a book discussion, a recovery run with yoga included, great food, and wonderful company.

ZAP's facility is wonderful: spartan but comfortable, clean and cozy, very quiet. It is a running monastery, as we came to call it. It's a huge treat to be able to focus on the practice of running and the practice of yoga for two days without worrying about food or housekeeping. At the end of each practice, we could linger in the knowledge that there was nowhere else we needed to be other than right where we already were.

I'm already thinking ahead to next year. Perhaps I'll lead two retreats: a spring one, possibly for beginners, with an emphasis on running form and on building strength with yoga; and a fall one for marathoners, timed a few weeks out from the major races, where we'll do a long long run, discuss mindfulness and mental focus, and practice restorative yoga for recovery. If you're interested, let me know, and sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop.

October 2, 2008 08:30 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Listen to Your Body, Literally

Yesterday I found myself at the pool at an odd hour, 1:30–2:30. It was a different sensory experience: I was cold from sitting around in a sweaty top for a few hours; I had the memory of lunch still on my palate; since there was no water aerobics class at that hour, there was no layer of perfume hanging over the water; the angle of the light was different.

When I sat in the whirlpool after diligently cranking out my yards, leaning back and shutting my eyes, I noticed something else new. Only two swimmers remained in the pool: a professional triathlete who races the ITU circuit, and an older, heavier man who does half a length of butterfly with no kick before standing up, catching his breath, flipping over, and finishing the trip across the pool with the elementary backstroke (to his credit, he keeps this up for an hour or more at least three times a week). The sound these two made in the water was fascinating.

Folks who are really good at what they do make it look easy. (There's a nice piece by Rick Crawford in the September 22 issue of Velo News about virtuosity and the pedal stroke, not yet online.) In swimming, cycling, and running, they also make it sound easy. The sound of a good swimmer makes a satisfying, rhythmic "thunk" as a relaxed arm plunges into the water. The sound of an inefficient swimmer is irregular, frantic, splashy.

On the bike trainer, an uneven pedal stroke makes a distinctive whirr-whirr sound. On the road, cranks sometimes make a slapping sound when you're undergeared.

You can hear the same differences in running. Experienced, light runners make a pitter-patter in time with the breath; plodders sound heavy both in step and in the lungs.

Listen to your body in your next workout—not metaphorically, but literally. How does your action sound? Is it regular? Does it sound light or heavy? Springy and stiff or leaky? How does the sound change across different efforts and paces? How does it coordinate with the sound of your breath? Ask a friend to record you or comment on the sound of your swim stroke.

Similarly, listen to your breath in yoga—is it flowing freely? Are there hitches and sighs? Does the ujjayi sound obscure the complaints in your leg muscles, the doubts in your mind?

(Sidenote: one of my football-player students said, as his joints pop-pop-popped when he stood up to leave practice, "My body sounds like a drive-by.")

September 24, 2008 08:01 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Mothers, Unite!

There's an interview with me up today on the great blog Fitness for Mommies. I sound halfway articulate because it was an e-mail interview!

Also on the topic of fitness and motherhood, I highly recommend Kristina Pinto's lovely essay, "Run Like a Mother," which went up on the Chi the same time as my 5K plan. It's wonderfully written, as is her blog, Marathon Mama.

Another fun read: my fellow contributor to Are You Living It?, April Bowling, discusses her adventures in training on Multisport Mom, with the occasional salty New Englander Pats reference. Please don't get me started on the Patriots. I can complain all day about Belichick's ridiculous cut-off sweatshirt. For goodness sakes, man, wear a full-sleeved top!

September 23, 2008 01:00 PM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

Training for a 5K, with Yoga

My training plan for a 5K using yoga as a complement has just gone online at Athleta Chi. Let me know what you think and how it works!

Any feedback you have to share is both useful and gratifying. I loved hearing from folks who used the plan I wrote earlier this year for Endurance Magazine. (In that one, I coined the term "club sandwich" to refer to interval runs, which still makes me smile today.) While that plan is for folks pretty new to exercise or to running, the audience for the Athleta Chi plan is athletes who have a decent base—they hit the gym regularly, maybe even run some, and, in my mind, look like the gorgeous, strong models in Athleta's catalog—but don't know how to begin honing their running fitness for a target race.

It's simple to find a 5K. Why not give it a try? So many folks these days take a more-is-more approach to racing, choosing a marathon or an Ironman as a first race. Working in increments is much safer, and it creates a lifelong habit instead of stoking the fire too fast, leading to burnout or injury. And as any seasoned athlete can tell you, the 5K can be every bit as hard as the marathon!

September 22, 2008 04:48 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Sage Yoga Training, Episode 15: Backbending

While it's been a little over a year since I posted a new podcast episode, I haven't forgotten about Sage Yoga Training. In August, my mother shot some pictures for a backbending episode (thanks, WalkerRuns, for the request). I was waiting for a rainy day to work on production, and this was it. Along the way, I remembered how much fun these episodes are to make. My six years in public radio weren't for naught!

Backbends are hard. For those of us who sit in chairs, drive, or ride a lot, they are especially onerous. I've chosen some "starter" poses, all targeting the hip flexors, which need to release in order for us to bend backward.

When you try the episode, which you'll find here, move slowly, keep your hips square, bend evenly, and work within your own limits. If you include the sequence in your rotation, hitting these poses, say, once a week, I think you'll start to see a big difference within a month.

As always, I love getting feedback and ideas for future episodes.

September 16, 2008 06:00 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

"This Is Water."

I managed to eke out my PhD in twentieth-century English literature without reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Heck, I never read all of Ulysses, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have, though, read (or at least run my eyes over the words) all of Thomas Wolfe's novels, none of which I really liked, and all of which are very, very long.

Deep in the comments of the David Foster Wallace obituary on a raunchy blog I like to read, I found reference to his commencement speech given at Kenyon College in 2005. I thought I was lucky to catch his wonderful message; in checking that the lines were indeed his, though, I find the full speech quoted widely, for example, here.

