Category: Recovery
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Practicing What I Preach
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After running the forty-mile Mount Mitchell Challenge ten days ago, up and down the highest peak in the eastern United States, I’m in recovery mode. And it’s very tough! As author of The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, I know just what I ought to be doing, but I’m finding it very tough to be patient…
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Race Report: Mount Mitchell Challenge 2012
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Later this year, I’ll turn 40. To celebrate, I ran 40 miles Saturday. But not just any 40 miles: 40 miles of rocky, icy trail up and back down Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States at 6,684 feet. It was a long day of exercise, and it was very hard. Here…
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Thoughts on the RW Run Streak
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As the author of a book (The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery) and a column (Serious Recovery) on recovery, I take rest seriously and hold my rest days as sacrosanct. But as a coach, I like to try out various approaches to see how they feel. With an open mind, then, I joined my colleagues and readers…
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Impromptu Post-Long Run Recovery
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Steps to recover from your long run: 1. Cool off your legs. 2. Consume a post-run snack rich in carbohydrates. 3. Get off your feet. For more: The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery
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Sage Advice: Shin Splints
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A reader asked me for advice to share with a yoga student on shin splints. Here, my yoga books are less germane and The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery is more useful. Shin splints usually result from an imbalance between work and rest—too much mileage, too soon, and sometimes on too hard a surface. Things to check…
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Serious Recovery: Fresh or Frazzled?
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My newest installment in the Serious Recovery series at Lava Magazine talks about ways to qualify the state of your recovery. Are you tired all the time? It could be the heat, or it could be your training. Listen to your body, your family, and your friends—they have valuable insight that your ego might not…
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Sage Advice: Bridging the Gap
This question comes from Tracy. I found your training program for the half marathon on the Athleta website and I was interested in trying it because I liked that it combined my two favorite workouts, yoga and running. I have been running for a little over two years now and after having used your program,…
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Sage Advice: R+R
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I have a healthy stack of questions building up in my e-mail inbox, things readers and athletes have asked me. Thinking the answers might apply more generally, I’ll be posting them here in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, please see my Q+A over at Another Mother Runner, Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell’s fantastic site…
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Big Sur Race Report
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I’ve posted a Big Sur race report. My intention when I write such things is to share something of use to those who might run the same event, or approach another from a similar angle. (This race’s angle: watchless running.) Big Sur International Marathon, 2011 with the Runner’s World Challenge Running this gorgeous race, on…
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Teaching Yoga to Athletes
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Jessica, a marathoner, triathlete, and yoga teacher, wrote me from San Diego, asking about how to get started in the field of teaching yoga to athletes. I was heartened to hear that she actively trains and competes. It’s certainly not a prerequisite for teaching a great class for athletes, but it definitely helps to be…
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Recovery Matters
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One of my yoga students asked me an interesting question after class Thursday evening. She’s taken up breakdancing (it’s a natural fit with yoga!) and is finding her forearms aren’t recovering well. “Is it possible,” she asked, “to have shin splints in your arms?” Indeed it is, and as another of my breakdancing yoginis added…
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Unscheduled Rest
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In this piece for Lava Magazine, I write on the benefits of scheduled rest. We need to build downtime into our training and life plans, so that our bodies have time to cope with the stresses we throw at them. Sometimes—as when, say, a winter full of inclement weather keeps icing the roads—we have unscheduled…