Hall Interview/Yoga Review

Great interview by Ryan Hall - talks about the New York City Marathon and his experiences on the big stage. Totally looking forward to watching him run this fall - it's always nostalgic to watch people in the New York Marathon since that is and will be my most memorable race ever :)

When I got home from work yesterday, decided to put in the Yoga DVD that Pat and Crystal copied for me - Yoga for Runners: The Essentials. Not completely sure this is it, but check it out. I consider myself to be moderately flexible but after watching these Gumby-like figures bend into positions I thought only Olympic gymnasts could do, I downgraded myself to "stiff as a board". My posture is terrible to begin with, so this wasn't going to be any easier. The DVD is about 45 minutes long, and focuses on 4 areas - total body, lower back, hamstrings, and hips. They put you through several yoga stretches in which you mainly focus on breathing to those specific areas and relaxing your muscles. I found that even the simple stretches I had problems with, and was shaking like crazy trying to sustain them. I almost found myself having to get into a meditative state to endure these workouts (sort of like during a long run when you have to really dig down deep and focus to get through those last few miles), and it helped a ton. Anyways, I really enjoyed the workout, and immediately felt the effects of it throughout the night as well as this morning. There is great value to this in strengthening the aforementioned areas and developing mental toughness as well, and could even feel myself correcting my back posture during my run later in the evening.


Last night, made myself go out for some speedwork. Now that I am in marathon training, it's kind of weird to be limited to only 1 day of this so there are no excuses to miss out. Contemplated running this morning, but I know that wasn't going to happen because I am just too lazy to run early before work!!! Examined the skies, kept hearing thunder in the background and it looked slightly overcast with some ominious clouds in the background so wasn't sure what it was going to do. Temps were in the 70's, so felt nice - put on a hat, talked myself into going, and away I went! Crystal was going to treadmill it last night, so I decided to go look for some different hills, so ran towards downtown Glen Carbon. Felt pretty good, and got a little carried away with a long warmup (3 miles). About 2 miles out, the rain started - never fails, my furthest point away, and it just starts to come down. Had to make a decision quick, so ran into a local neighborhood where I knew there would be a medium sized hill, and scouted out a route roughly less than a quarter mile. The grade was steep at the beginning, but starts to level out at the end - have run on steeper hills, but I was battling Mother Nature at this point. Did 5 reps at a hard but manageable pace, felt ok for the most part but wasn't thrilled that I was soaking wet by the 2nd rep. Would have liked to have cooled down a little more, but ended up taking off home and ran a pretty hard mile, most likely in the 6:30-6:45 range. Stretched, ate late dinner, then passed out. Total Mileage: ~5.5 miles

Tonight, Tim is back in town! Going out to dinner then probably out and about town. Tomorrow, Mud Mountain 5K! Weather looks decent, and should be a fun race. Will get in 5 miles before or after the race to get in my 8 for the day, then we have a long run scheduled for Sunday of 16 miles - our longest this year to date! Have a great weekend!!!