But here they are anyway, so perfectly describing the truth of adult life, a truth that yoga and sports both highlight.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?" . . .

[T]he real value of a real education . . . has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water."

"This is water."

September 15, 2008 03:41 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Establishing a New Baseline

Dilbert.com

I smiled to see this Dilbert cartoon after my time trials this week. (The relevant frames should appear above, but here's a précis: Asok tells his boss that he's accomplished the work of ten people, then catches himself: "Did I just establish a new baseline expectation that will turn my job into a tragic death march?" Boss's reply: "It's time to set some stretch goals.")

While I prescribe testing to my athletes regularly, I tend to avoid it myself. It's hard, of course, and it can be disappointing. The greater fear, though, is of setting a new baseline that makes all subsequent workouts harder. (Cue the Marianne Williamson quote: "Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.")

Setting the new baseline, of course, is the point. In psyching myself up for the bike trial, I told myself, "Your body knows what it's doing. It'll put out the right effort." And it did, just as it did in the swim test on Wednesday, despite my swim cap sliding off my forehead, getting caught in my goggle straps, and acting as a parachute in the last 100 yards.

I taught handstand this week. It's a favorite of mine, because watching my students overcome their apprehension, laugh when they fall, and eventually establish a new baseline is so gratifying. If something is scaring you, take the niggling fear as a cue: Do it! Your body knows what it's doing. And the way it knows is by trying.

September 12, 2008 12:49 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Ride It Out

It's been a while since I've had preworkout nerves, but I had them in full force before last week's four-hour solo ride. I think of them as a good thing, priming me for the work to come. My sympathetic nervous system was certainly ramped up: by the time I had my bike ready to roll, my heart rate was already at 122. My legs were shaky even twenty minutes into the ride, but I knew that after an hour I'd be feeling steadier.

The same thing happens in meditation. The first five minutes, for me, require a lot of focus and patience. I've learned to ride it out, and eventually my mind settles down, just as my legs do in an hour or so on the bike. Your numbers may vary, but every workout, every yoga practice, every sitting session, is an exercise in self-study.

September 10, 2008 09:04 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Sage Endurance News, September 2008

Here's the latest edition of my newsletter, detailing my fall workshop and clinic schedule. You can sign up from the newsletter page or by using the form to the right.

September 4, 2008 02:17 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Transition Practice, Redux

I often say that mothers are good at triathlon because much of it is about organization and management. To wit, another transition practice:

Awaken children. Feed children while brushing their hair. Exhort them to eat. Begin packing lunch. Remind children to eat. Pack a snack. Fill out a form hidden at the bottom of a backpack. Clear one child's cereal bowl. Tell the other to eat that PowerBar now. Marshal children upstairs. Oversee clothing and shoe selection. Command them to brush teeth. Dress for a long run. Negotiate with children who have changed clothing and shoe selection. Pack bottles, Fuel Belt, heart-rate monitor. Remember running shoes. Hurdle the dog, who senses departure is nigh and has begun turning in frantic circles. Veto third shoe selection—it's gym day!—and urge children to come downstairs. Harness the dog. Don backpacks. Spit-clean PowerBar off older child's face. Head out the door.

Makes glasses-helmet-bike-go seem like a piece of cake.

August 29, 2008 04:57 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

In Praise of Robyn

My client Robyn is a big inspiration to me. She's a model athlete, completing every workout as written, logging diligently, and reporting her results promptly. She also takes note of the insights that come through her training, both in her training log and, quite eloquently, on her blog.

Robyn has found a way for her training to serve her community by using her blog, Tri to End Homelessness, to raise money for Genesis Home, a shelter for women and children in Durham, NC. Last year, she and her sister Rachel fundraised their way to the Pinehurst Olympic-distance triathlon. This year, Robyn aims to raise $7,300 as she trains for her first half-iron-distance race, now just ten weeks away.

In honor of her ten weeks to go, could you share $10 with Genesis Home? If you live in the Triangle area, you're directly helping your neighbors—thinking globally, acting locally. If you're further away, you're not only helping solve the problem of homelessness, one family at a time, you're also thanking Robyn for her great writing and diligent training—it's an example to all of us. As we get pumped up by the rhetoric at the conventions, this is a good, small, tangible way to put your money to use.

Donate now. Add Tri to End Homelessness in the subject line. And thanks a lot.

August 28, 2008 06:16 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Do This Now

I've begun teaching short yoga sessions to the UNC football team. It's a fascinating experience and a refreshing difference from working with my usual, familiar endurance athletes. The players aren't shy about reacting to the poses—they groan as they ease into pigeon, they crack up as they roll to balance on their sitting bones or fall out of crow. Stoic distance runners aren't nearly so eager to admit to discomfort or difficulty.

Yesterday, as some of the players were cutting up, one of their coaches warned, "This doesn't require much talking. You can do this now or you can be out running." It was a threat, of course (though to me it sounded like a toss-up: yoga or running?), and it worked. I love how the coach's command epitomized yoga's exhortation to be here now. Do this now.

August 25, 2008 01:54 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

There Is Enough

Yoga teaches us that there is enough—enough strength to hold a pose, enough room to breathe in a twist, enough time to relax into the present. Following the principle of nongrasping (aparigraha), we are assured that there is enough. Learning to accept this avoids a lot of unnecessary clutching, making us more efficient (and that's the goal in endurance sports).

I woke up in Tahoe City last week and thought spontaneously, aparigraha, that's my intention today. Very quickly, I had to put that idea into action as I ran at altitude. My lungs weren't sure, but I knew there was enough oxygen in the air if I could relax and not grasp for a quick pace.

This morning I had a fabulous run up to the UNC track, where I ran with a coaching client as she did a thirty-minute time trial. I took her heart rate monitor from her and held it as she ran, looking at the numbers and assuring her that she could hold her pace and effort. There is enough. Great job, Claire.

August 22, 2008 09:27 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Kripalu, February 2009

Registration is now available for my weekend workshop at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, February 6–8, 2009. The off-season is the perfect time of year to learn how to incorporate yoga in your training. I hope you'll join me! Kripalu is the world's flagship yoga center, and I'm very excited to be one of the faculty members. One of my running buddies just returned from a weekend there, and she reports the food and running were both wonderful!

