Breaking Barriers Blog

Enjoying the wine country after the race.

Have you ever set a goal for yourself that if you met it, then you would strive for bigger goal?  But then, you successfully met that first goal and then thought—oh, what have I done?  I just did that.  I’m happy, but now I’m wigged out. 

Last year, in April 2012, I ran the Boston Marathon, the one in the really high heat.  I qualified by running the Lincoln Marathon (Nebraska) by running a personal record (at the age of 56 by the way) in 3:53:23.  Now, I will tell you that I was considering retiring from running marathons.  Boston was my 15^th marathon and 15 is a good round number. 

So I trained really, really hard.  I was hoping to maybe run another personal record and go out with a bang—especially at Boston.  I ran a personal record at my first ever Boston Marathon in 2009 at the age of 54.  That was a phenomenal experience and I was hoping to repeat that in 2012.  But, it didn’t happen.  Instead, I ran a personal worst at 5:26.47.  Can I really blame the weather for such a huge time difference?  Yep, the most I can say about that performance is that I finished.

Needless to say, as the months rolled by, I stood firm on my decision to retire from running marathons.  I was ready to let the marathon running go—the exhausting training, time commitment, aching body.   Plus, it turned out, not only was I exhausted, but I had developed a severe ham string and glut injury from over training.  I took two months off from running and just did yoga. 

That was an interesting experience which increased my flexibility from non-existent to stiff and made me realize how tough it was to come back from not running for an extended length of time.  Yes, the injury healed but at what price.  It was a good two months before I felt comfortable doing a seven mile run.  Forget trying to run at a decent pace, it just wasn’t happening.

I always found it easier and more exciting to train if I had a goal—a challenging goal.  So I set a goal for myself to train for a half-marathon and, if I beat two hours, I would train for one more marathon—so I could end on a high note.  I decided to train for the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon.  I had planned to go with friends anyway—we love the wine garden after the race, plus it’s a beautiful course.  I originally thought I’d just run it easy, but now I had this goal.

So I trained for the last three months and got my longest run up to 14 miles and weekly mileage up to 40, not bad but not great.  When I stood on that starting line, I didn’t know what to expect.  I remembered the hills… 

Well, the ending was a happy one.  I crossed the finish line in 1:58:21.  But what was so meaningful to me was how much fun I had running that distance and the thrill I had meeting my goal.  Now all of the confidence has come back and I feel a fire inside.  It’s a good feeling.  But isn’t this true of any challenging goal—not just running? 

I signed up for the California International Marathon in Sacramento on December 8, 2013.  Yes, it’s a fast course and many people qualify for Boston on that course.  So, I’m wigged out.  I had made a promise to myself that I would go support the 2014 Boston Marathon, whether I run it or not.  I know it will be hard to qualify for 2014—just meeting the qualifying time won’t cut it.  Talk about a challenging goal…  Will one more marathon turn out to be two more marathons?  Maybe…we’ll see. 

Note:    My book, Breaking Barriers, will be published in 2013.  Email me at dolores@breakingbarriersblog.com if you are interested in being included on the email list.  “No, sheer effort is not the key to getting what we want.  It’s much easier than that.  Yes—easier.”   

Powered by Bookmarkify™

On marathon day, I was out of bed at 4am.  Arne was dead asleep as I readied myself for the big marathon.  The familiar butterflies fluttered endlessly in my stomach but I knew I was ready to run.  I double-checked my belongings; water bottle, glide, throw away warm-up clothes, race number—did I forget anything? 

I had laid the morning plan out carefully with Kimm the day before.  I planned to meet him and his friend, Steve, in the lobby of Kimm’s hotel, The Standard.  Kimm suggested we take a taxi instead of the bus transportation provided by the marathon organizers.  That would allow us another hour of sleep.  He got no argument from me. 

