Brief Story on the Hard Runner's Attempt at Yoga

Today I tried my first ever yoga class.  One of my long time running buddies from church convinced me to give it a try.  Well, I knew I wanted to try yoga for some time.  Practically every runner I know who has tried yoga simply loves it.  I, on the other hand, don't like the idea of doing something that makes me look stupid.  That limits me to a very small number of things I can do.  Yoga is not on that list, of course.  

(Now this is a yoga pose!  What was I doing?)  

But my friend reminded me that I look pretty stupid running too, but I still do that.  Enough said, I decided to give it a try.  Probably not a great idea to try it right after running a 6 mile run at close to tempo pace.  Lately, however, this body has been feeling strong so my confidence was up.  After all, I've recovered this year from plantar fasciitis, problems in both knees (ITB syndrome) and lost 30 extra pounds of useless weight.  Surely I can take on a simple yoga class for a short hour.  Besides, most of our stretches after we run are mock versions of various yoga poses anyway.  How hard could it be?

I tell you what, it was harder than I imagined.  My body simply was not designed to hold some of those poses.  And the yoga instructor, bless her little heart, was about 60.  She could move that body of hers around better than most 30 year olds I know.  Hows that for making me look stupid?

(Couch Yoga, Brilliant!) 

At about 30 minutes into our workout, I was taking on a bit of a sweat.  Great, I thought, this is way more than some simple stretch routine!

After about 40 minutes, I thought, if she puts us in that downward dog one more time… one more time!  Of course, my downward dog had given up and my upward dog had fallen down.  My warrior I, warrior II and warrior III had all taken up arms against each other.  My pigeon was cooked and my triangle, at best was a square.  But I rocked that child pose, yeah!

All in all, it was a beneficial experience and I think I may have found a viable complement to my running.  Yep, I'll try it again next week.

Never, never stop running.