If you don't want to wait until February, you might want to snag one of the few remaining spaces at the yoga and running retreat I'm leading at ZAP Fitness, outside of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, September 26–28. We'll do yoga, run long in Moses Cone park (or hike, if you prefer), and enjoy the glorious North Carolina mountains. Room, board, yoga—the whole weekend is only $300. Drop me a line to hear more.

August 6, 2008 03:29 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Vunny Fivi

Two of now-five-year-old Vivi's great spoonerisms from the past two days.

"Care home" for "hair comb."
"Faint my pace" for "paint my face."

There's got to be some training nugget in no. 2. When is it appropriate to faint your pace? To ask someone else to faint it for you?

August 5, 2008 04:50 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

Two-Wheel Power

Wes and I were cycling on Highway 42 in very rural North Carolina this morning when a pack of motorcycles passed us. The lead rider gave a polite "toot-toot" honk as they approached. (You learn to distinguish the tone of honking pretty quickly on a bike.)

We noticed that as the dozen or so motorcycles passed us, the riders were raising two fingers way up high. What was that about? Peace? Victory? Roman numeral V? We concluded it was friendly and directed at us, and we eventually decided it was an evocation of the number 2 from one set of two-wheeled vehicles to another.

Of course, poking around online, I realized that the gestures probably indicated to the bikers that they should be riding single file to get around our much slower moving bikes. Once again, something that seemed to be about me, or us, actually had nothing to do with us at all. Nobody is really thinking about anybody but themselves for very long. But it was cool feeling like one of the club while it lasted.

August 2, 2008 03:37 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Search Inside The Athlete's Guide

The Search Inside feature for my book is now online at Amazon.com. You can (virtually) page through it there. If you weren't sure whether you wanted to buy it, just have a look and now you'll know you should! The design won an award, and rightfully so; it's really beautiful.

And, of course, if you buy the book from Amazon, you're then entitled to write a glowing review of it on Amazon.

July 27, 2008 05:56 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Remember to Breathe

In class, I'm constantly exhorting my students to breathe. Sometimes I feel like it's simply filler, something I say to fill the space as students linger in a pose. Sometimes it feels like a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, with my reminder to breathe hitting the mark about half the time. Still, it's a worthwhile mantra for a teacher. The tricker a pose, especially in balance work, the more likely we are to hold our breath. Without breathing, we won't be able to stay long in any pose!

The same thing goes for training and racing, and, as most principles do, it extends more broadly to life. Create your own "remember to breathe" mantra. At any given moment, are you taking the fullest, deepest breaths available? How about right now?

July 25, 2008 08:34 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Carpe Diem

I am lazy. My running partners laugh when I say that, but my husband wouldn't. I like to get by with the minimum effort, to avoid big work. So when I woke up yesterday, I thought I'd defer doing the 1000-yard swim test I'd planned.

But there I was at the pool later that morning, telling myself, "I'll just warm up and see how I feel." My longtime client Julee was in the lane with me. I thought, "Carpe diem, Rountree. Don't wuss out in front of Jules," and launched into my set.

40. 39. 38. I swam HARD, taking a new approach, being in the moment of each lap without thinking ahead to the next one. 27. 26. 25. Form. Form. Form. Are my goggles leaking? No. Can I keep this up? I hope so. 14. 13. 12. Here's the work. Form. Form. Form. 9 more. 8 more. 4 more. 2 more. !!!

Julee thought I'd cramped because I draped myself over the pool's edge. Nope, just gave an honest, in-the-moment hardest sustainable effort, lap by lap. It turned out to be more than 30 seconds faster than my last test. What changed? Some new stroke technique? No. Focus.

Why am I surprised? My yoga practice shows me that being in this moment, and this one, and this one—this lap, and this one, and this one—is the richest approach. I fought my inherent laziness, my conservative approach to expending my energy, and for 15 minutes and 11 seconds, I was present.

July 15, 2008 08:21 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Take the Runner's World Marathon Survey

Here's my first official action as a member of the Runner's World advisory board: encouraging you marathoners to take the marathon survey on the front page of the Runner's World site. While you're at it, check out the great forums, including many threads on yoga (where one of my biggest fans has promoted my book; I'm a fan of hers, too). My first yoga column for the magazine will run in the September issue.

July 11, 2008 11:45 AM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

NC Fauna

Creatures spotted in the course of a half-hour bike ride with a client who owns a horse farm in Chatham County, NC:

many flies
many horses
many cows
many goats
four mules, including a baby
one turtle, in the road
two blue-eyed country dogs, also in the road
a six-point buck, who crossed the road in front of us, followed by his mate
zero cyclists
zero motorists

July 7, 2008 01:03 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

How to Get Attention at Hilton Head

How to get attention at Hilton Head Island on a crowded Fourth-of-July-week at the beach:

Don a hot-pink swim cap and reflective goggles. Have your husband do the same.
Swim 50 meters out from shore.
Continue swimming parallel to shore for a mile.

June 30, 2008 01:35 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Thoughts on the Solstice Mala

While I hadn't previously participated in a yoga mala—a practice of 108 sun salutations, in this case to celebrate the solstice—I found it was a very familiar endurance experience. I felt great once we got up to speed, rhythmically repeating the pattern of asana (inhale, up; exhale, down . . . ); I rationed my energy, particularly in the third set; I repeatedly returned to form and breath; I kept up my electrolytes; I joyfully opened the throttle in the fourth and final set, abandoning the modifications I'd implemented in the first three rounds of 27, moving deeply into the poses, closing my eyes to see how it felt on the inside. (OK, I don't do that last bit in a race!) I happily sunk into savasana at the end, briefly noticing that it felt like lying on the grass in the sunshine after a well-run race.