I rushed out of the hotel and took a cab to The Standard.  I shivered, glad to have the extra clothes on over my running shorts.  The temperature was a brisk 39 degrees that November day but expected to warm to the low 50’s.  Kimm was in the lobby when I arrived.  “Hey Dolores!”  He waved beaming.  “Steve is on his way.”

“Hi Kimm.”  We hugged briefly.  “This is exciting!” 

Steve walked up, a tall man with graying hair and sparkling eyes.  “You must be Dolores.  Nice to meet you.”  He took a big drink from his quart sized water bottle. 

We shook hands.  “Hi Steve.”

Kimm waved to us as he walked to the lobby door.  “We need to get going.”    

We climbed into a cab, Kimm, in front with the driver, and Steve and I in the backseat.  Off we went towards the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.  We were going to drive across the bridge to the start of the marathon.  Then we would run back over the bridge towards Brooklyn.  When we got closer to the bridge, it was obvious our plan of taking a taxi was shared by many people.  There were 32,000 runners running the New York City Marathon that day and I think all of them were in line to cross the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that morning.  We inched along. 

I shivered, not because I was cold, but because I knew we were we in danger of not being able to cross the bridge to start the marathon.  If we didn’t get onto the bridge soon, the bridge would be closed and we would miss the start.  I clutched my water bottle, too nervous to drink, but Steve had drunk most of his water already. 

We finally got to the bridge and I let out a big breath.  I must have been holding it.  Now we just needed to be patient, we would get there eventually.  But before I could relax, another immediate problem presented itself.  Steve started complaining about his need to relieve himself.  At first it was jokes, but thirty minutes later, he was dead serious.  “Hey guys, I have got to go!  I’m not kidding!”  But we were stuck in the middle of the bridge going nowhere. 

Kimm wasn’t sympathetic.  “Just hang it out the window Steve.”  He didn’t even try to hide his smirk.

Sitting in back with him, I saw Steve’s grimace.  I remained silent.  I didn’t know what to say.  Steve looked me dead in the eyes and I could feel his pain.  “Dolores, I’m going to pee into my water bottle.” 

Oh wow…poor guy.  I tried hard to keep a straight face as I stifled a nervous laugh.  My first thought?  He was lucky he was a man.  “Tell you what Steve.”  I tried to make my voice as nonchalant as I could.  “I’ll just look out the side window and you can tell me when you’re done.  No big deal.”   I saw the cab driver, who had been silent since we piled into the cab, break into a big smile.  I looked the other way out to the endless traffic jam. 

Now, Steve was a tall guy, big boned.  Okay, I admit, I wanted to look but, it was, well, gross when I heard him start peeing into that bottle.  I think I stared into that sea of traffic for over two minutes—the longest two minutes of my life.  Was that bottle going to be big enough?

Steve let out a huge sigh.   “Oh yes, that’s much better.  You can look now.”  He had put the bottle filled with, well, recycled water, under the seat.  Yep, the quart sized bottle was full.  “Much better.”  Steve relaxed and laid his head on the back of the car seat.  “Wow Dolores, you’re not a woman, you’re a runner!”

I smiled.  “Thanks Steve.”  I took that as a major complement.  I was now one of the guys—like a rite of passage—or should I say pee passage.      

When we finally made it over the bridge, we rushed out of the cab to a flurry of runners everywhere—leaving the bottle of pee for the cab driver to deal with.  I don’t think the cab driver was going to be laughing when his next passenger found that bottle. 

The line-up process for the marathon had already started.  Runners were asked to line-up according to projected finish time—the faster times were starting before the slower times.  Thank goodness I didn’t need to, um pee, there wasn’t time.  We only had 10 minutes to get in line. 

Note:    My book, Breaking Barriers, will be published in 2013.  Email me at dolores@breakingbarriersblog.com if you want to be included on the email list.  “No, sheer effort is not the key to getting what we want.  It’s much easier than that.  Yes—easier.”

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Half way to the finish.

