Even Runners Need Yoga

I’ve spent A LOT of time running lately. Obviously “a lot” means different things to different people, but I’ve been running 40-45 miles a week for the last few months. My goal for 2018 is to run 1,700 miles, which requires a pretty consistent daily effort. I’ve tried to mix in some yoga and weight-training, but unfortunately I probably haven’t been doing enough regular non-running exercise to steer entirely clear of the injury bug. I really should know better!

Luckily I haven’t encountered any major afflictions, but a few small irritations–mainly with my feet–have reminded me that it’s not healthy if I can run 15 miles, yet can’t manage to walk normally from one side of the kitchen to the other. Hence, after I put in a few miles this morning running through the virtual Zwift world on the treadmill (more on Zwift in a later post), I decided to see if Youtube yoga sensation, Yoga with Adriene, had any good routines for runners. Happily, I quickly found that Adriene had a handful of runner-focused yoga practices.

If you’re looking for a great way to loosen up some of your running muscles, this 30-minute video is a perfect place to start. My hips, hamstrings, quads, and calves loved every minute of this practice…and they’ve been thanking me all day for finally giving them some much-needed yoga attention.

Yoga with Adriene also has a few more sequences for warming up and cooling down.

Here are a few pre-run routines:

And here are a couple post-run sequences:

In addition to my running goal this year, I now have a new goal to integrate yoga into my daily running routine. To keep it simple I think I’ll stick with these videos for the next month (thanks Yoga with Adriene!). I get the feeling that a little more yoga is exactly what I need. I’ll let you know how it goes. Just remember, runners need yoga too!