The one thing that felt less familiar was my mood at the beginning of the practice: open, receptive, eager to begin. Is the trick to bring that calm self-confidence to the starting line? Maybe. I had glimpses of it walking to my corral in Boston and wet-suiting up in Vancouver. But at both events, I was slightly uncertain about the new experience. Maybe it's good to bring that edge to the self-confidence. A little apprehension is a good thing for both psychological and physiological arousal, and therefore for peak performance. Why begin if the outcome is a given? What is to be discovered in perfect execution? Doesn't the growth come from the messiness, pushing a little too hard, recovering from mistakes and continuing forward?

June 23, 2008 12:48 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Yoga Mala

On Saturday, to honor the summer solstice, I'll follow along as my colleague Allison Dennis leads a yoga mala, or series of 108 sun salutations. It's a yoga endurance event! Broken into four sets of 27 salutations, the practice takes between two and two and a half hours. I'm showing up with PowerBar products to share, and I'll post an "event report" afterward.

June 18, 2008 09:49 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Vancouver Race Report

I've posted a race report, with pictures, detailing my experience at Worlds in Vancouver. You can find it here. While I was at it, I also knocked out a belated Boston report.

Since last Saturday's race, I've enjoyed a rest week. No workouts at all, very minimal yoga. It's been wonderful—I've eaten a ton and gotten a lot of work done, even while sleeping until 8:30 a.m. (hooray for West Coast time!). Rest is, in the words of a sports-med doctor friend, a four-letter word for endurance athletes, but it's key. I feel eager to get back to some base training and to focus more on resistance work, about which more to come in this space over the summer.

June 15, 2008 08:49 AM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Jack Swingle Benefit Run

I love working out with a purpose, whether it's something big like 24 Hours of Booty or the Avon Cancer Walk, or something homegrown like Tri to End Homelessness. In the homegrown vein, you can consider participating in or supporting the Run for Jack, conceived by a soldier friend of mine.

Such events contextualize our training, giving us an opportunity to appreciate our health, our support network, our planet. They give greater meaning to endurance sports, which often can feel quite selfish.

Speaking of which, I'll get a Vancouver race report up soon. We have a lot of great images depicting the crazy chop in the bay, the turns on the bike, the fun of the run.

June 12, 2008 03:34 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Lily's First Triathlon

Lily did wonderfully at the Swim for Smiles triathlon this morning. I tried very hard not to be a stage mother and to instead let her do her own thing. (The Web Gallery photos, taken by Wes, show her intuitively smooth rolling dismount!) My advice, as imparted in line for the start: If you feel like you're going to cry or throw up, slow down. She kept up a steady pace with no stopping, and at the end had a killer kick to the finish, depicted above. She's already talking about doing the race again next year.

Afterward, she observed, "It was really fun and really tiring. But that's triathlon, and you can't change it!"

June 1, 2008 12:09 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

Meditation Plan

I've started writing meditation into my athletes' training plans. The instructions are very simple: find a comfortable seat, be still, and notice what comes up. We start with short periods, five minutes or so, then build to 15 or 20 on a regular basis, three or more times a week. This is helpful not only for endurance, but also for equanimity. In fact, there's a story in the New York Times today about mindfulness meditation as a therapeutic tool.

Where to start on your own? Why not take a stock running plan, such as Hal Higdon's great ones, and swap out minutes sitting for mileage run? If that's not long enough, double the miles to get a prescription of minutes. Don't be surprised to find yourself extremely uncomfortable and scattered. That's the point. Just sit for the alloted time and watch what happens.

May 27, 2008 08:07 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Swim for Smiles

There are a few spots left in the Swim for Smiles kids' triathlon, held in Chapel Hill on June 1. The distances are quite kind, and parents are encouraged to bike and run alongside their children 10 and under.

Lily is signed up and has been training hard—this weekend, we may get her a new bike with gears and hand brakes. I asked her if she would like to take the triathlon class my friend Monette is teaching. "No," she said. "You're my coach."

May 21, 2008 02:08 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

Go, Tar Heels

I usually enjoy the triathlon references in Frazz, but this strip was extra awesome.

May 19, 2008 09:54 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Local Authors Showcase

As part of the local authors showcase at the Southpoint Barnes and Noble in Durham, NC, tomorrow (Thursday, May 15), I'll be talking about my book and the intersections between yoga and endurance sports. If I were a novelist, I'd read from the book, but unless I were to read from the preface, I don't see a pithy section to choose. Perhaps the one on the eight limbs . . . anyone have suggestions?

I would be delighted to see some friendly faces there. The program begins at 7, and it should involve a few minutes of each of the authors talking, followed by time for signing and Q&A with individual authors.

May 14, 2008 05:11 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Remember to Periodize Your Yoga

I enjoyed a full-day immersion with Baron Baptiste on Saturday. (Thanks to Lori Burgwyn of Franklin Street Yoga, a Baptiste affiliate studio, for the picture of Baron signing his book for me.) He's a great presenter and a fabulous teacher, and he has given me both a great interview and a nice blurb for my book.

The challenging yoga reminded me of the importance of periodizing yoga to suit the training cycle. It can be so tempting to push up into, say, the tenth backbend in a row (yep, many did), but if you have a peak competition coming up or are feeling fatigue from your workouts, it's unwise. Three weeks out from running Boston and three weeks ahead of short-course triathlon worlds, I took it medium easy, especially toward the end of the day. Three days later, I still have muscular soreness, which feels different without the concomitant joint and connective-tissue aches I get after a long race.

Remember, be smart. Keep your yoga and your training in inverse proportion. When you're training hard, the yoga should be easy and support your recovery. Keep the kickin' power vinyasa in the off-season, or slot it as its own hard workout with appropriate recovery afterward. (I was eating PowerBars all day, and wishing I'd brought sport drink, too!)

May 13, 2008 08:26 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

You Get What You Get

One of my athletes raced the St. Croix 70.3 yesterday. Once I found where to track him online, I was very excited to see he was leading his age group both out of the water and off the bike. Out I went with Lily for her first brick (she swam a relaxed-looking 100 in under 3:00, and while she's still cautious and wobbly on the bike, her run cadence is a thing of beauty). When we got back, I quickly checked the race results.