On April 15, the 117^th running of one of the world’s most prestigious marathons will take place—the Boston Marathon.   But I will not be there this year.  Why?  Because when I ran last year, I ran the slowest marathon of my life, coming in at 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 47 seconds.  Needless to say, I didn’t qualify.    

Yes, I know what you’re thinking—wow, that’s really slow.  Last year it was unseasonably warm with temperatures reaching up to 90 degrees on some parts of the course—especially if you started running at 10am like I did.  When I lamented with other Boston marathoners, I realized my time was much slower compared to my last Boston in 2009 (when I came in at 3 hours, 53 minutes, 42 seconds) than the other runners.  They added 30 minutes—maybe 45 minutes to their times.  I added much more than that—like an hour and a half.

So I walked away from my Boston experience as a failure…  Of course, I thought about my perceived “failure” for a long time.  I knew that I over trained because I was injured after the marathon and I was fatigued.  But, enough excuses!  What is vitally important is that my mindset changed over the last year. 

Have you ever set a goal and tried your best, I mean really tried hard, and then didn’t meet your goal or performed worse than you could have imagined?  I’m not just talking about an exercise goal.  Maybe your marriage failed or you lost your job.  Maybe you flunked that test or didn’t get the promotion.  Sure, it feels really bad when it happens.  Sometimes, depending on the disappointment, it takes a long, long time to let go of the anger.  But when you do, that opens the door to realizing the gift in every failure. 

If you think back over your life, isn’t it really the “failures” that make you strong?  If everything was easy, life wouldn’t be any fun.  Take Thomas Edison, for example.  He failed some 1,000 times before he successfully invented the light bulb.  When asked how it felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison responded that he didn’t fail 1,000 times, that the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.  Now isn’t that a great way to look at failure?  It’s not really failure at all—it’s steps in the process of success. 

My last year’s performance at the Boston Marathon was not a failure.  It was a success to qualify, a success to start the race and to finish.  Finishing that slow marathon was much harder than the faster one.  I am proud of my determination and perseverance.  I have a confidence now that I didn’t have before.  I can withstand a tough challenge without giving up.  But the most important point here is that I jumped into the game.  I’m living life and failure is part of the game.  As long as I can see the gift in every failure—I’ve won.   

Note:    My book, Breaking Barriers, will be published in 2013.  Email me at dolores@breakingbarriersblog.com if you want to be included on the email list.  “No, sheer effort is not the key to getting what we want.  It’s much easier than that.  Yes—easier.”

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Okay…I knew it was yesterday.  How could you miss the hype?  You’d have to be bound and gagged and locked in a room shut off from any communication to not know.  You may have guessed, I’m not a football fan—nor am I a fan of Super Bowl parties.  Yes, I could sit in a room full of shouting and cheering people eating and drinking themselves into Super Bowl heaven, or I could go out for a run.  I live in beautiful Southern California—I decided to run.

It was 72 degrees and the sun was shining.  A gentle breeze was blowing over the Back Bay in Newport Beach.  I laced up my Asics Gel-Cumulus shoes, set my IPod Nano to my favorite song list and started out at a slow jog—to work out the kinks.  Stairway to Heaven drifted into my ears as I gazed at the deep blue bay.  Flocks of birds peppered the sky. 

I picked up the pace as I turned the corner and passed a woman pushing her baby in a stroller.  She smiled and waved.  I guess she didn’t care about missing Beyoncé’s highly touted, “live” half-time performance.  I pushed on as I wiped the sweat from my left eye and took a long drink from my water bottle. 

I ran along Pacific Coast Highway and over the bridge as I turned around and back toward the Back Bay.  Two bicyclers flew by from behind.  I cruised along the straightaway—effortlessly.  I was free and light.  Chariots of Fire floated into my ears.  I made the final push up the hill to the lookout point on Eastbluff.  I made it—10 miles. 

I took a deep breath and walked a bit to cool down.  I always love the way I feel after a run—peaceful, happy.  Isn’t that what running is really about?  I hope it was a good game—for those who stayed indoors to watch it. Maybe I’ll catch the Super Bowl next year. 

