Fit Mom's Blog

Yesterday, I panicked. Up until Sunday, I had NOT missed a single workout in my Marathon Plan. Not one. But, because I completed Sunday’s run with a walk, I wasn’t sure I should or could run again today- let alone do a hard intensity run of 5 miles at 7:25 pace. Have been doing yoga 3-4 times a week and I truly believe that yoga is the key to a balanced, flexible, body, but still questions remained…. So I sent my post to Coach Al and asked his opinion. (Note for my new readers, Coach Al is a highly respected endurance coach whom I purchased the marathon plan from. My husband has also followed all of his Cyclo-Core Cycling plans and has enormous success on these plans.)

He spent a lot of time writing to me as well as leaving an incredible comment on the post. Go read. You can learn a lot from him. Bottom line, yoga is great, but I should have been focusing on yoga for the HIPS!! DUHHH..I’ve known that knee pain starts at the hips, but didn’t know that I could design my own yoga poses specifically for the hips. Also, I need to learn to COOL IT. When it comes to running with pain. There should be no pain. Only pain for the effort. Also, downhill running is a SKILL to be learned and the run on Sunday had about 10-15 miles of pure DOWNHILL.

I tested the running waters today. Yes, I can run on the flats easily, but on a hill, I’m in trouble. Seems as if I have some inflammation in the muscles and tendons surrounding my patella. I also spent my work hours- jumping, running, hula hooping, etc.. so not a lot of rest going on. Knock on wood, I am not injured yet…but, could be in my near future and the marathon is THREE WEEKS AWAY. UGGGGGG. I can’t get this far and be injured or hurting on race day.

Lots of lessons to be learned here…

Some amazing hip opening stretches include Fire Log Pose, Bound Angle Pose and Hero Pose. Never seen or heard of any of these poses. One I found on You Tube is here.