He lost the lead, and the age group win, by 11 seconds.

I ran the gamut of emotions: shock, denial, bargaining (maybe the other guy had a penalty still to be added in), wishful thinking (maybe there'd be two Kona slots for the age group, or a concession based on how close it was), and nerves about how he'd handle it.

But when we spoke a few hours after the race, my apprehension gave way to delight. He sounded thrilled with the finish, and while our cell-phone connection was breaking up, the tone of his voice said it all. It was a RACE, after five hours, when he was caught in the last mile as they headed into town, shoulder to shoulder. He ran as hard as he could—a full-out sprint after almost 13 miles of hilly running—but the other guy, a former collegiate runner and current cross-country and track coach, was simply faster. The competition excited him, and he expressed no regrets at all.

So much for my worries, my guessing how it would feel. He coached me on how to enjoy the moment and take what you get. Thanks, Travis.

May 5, 2008 12:38 PM | Training and Racing, Family | Permalink

Runner's World Story

It's my month of national exposure. The June issue of Runner's World has some quotes from me on page 50. I am pleased to report that I wasn't just planning to run the Boston Marathon, I did it.

May 4, 2008 09:43 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Yoga Journal Story

If you look in the June 2008 issue of Yoga Journal, on pages 90 and 91 you'll see the result of an interview I gave on yoga for runners. The model (not me) beautifully demonstrates three poses of use to runners (my students this week were treated to ardha chandrasana with eight different approaches and flavors). My only quibble with the piece is that the hip rotators and IT band work to hold us in line so that we can move forward—they aren't the mover there. But hey, they spelled my name right, and my sound bites came through nicely.

May 1, 2008 04:21 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Short Report on Boston

Long, long story short: it was a good day for me at the Boston Marathon. I came in under my goal of 3:45, finishing in 3:43:30. (I decided trying to PR would be too tough, and I'm glad, because this was certainly as hard as I could have run today.) Thus I've requalified to run it in 2009, though I thought through most of the race, "This is it, do it now." Be in the present!

I was so focused, I ran right past my mother and never registered her yelling for me. She got a few shots of me as I passed; here's one where I may be overrotating!

April 21, 2008 06:31 PM | Training and Racing, Family, Media | Permalink

Women's Olympic Trials

A window box facing the Public Gardens

In the first lap, Midori Sperandeo, foreground right, stripped her shirt and dropped it . . .

. . . I managed to beat the woman behind me to claim it!

Veena Reddy streaking to the finish

Joan Benoit Samuelson, in her last competitive marathon

I'm in Boston, where the women's Olympic marathon trials were held this morning. What a sight! Picture-perfect weather (see above), exciting racing, and a great diversion from my nerves about my own race. Whatever happens tomorrow, this has been a great trip, full of good quality time with my mother, fabulous meals, and plenty of lounging on a ritzy hotel bed watching the Red Sox play.

These are some of the hundreds of good shots Mom took. (She's not a run-of-the-mill amateur, is she?)

April 20, 2008 05:53 PM | Training and Racing, Media | Permalink

Another Conversation with Gina Kolata

Gina Kolata has another interesting topic in her Personal Best column this week: heart rate monitoring. I've used a monitor for years but am becoming less and less reliant on it, although my love of equipment hasn't waned. I've gotten calibrated, so that I can guess my HR fairly reliably without looking. More recently, I've developed a pretty decent sense of pacing, so I can freak out my friends with my accurate predictions of our mile splits.

Kolata's warning not to wear the monitor in a race itself is a viable one. Dependence on the numbers can stand between you and the breakthrough the data would say you aren't capable of. In graduate school, I was taught that comments written on a student's final paper or exam are useless. Commenting should happen instead in conferences scheduled during the draft process. Getting HR data from a peak race is similar: it might feel useful, but that chapter is closed once the performance is turned in.

April 11, 2008 05:30 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Yoga for the Base Period

If you're in the Triangle or Triad of North Carolina, come on out to Fitness Playground in Mebane this Saturday morning. From 10 until noon, I'll be giving a workshop on yoga to complement the base period of training. We'll focus on strength-building poses, generating some heat. (If you're already deep into a build for a spring race, no worries; I'll show modifications!)

The workshop is $35 and there's still a little space. Call Fitness Playground at 919-360-1323 to sign up.

April 9, 2008 07:51 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

DVD Trailer

Here is the trailer for the new DVD, which has already been well received by my students. (They knew just what to expect.) Please have a look! If you'd like to buy the DVD, go to Endurance Films and use the code SAGE108 for a 10 percent discount. Then send me your feedback!

March 31, 2008 04:57 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Taking the Training Wheels Off

Sunday, we took off the training wheels on Lily's bike. She and I began the lesson with learning how to fall (tuck arms to chest and roll), first on the grass with no bike, then on the grass with the bike. Next we went up and down the bike path until she had mastered the art of stopping, steering, and starting, in that order. (Think what foot you want to put down before you stop, I advised her, admitting that sometimes I forget to do that and wind up tipping over, feet still clipped in!)

The apprehension she exhibited is exactly the same as what I see when I teach handstands or lead hard intervals on the bike, or when I prescribe a 30-minute run test to an athlete. We want change, but in order to achieve it, we've got to push beyond our comfort level. If only every potential failure could be rehearsed as easily as rolling in the grass!

The best moment of the experience for me was when Lily said, "I just think to myself, Pedal. Pedal. Pedal." She's already got the mantra thing down.

March 18, 2008 04:43 PM | Training and Racing, Family, Yoga | Permalink

More Than Stretching

I've been following the debate on stretching that's detailed in Gina Kolata's latest piece for the New York Times. The science on this is contradictory and the studies are few and far between; what has been done has little real-world applicability. It's a question that deserves a lot more attention: does stretching aid or detract from athletic performance?