Note:    My book, Breaking Barriers, will be published in 2013.  Email me at dolores@breakingbarriersblog.com if you are interested in being included on the email list.  “No, sheer effort is not the key to getting what we want.  It’s much easier than that.  Yes—easier.”

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and didn’t get sick.  I did!  I got a bad case of the flu.  I’m an avid runner—isn’t that supposed to keep me healthy?  I just heard on the news that we are having the worst flu season in years and to get your flu shot ASAP.  I, for one, do not believe in flu shots.  I got one back when I worked in public accounting in the 1970’s and then got the flu.  Oh yes, I heard that the shots are different now, but I haven’t complied and the last time I got the flu was about 25 years ago—that is until this last Christmas.

I took a trip back home, to freezing Wichita, Kansas and to temps in the 30’s.  That is not comfortable for anyone but especially a lightweight from Southern California.  My parents hosted Christmas dinner to 25 people.  It was wonderful until later that night when I started throwing up at about the same time my son started throwing up.  Then I heard my sisters’ family was all throwing up.  Then a couple of days later my parents got sick and then my sister got sick.  About half of the dinner attendees got the flu.  Yuck!

I have always prided myself on being healthy.  I take various vitamins and herbs and I exercise frequently.  I am surprised that my immune system would allow me to get the flu.  But the fact is, the strength of our immune systems depends on many factors such as stress, what we eat, how much we sleep, and how we exercise.

Let’s focus on how we exercise.  I did some research on running and the immune system, since I run.  But it makes sense that you could expand this information to other forms of aerobic exercise.  It appears that 30 to 40 minutes of moderate daily exercise will strengthen the immune system while longer runs will weaken it temporarily.  The longer and more intense you work out, the more cortisol levels increase and this can weaken the immune system for up to three days.   The good news is that if you allow your body to recover, then your immune system will adapt and get stronger.  That is why rest is very important, especially after an intense workout like a long distance run or speed work.    

It was also interesting to learn that long slow distance can weaken your immune system more than a shorter intense workout.  Why?  Long slow distance uses slow-twitch muscle fibers which feed on simple sugars—the same as the immune system.  So it’s important to not increase volume and intensity at the same time.  Keep your intense workouts short.  Here is a great link on how to keep your immune system strong.  http://www.runnersworld.com/health/immune-it-all

If you want to read about studies conducted on running and the immune system, try this link.  http://www.pfitzinger.com/labreports/immune.shtml

So, I’m thinking, yes, I have been training hard the last two months to get my running speed and mileage up to where it was before I quit running and just did yoga for two months.  I have increased volume and intensity at the same time and stressed my immune system.  My body is telling me to relax and slow down.  The moral of this story is to listen to your body.  I survived the Kansas weather and the flu and hope to not have to experience the flu again for at least another 25 years.  Run smart and stay healthy this winter. 

Note:    My book, Breaking Barriers, will be published in 2013.  Email me at dolores@breakingbarriersblog.com if you are interested in being included on the email list.  “No, sheer effort is not the key to getting what we want.  It’s much easier than that.  Yes—easier.”

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I entered the 30 day Bikram Yoga challenge on October 1 at the Irvine, California Bikram Yoga studio—that’s completing 30 classes in 30 days.  Yes, the word “challenge” is appropriate.  I am a long distance runner and have completed 15 marathons to date and I am finding this 30 day challenge to rival the high point of marathon training.  If you don’t know, a Bikram Yoga class is comprised of the same 26 yoga postures in a heated room at 105 degrees with 40 percent humidity.  When the class is full, it can get much hotter.

I have been taking Bikram Yoga classes for 10 years but only one class a week.  It was my attempt to try to get some of the flexibility I lost due to heavy running.  Once a week is better than nothing—I actually saw results and believe it is a major reason I can still run.  I found Bikram Yoga to be more beneficial to me than other types of yoga primarily because of the heated room which promotes deeper stretching and the 26 postures are designed to be restorative.

