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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here’s the nice e-flyer my publisher created to promote my workshop in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, October 18. There may still be a few spaces left—I hope to see you there.
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.
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.
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!
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!