My quibble with the article is that the sources quoted—and the article itself, implicitly—all equate yoga and stretching. But yoga is much, much more than just stretching, even in its most physically-oriented Western manifestations. If stretching is done without attention to the breath, to taking each pose to a personally appropriate level (and yes, going too far certainly can lead to hypermobility or injury), to keeping the attention focused in the present moment—that's not yoga, it's just stretching, and it may be of little value. But a real yoga practice can happen in the absence of any physical stretching. It can happen during your run, your ride, your swim. Kolata's friend doesn't need to see the two practices of yoga and training as mutually exclusive!

Now I'm fired up, and I wish I could comment on the article at the Times Web site, but comments are closed. Guess I'd better go do some yoga (no stretching required).

March 14, 2008 03:46 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Svadhyaya

Last week, my classes focused on svadhyaya, or self-study. Using a familiar template—sun salutations—I encouraged my students to freestyle, choosing poses or variations as they found appropriate. I was delighted to see some beautiful, spontaneous yoga in response to this prompt.

Often we're too intimidated to create our own practices, relying on our teachers, DVDs, or books to tell us exactly what to do. After we come to understand the basic systems, we should learn from self-study, as Erich Schiffmann recommends in his beautiful book on yoga, to pause, listen inwardly for guidance, then move based on that internal cue.

The same self-knowledge is important in training and racing. Don't rely on your coach to dictate exactly what each workout must be. If you realize you need an easy day, you should take it. If you see a chance to make a move in a race, it may be smart to go for it.

It's planned obsolescence on my part, as a yoga teacher and endurance sports coach, but it ultimately serves you best to follow your own needs. Sure, rely on authorities to learn the general structure, but trust yourself to make decisions, too.

March 12, 2008 09:08 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Getting Treed

My face usually carries signs of the day's exercise for a few hours—even at 6:00 last night, I could see the goggle marks from my 10:00 swim. (I do wear the dorkiest goggles known to man, but they work wonderfully, and it's worse when I wear traditionally shaped goggles—they give me raccoon eyes for days.) My sunglasses will leave a mark on the bridge of my nose for a good hour or two, and when I wear them for a long time, I get sore above my ears for a few days.

Today's mark is different. It comes from a forehead-on collision with a tree trunk. In fact, I ran my head into a tree twice on this run. The first encounter was a graze of the crown of my head in which the limb wrestled my hat off. The second was a sudden SMACK to my forehead that snapped my teeth together and stopped me dead in my tracks. My running partner had just begun to yell—"Hat!"—but I was too close behind. Why "Hat!"? I had the brim of my hat pulled way down because it's pouring rain, and my eyes on the trail, which was swampy (especially by the end of our megarun, 2:50). There was a biggish sapling bent across the trail, right at my eye height. I don't seem to have a concussion, just this silly bump, which, funny enough, looks a lot like my usual sunglass mark.

March 7, 2008 01:33 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Bikes for the World

If you're in the Triangle area of North Carolina and have an old bike of any caliber, please consider donating it to Bikes for the World. The dropoff is on Saturday, March 29, in the Research Triangle Park. Click on the picture above to read the flyer—or click here for a PDF you can share!

March 6, 2008 05:38 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

DVD Shipping

My full-length DVD is now shipping! It's available through Endurance Films. (While you're there, check out their many other fine products, especially the DVD on triathlon transitions. It will shave many seconds off your next race.)

As in the book, you'll see real athletes demonstrating honest, attainable poses. All of us models are triathletes—all of us are USA Triathlon certified coaches, in fact. My student Laurence, a tennis pro and adventure racer, shows the gentler versions of the poses; my student Dan, a five-time Ironman finisher, moves into deeper versions. I'm in there, too, in the middle. Thus your models include a very athletic young woman in her twenties, a thirtysomething yoga teacher/runner, and an experienced (and quite flexible) long-course triathlete in his forties. You'll find someone to follow along with in each segment, so your experience is personally appropriate.

Most exciting to me is the customizable menu on the DVD. You can choose from the twenty sequences on the disk to personalize your practice, arranging segments in any order you like. This is key for a home practice! As athletes, we have plenty on our plates already. The menu allows you to target exactly what you need to work on from day to day.

If you have more time, you can choose from three preset routines appropriate for your base period, build period, and peak period, or you can play the entire DVD for a two-hour at-home yoga retreat!

I'm eager to hear your feedback on the product, which should be a fabulous complement to the book in encouraging you to incorporate yoga in your training plan.

March 5, 2008 03:11 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

2008 Gears and Cheers

I didn't make it to Gears and Cheers last year (although I do my best to reenact the combination every weekend) but I hope to enjoy the ride this year. For more on the 25- and 40-mile ride options (or nonriding option!), look here on ActiveZach.

February 25, 2008 04:32 PM | Training and Racing, Food | Permalink

Local News

There's a nice story in today's Chapel Hill News about what I do. One thing it underscores is the caliber of the running talent training here in Chapel Hill. We have Olympic hopefuls, we have a healthy age-group scene, a fabulous trail running group, and we have a great support structure for beginning athletes, between the No Boundaries program offered through Fleet Feet and the multisport clubs at the UNC Wellness Center (hollah!) and, to our north, Triangle Sportsplex.

February 13, 2008 08:14 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

RIP, Meadowmont Classic Criterium

The price of progress: the wonderful criterium the Tricyclists have staged in my neighborhood has been derailed (cycling pun!) by the addition of massive speed tables to the course. Sure, my kids will be safer as they walk to school, but we'll really miss the wonderful races. The second of the course's two brutal hills begins in front of our house, and we loved the annual ritual of holding a brunch on our porch as we enjoyed the spectacle. It was the endurance athlete's equivalent of going to a steeplechase horse race, with our friends sitting on the sidelines sipping a beverage and snacking on picnic foods.

In its place, the Tricyclists are staging a time trial at a winery in nearby Mebane. Sounds like a decent replacement, and it's certainly a more doable event. One year I considered doing the race as wingwoman for my friend Susie. Wes and I did six loops of the course, and I was literally in tears by the end. Too hard! I was secretly relieved when Susie endo-ed and broke a collarbone.