My last marathon was Boston in April 2012—you know the one where temperatures got to 90 degrees on some parts of the course.  After I completed that very challenging (disastrous) marathon I found myself tired and burned out.  Maybe it was because I had been dealing with a pulled hamstring and glut muscle for over a year and a half.  I was tired of running in pain.  Last September I decided to do something radical for me.  I decided to stop running for 30 days and just do yoga five times a week—after all I wasn’t training for anything.  In over 30 years of running, I have never stopped running for that long.

I wrote about my first 30 days in the previous two blog entries (Injury Is a Blessing and Injury Is a Blessing-Part 2).  I was surprised at how challenging and fatiguing it was to do consistent back-to-back classes every day.  I was pleased with the results but decided that 30 days was not enough to heal my injuries.  So I made the big decision to join the 30 day challenge on October 1.  It’s kind of like the universe threw this challenge right at me.

I made it through the first seven days of the challenge just fine—no sweat (pun intended).  But then I started to get fatigued and wanted to take a day off and recoup.  But the OCD in me would not let that happen.  I kept at it.  Besides, the studio set up white boards with our names listed.  We put up a sticker (like a gold star) each time we complete a class.  I’m sure they wanted to shame us into showing up for that sticker—it’s working.  I can’t imagine the shame of not putting up a sticker every day.

I have started to need more sleep and as I write this entry I feel like I need to take a nap.  I have been told that my second wind should kick in about now.  I’m waiting and counting on it.  I keep focusing on the increasing flexibly with each class.  It’s really amazing.  I have read that opening up the body is like opening up the mind.  It could be my imagination but I feel like I am more observant.  I also have better concentration.  Am I being more kind?  Well, you’d have to ask my son and boyfriend about that one.

Even the yoga instructors, who are now becoming great friends, have commented that they see real improvement in my postures.  I was hoping for hamstring and gluteal release but my knees are starting to bend.  Wow.  I can almost sit Japanese style—almost.  Okay, I’m not going to gripe about the four pounds I’ve gained in the last 20 days, but that is a small price to pay.

I am in awe of myself.  I have completed 20 hot yoga classes in 20 days.  I have 10 more days to go to complete the challenge and see all 30 stickers by my name.  (It’s funny what motivates us.)  Would you believe it, a challenger, Isabel, completed 30 classes in 15 days.  That’s three hours of hot yoga a day.  Kudos to her!  If she can do that, I can persevere to the end.

I wondered what it would be like to not run for 60 days.  So far, the yoga has been enough of a physical challenge that I haven’t gone through endorphin withdrawal, but I have started to fantasize about running.   I miss the freedom and joy I feel sometimes when I run.  I miss the trails and seeing the wind blow through the trees.  I wonder how my body will feel when I go out for my first run.  How far will I be able to go?  Will it be hard or effortless to run?  Will the stiffness come back with a vengeance or will I have muscle memory?

Despite the unknown, it’s been a great experience and I’m glad I tried something different.  It’s so important to keep trying new things as we age—it keeps life interesting and fun.  Besides, after submitting to exercising for close to 60 days in a really hot room, marathon training is going to be easy!  Well, I’d like to think that’s true.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

When I posted my last blog entry, I had made a commitment to not run for 30 days to allow my chronic hamstring and glut injury to heal.  As an alternative, I decided to do only yoga and stretching to encourage the healing process.  I was frankly terrified of gaining weight and going through a major endorphin withdrawal.  At 15 days, I had only gained one pound and had not yet bitten anyone’s head off… that doesn’t include my boyfriend.

It is now two weeks later and I have honored my commitment to not run and have completed 10 more yoga classes.  This is the longest I have gone without running since I started back in my early twenties.  I am reporting that my experiment has been a big success for many reasons.

