Week 192: Way to Show Up For Yourself

I really should have known better...

Sunny, blue sky. Warm air breeze. Birds tweeting a sweet tune.

Perfect running conditions, right?

It never ceases to amaze me how the brain can overpower the body - for good or bad!

My Sunday morning run was the first real jaunt since the snow flew. I had considered a run a week but when pushing a stroller (with a fidgety toddler, no doubt) through the icy sidewalks of Edmonton, I opted to substitute my run plan for an indoor home-based strength workout. And thus, this week's run was almost a new freedom I had really missed. The cherry on top was I was solo!

I went out with the mindset of a moderate pace and distance.

Check.

And, well, not a check.

Eight point eight kilometers later, I arrived home pumped up on endorphins. I stretched and did my hypopressive exercises (more on that another day) and walked away with no apparent detriment.

Wake up Monday morning, and you guessed it, my legs were stone.

A quick spin on my bike should help... Not really. I winced with every step down the stairs to my bike.

Whoops!

Enter whiny voice, "but my run felt soooooo good!"

Well, thank goodness I remembered seeing a Yoga for Runners on Adriene's YouTube channel. My yoga practice was set in motion for the love of my quads, hip flexors and adductors!

Yoga for Runners was the perfect sequence of focused lower body poses. What stood out for me was lizard pose (Utthan Pristhasana). I’ve enjoyed this pose on many occasions but not more than in THIS practice. I slightly winced when we started but was able to lower my hip as I walked my front leg out to the edge of the mat. As I followed the cues, I slowly lowered my forearms down to my mat and settled into the full pose.

I find it really interesting how the placement of the hands is so crucial in this pose. By having both hands on the inside of the front leg, it can lead to such an opening to the pelvis. Much more than a traditional hip flexor lunge position. It wasn’t until you watch someone else doing lizard pose that you realize the front thigh is almost parallel to the torso. Hard to believe, but true!

Needless to say, lizard pose was one of the many very helpful poses that got me back to walking without discomfort this week!

And I appreciated some of Adriene’s final intuitive words, “way to show up for yourself”.

You have no idea!
LW

P.S. What to learn more about lizard? Watch Adriene's Foundations of Yoga video!