February 1, 2008 05:21 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Housekeeping

Some housekeeping items:

I'm adding a class at the Carrboro Yoga Company on Wednesdays from 11:30 to 12:30, beginning on February 6. I'll be coming straight from my run; feel free to show up in a similar state of fatigue and (mild) stinkiness. We'll go through a three-part structure: (1) strength and balance poses to complement training; (2) core strength; (3) flexibility, especially in the hips and hamstrings. Thus it's similar to my usual classes, but with an emphasis on directly complementing your training. Of course, it could also work as a standalone strength/core workout. Bonus: you'll be close to Weaver Street Market for lunch!
My workshop at YogaWorks Downtown in New York next Saturday, February 9, is filling up. The book event scheduled for that weekend has been postponed, so this is the marquee event for my New York trip. I'd love to see you there.
I've begun taking names for a newsletter with details like those here, as well as descriptions of a workout and a pose that have been working for me lately. If you'd like to sign up, use the form at right or click here. Trust that I'll hold your personal information in strictest confidence.
In the next few days, I'll be putting in an order for a Sage Endurance team kit (tri tops, shorts, and sundry other items). If you're interested in a piece or in getting your logo on (for a small donation to Tri to End Homelessness), please get in touch.

January 30, 2008 10:10 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Asteya

Third of the yamas is asteya, nonstealing. While its applicability to life is obvious, it's less easy to see where we are tempted to steal on the mat. We worked on poses in class this week, though, with an intention of not trying to steal our way into a position that doesn't work for us. This aligns with the fifth yama, aparigraha, nongrasping.

We also worked in the lateral plane, though the chandra namaskar, or moon salutation, series that I love to teach to endurance athletes. Moving side to side on the mat, we're free of that forward plane of motion in which most of our training occurs.

I brought up the sequencing with Wes by asking him which poses he'd teach in a class on asteya. His answers were great—You can't steal in balance poses, but you look sneaky and furtive in twist poses—and accompanied by physical examples.

January 24, 2008 03:16 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Workshop at Fitness Playground

If you're in the Triad or Triangle of North Carolina, please join me for a two-hour workshop on yoga for athletes at the Fitness Playground in Mebane, Saturday, February 2, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (Note the new time, moved from afternoon to midmorning.) Details at the Fitness Playground site, and soon at my Web site (I'm revising it this week, to incorporate my gorgeous new logo).

This will be a slightly condensed version of the workshop I'm giving at YogaWorks Downtown in New York City the next weekend (join me there!).

January 21, 2008 11:19 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Satya

Have you ever had a massage that began with the therapist requesting feedback on pressure, but quickly devolved into you barely hanging on while saying nothing about the intensity? You probably just moved the tension around your body—from, say, your quads to your jaw—and worked against your intention in getting a massage.

Next time, commit to being honest. Your massage will benefit, as will your yoga practice and your training. This week's focus in my yoga classes has been satya, honesty, truthfulness. We enjoyed poses that revealed the truth of what our bodies could do: standing balance poses, bow, and reclining hamstring stretches.

As athletes, we are conditioned to hang on in the face of intensity. That's how we improve, by pushing our boundaries to expand them. In yoga (and in massage), we must do the opposite. In turn, we learn more about the truth of where our limits are and when we can push them on the course and in life.

January 17, 2008 07:24 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Scrape Your Shoes

From this interesting article on wave physics and surfing, a memorable quote from Jeff Clark:

At the end of the season, I don't want to look down and see some "should" stuck on my boot.

January 12, 2008 03:13 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Ahimsa

In January and February, I teach the yamas and niyamas—the first two limbs of yoga—in my yoga class. Using a new idea each week is a great pedagogical tool, and it meshes with January's sense of newness and resolution.

The very first limb of yoga is yama, or restraints, and the very first yama is ahimsa, nonharming, nonviolence. As one of my teachers describes it, "First, do no harm." This has obvious application in the way we deal with others, but how does it play out with ourselves?

First, in class, we must avoid hurting ourselves physically. That's easier said than done for athletes, who are often experts at pushing through pain. On the mat, it's unsafe and unwise. Stop at the first twinge; shy back from any sign that you're going too far. Your breath is a preliminary indicator that you're doing too much: if it grows choppy, or you hear yourself gasp, be alert to where you are and see if you can pull back.

We also have to avoid harming ourselves with our thoughts. Self-critical judgment is normal, but much of the work of yoga is detaching from that crabby voice. Instead of succumbing to it, simply notice it and let it go. Nonviolence begins at home.

January 11, 2008 01:54 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Squeezing It In/Squeezing into It

Logistics are much of the battle in multisport training. We have to figure out how to fit in workouts in at least three disciplines (let's include yoga as one of those); we have to have all our gear and fuel in place for each workout; we have to manage the placement of equipment before, during, and after each race. (This is part of why I think parents do so well at multisport: management is half the battle, and we're used to lugging around bags full of juice and towels.)

My latest logistical fight is with my clothes. I generate a huge amount of laundry, between workout clothes, yoga clothes, and street clothes, all of which I wear in the course of any given day. We're still in a big drought here in North Carolina, so I try to rewear my clothes as much as propriety allows. Despite what I told my friends in Canada about my weightlifting or lack thereof, I have just added two sets of shoulder exercises on the weight-room floor to help stabilize my shoulder as I return to the pool. Since weightlifting should come after swimming, not before, that means I have to wrestle my way back into a top that's already sweaty from my cycling workout. A damp body and a damp shirt do not mix well, and I keep finding myself with a roll of material under my armpits, refusing to budge up or down. It has led me to some creative stretching and arm positions, so I guess that's a plus.

January 4, 2008 08:21 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Where to Get Your Book, Redux

I'll stop the overt self-promotion soon—really I will—but I see that my book is now shipping from Amazon. (Barnes and Noble, too.) That means that reviews could be posted . . .

December 27, 2007 11:16 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Sweet Discomfort

Some phrases have been rattling around in my head. One comes from a yoga teacher of mine who uses the best mundane analogies (she once nicely compared the process of warming up to cooking a noodle—consider how brittle a strand of spaghetti is out of the box). She said, "Sometimes a yoga practice is like washing your windshield: you don't notice how dirty it is until you clean it off." The analogy extends to meditation. A good run can clear up the windshield nicely, too; mine did today.