First of all, I can see a big improvement in the flexibly in my hamstrings, knees and lower back.  Instead of being incredibly stiff, I am now just stiff.  I can only expect so much improvement in 30 days after 35 years of running and I am not disappointed.  All but two of the yoga classes I took were Bikram Yoga, the same 26 postures in a room heated to 105 degrees.  Besides learning to endure torture, the heat encouraged my ability to stretch further.

Second, I did not go through an endorphin withdrawal.  One time I went for two weeks without running while I was on a European vacation and I became jittery and irritable.  I did not get that way this time.  Bikram’s challenging postures, especially in a hot room, proved to be much more of an endurance workout than I anticipated.  I now have a huge appreciation for those folks who enter and complete the 30 day challenges.  I am in incredible endurance shape as a long-distance runner but I couldn’t have completed the last 30 days in a row without becoming overly exhausted.  This was a different type of endurance.  But the good news is that instead of getting jittery, I got more relaxed.  In fact, I haven’t fought with my boyfriend for a week now!

Third, I got a complement on my skin the other day.  She said my skin was glowing.  The last time someone told me that, I was pregnant.  Now, I know I’m not pregnant so it must be the yoga.  Sweating, of course, can unclog pores and be detoxifying.  I tend to sweat heavily anyway so running was detoxifying, but, as you can imagine, it’s easy to sweat heavily in a hot room doing yoga.  It must have been the Bikram poses developed to stimulate the thyroid and other internal organs that have caused my skin to glow.  I understand Bikram Yoga will also slow down the aging process by restoring all systems in the body to healthy working order.  Pretty cool.

Fourth, I didn’t gain weight.  That gains repeating.  I didn’t gain weight!  I will admit that my calorie intake reduced due to not burning as many calories, but I think there must be some truth to the claim by the Bikram Yoga enthusiasts that Bikram Yoga decreases blood sugar levels and cravings.  Also, I noticed, that despite the lack of using weights, two problem areas (my abs and arms—especially my triceps) got more toned due to the stretching.

Now that I’ve reached 30 days without running, do I jump back into my old routine of running and interval classes and once week yoga?  After some contemplation, I’ve decided to forego running for another 30 days.  My intuition (and body) is telling me to stay on this course a little longer.  I want to be able to stretch and not feel the pulling pain in my glut muscle.  It is gone in my hamstring but not my glut—which is pretty amazing.  But, better to be safe than to reinjure it.  Also, I am very close to being able to sit Japanese style, which I have not been able to do for twenty years due to extremely stiff knees.  I have always been told to listen to my body, so I think I will follow that advice for once in my life

So the moral of this story is to try something new.  If I had not left my comfort zone, I would not have experienced the benefits of a very different form of exercise.  As we age, it’s important to stretch to maintain flexibility and range of motion, especially for runners.  I intend to be running strong well past my eighties—actually my nineties.

Starting October 1 is a 30-day challenge initiated by the Bikram Yoga studio in Irvine, California.  Am I in shape to do this challenge?   Stay tuned.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I have displayed some OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) behavior in the past.  Anyone who runs marathon after marathon after marathon is somewhat OCD…wouldn’t you agree?  What normally happens when we push ourselves to the limit and perhaps past the limit?  We get injured.  It is our body’s way of telling us to rest.

Sometimes we ignore our body and continue to push past the pain to the point where it becomes unbearable and we are forced to stop or we are permanently disabled.  Know anyone who has had knee replacement surgery?  How about someone who has had Achilles surgery?

Also, if our exercise is unbalanced, as is the case with many runners, we have strong, firm legs with perhaps back or shoulder problems.  Common running injuries occur such as iliotibial band syndrome, stress fractures and pulled ham strings.

My last marathon was Boston in April of 2012.  Anyone who ran Boston remembers the scorching heat.  Well, I trained hard for that marathon (which happened to be the slowest one of my running career) because I figured it would be my last Boston.  I qualified the prior May at Lincoln, Nebraska with a personal record (at the age of 56 by the way) so I had pushed my body to the max.  But I was hyped up and continued a heavy running schedule so I could jump into training as Boston drew closer.  Problem was, I was already suffering from a pulled hamstring and tight gluteal muscles on the left side.

My homeopathic doctor, despite her urging to slow down and rest, gave me a remedy which carried me through training for Boston.  Homeopathy is amazing, by the way.  I completed Boston and cut down my running but then started participating in circuit weight classes eager to strengthen my upper body which became neglected with my heavy running schedule.

I realized immediately that not only my legs were stiff, but my hips and back were extremely stiff.  Squatting down was painful. As a matter of fact, running was painful until I warmed up.  But for some reason, I kept thinking, my miles are lower, it’ll get better.

Up to that point, I had been taking Bikram Yoga classes (hot yoga) about once a week for about six years.  I know the classes have been beneficial in giving me what little flexibility I have and have probably saved my knees.  I have been told several times about how important it is to stretch, especially for hamstrings and tight gluteals.

On August 23^th, I took a weight circuit class.  We were told to go to the gymnasium and we ran laps followed by stepping down the court going sideways.  Stepping sideways, I tripped on my shoe and fell hard on my knee and hip.  Of course I got the unwanted attention of “Are you alright?” and “You will feel worse in the morning”.  I completed the class but it was not fun.

After class, as I was walking down the sidewalk toward my car, I fell again.  I kid you not.  It was only an hour later than my last wipeout.  Maybe it was the wedge shoes, maybe it was the slight limping, maybe it was that crack in the sidewalk but I went down hard, again.  I was holding my heavy gym bag, water and carrying my laptop.  All scattered around me.  I was sure I was going to cry—but I didn’t despite my despair.

That afternoon I started feeling like I had whiplash and, in the morning, I did feel worse.  I decided then and there that my body was trying to tell me something and I had better listen up.  My intuition was telling me yoga…yoga.  Maybe I should quit running for a while—like a month and just do yoga.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t consider doing more than one yoga class a week because I was terrified of losing the endorphins and of gaining weight if I stopped running.  Face it, yoga does not provide the same cardio benefits.  But considering my injuries and how they weren’t going to get better by running, I decided to do something very different (and brave) for me.  I decided to follow my intuition and take a month off from running and weights and just do yoga.  That’s it—just yoga.

So despite my nightmares of biting the heads off of anyone who crossed me in the few days following my withdrawal of running and of gaining ten pounds, I started my experiment.  I walked into the yoga studio in Irvine, California and announced my plan.  I knew if I announced it, I would stick with it.

My plan was to do hot yoga five days a week, take a day off completely, and do another type of yoga class at the health club I belong to.  I like Bikram the most because the heat really helps me stretch my incredibly stiff muscles and I feel like I get a workout.

I started my new adventure on August 25 (15 days ago) and since then I have taken two days off,  a stretch and restore class (using rollers), 11 hot yoga classes and 1 yoga class at the health club.  I am happy to report that I have only gained about a pound and I haven’t bitten anyone’s head off just yet.

But what is really more important, is that I can now squat down without significant pain and stiffness.  I feel a whole different level of soreness in my shoulders and back but it’s a good sore.  There were a couple of incredibly hard poses, like the bow pose (on your stomach, grab your ankles and kick up) and standing head to knee (stand with legs spread, bend over and grab outside of feet with legs straight) which caused me substantial pain—which I can now do without the substantial pain.  OMG, I am loosening up after two weeks.

I am so happy with my progress that I will stick to my plan, even if I do gain another pound.  Being able to move without stiffness is a real blessing and I will incorporate yoga breaks into my running routine from now on.  Also, they say loosening up the body parallels the mind.  That could only be a good thing for someone who displays OCD behavior.

Of course my hope is to alleviate my hamstring and glut issue.  Based on my progress so far, I’m hopeful, very hopeful that this is going to work.  I’ll keep you posted.

Powered by Bookmarkify™