Another is a term a massage therapist laid on me today: "sweet discomfort." It's a great description of what we less concretely term "the edge." I'm sure John Mellencamp agrees.

December 21, 2007 12:25 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

It's Here

December 19, 2007 09:52 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Vote for Robyn

My client Robyn (of Tri to End Homelessness) is a finalist in the Toyota Engines of Change contest, and she needs your vote!

Click here to read about Robyn's active-ism, and to vote for her once per day. She could win a trip to Malibu, but more importantly, she can gain publicity for her wonderful cause: improving the lives of our homeless neighbors.

December 18, 2007 02:50 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Kiawah Report

I couldn't have asked for a better race in Kiawah. Everything went as it should, and I hit not only my stated goal of qualifying for Boston, but also my radical goal of beating the qualifying time for women 34 and under (of which I am no longer one, since August). I squeaked in with a chip time of 3:39:44. (According to the logic of our friend Chad, I'd need to drink 16 beers to celebrate. When he called after my first marathon, he suggested I have 19 beers, one for each second I finished under 4:00.)

It was an uneventful race. I just kept running 8:22s, eating and drinking on schedule, taking my Endurolytes, coming back to form and breath. I had a full complement of strategies, songs, and mantras ready to deploy, but I wound up not using any of them. I was almost looking forward to the precarious mental territory toward the end of the race, so I could see how well my mental training worked. But I never needed to access those Break-Glass-in-Case-of-Emergency tactics.

At first that was a disappointment. All that preparation, and I never got to see how it worked! After a few days' reflection, I see that was the point. That was "doing the yoga," as we teachers would say: staying in the present moment, noticing when attention or form wandered, and bringing awareness back to the moment.

After enjoying a lovely postrace meal (it is a very, very well directed race), I put on a long-sleeved shirt and stood waist-deep in the 60-degree Atlantic Ocean. Nature's ice bath.

December 11, 2007 05:08 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Yes.

The new backdrop for my phone, so whenever I compulsively check e-mail, I get my marathon mantra.

Bonus points to whomever can contextualize this picture!

November 28, 2007 04:53 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Ice Bath Extraordinaire

I wasn't so sure when I climbed into a cold bath and emptied the contents of my ice bin over my legs at 1 p.m. on a Monday. But the difference is appreciable after finishing my last long run of the season (save the race). Wearing my brother's old prep-school football hooded sweatshirt and slurping a spicy bean soup helped. Turns out my running buddies do know what they are talking about.

November 19, 2007 02:06 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Workshop at YogaWorks, NYC

On the same weekend as my book event at Cadence in New York, I'll be giving a 2.5-hour workshop at the YogaWorks studio downtown. Both events are described on my classes page. Please tell your New York–area friends, or plan to come yourself.

I'm happy to book more events, whether related to the book or not, so please be in touch.

November 14, 2007 03:21 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Book event at Cadence Cycling, NYC

It's a ways off, but in February I'll be in New York for some book-related events.

The first is at Cadence Cycling, a gorgeous facility at the corner of Hudson and Vestry in Tribeca. I'll be there at 6:30 on Friday, February 8, to give a brief lecture, lead a little yoga, sell and sign some books, and answer your questions on yoga and your sports training.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's planning to come, either via e-mail or in the Comments section. The more, the merrier, and the less spending I'll do—they have a lovely store with high-end bike equipment and clothes. Dangerous.

November 6, 2007 05:37 PM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

On your LEFT!

Hallelujah, coverage of one of my pet peeves—headphones during a race. I guess I'm an old-school purist on this matter. Sure, they can be nice in training, but they're usually unsafe even then.

November 1, 2007 01:05 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Score One for Stretching

There's a lot of conflicting information about the benefits of stretching (and therefore, in part, yoga). Here's an article describing a study that showed big gains in both flexibility and strength after sedentary subjects began a stretching regimen.

Go, yoga!

November 1, 2007 08:39 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Soapy Shorts

We finally got some rain, three days straight. On the third day, I ran 18 miles with some friends. Two of them—both of whom own front-load washing machines—had streaks of soap bubbles running down their legs. Apparently the material used in split shorts holds on to detergent.

October 29, 2007 01:04 PM | Training and Racing | Permalink

Charlotte Yoga Clinic

I'm delighted that a lululemon athletica store is opening in Charlotte. The models and I wore lululemon clothes for the photos in my book—they are high quality clothes suitable for yoga and workouts, in fabulous colors and flattering fits.

I'll be giving a clinic at the Charlotte lululemon storeroom on Saturday, November 10. (It's in Twin Oaks shopping center in Dilworth, 1419 East Blvd., Unit J.) We'll start at 9 a.m. with a brief yoga warmup, then head out for an easy four-mile run (probably Freedom Park or the Booty Loop, suggestions welcome). At 10, I'll lead a short yoga class appropriate for athletes, then we'll have a discussion of yoga's benefits for athletes. It's all free, and the store will provide mats. Please come for part or all of the clinic!

October 13, 2007 08:06 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga | Permalink

Book Promotion

I've just added a page to my site with details on my book and where to order it (including overseas). The marketing engine is starting up; the book is receiving endorsements (blurbs—feel free to send me one of your own!) and review copies are being sent out to magazines. When someone asks me if I'll sign a copy for them, I'm almost able to answer with a straight face.

October 13, 2007 08:03 AM | Training and Racing, Yoga, Media | Permalink

Just Say Yes

Yesterday I led a very hard workout with my indoor cycling students, three hard intervals of six, five, and four minutes, pretty much all out. With those long times, the brain really has to get involved in the effort, acknowledging that yes, it is hard, yes, the legs are tired, yes, I want to stop, and yes, I am going to keep moving my legs in circles. It's an approach to and embracing of the intensity of sensation Molly Bloom greets with, "yes I said yes I will Yes."

This is the mental shift that Matt Fitzgerald describes so