Friendly affair – with Yoga & Pilates

April 22 2012. It’s about 9:30 am on a rainy morning. I’m dragging my tired legs along College Ave of Rutgers Campus and 0.1 mile away from the finish line of Unite Half Marathon.  Surrounded by hundreds of spectators and fans cheering their runner friends and family members to cross the finish line.  I get distracted for a fraction of a second to smile at a cheering volunteer and the next second I find my right foot trip over a pothole. I hear a loud crack and I knew it was trouble.

I limp across the finish line. My right foot was hurting like crazy and even worse was walking on that foot for a mile to get to my car. By the time I got home the pain had worsened and I was freaking out.  Rushed to ER at St.Peters right away.  After couple of X-Rays it was confirmed there was no fracture. It was a bad sprain and doc told me to be stay off running for a month.   After a week of crutches and frustration I started looking at options to do some work out. It was very obvious my legs had no muscle and no strength to handle the amount of miles I was dreaming to run. Swimming felt great but I was feeling guilty of not getting enough workouts.  I had a month before heading to Grand Canyon for the Rim-to-Rim backpacking trip and I knew I had work to do for making that trip happen.

Then I met the Cheryl who owns the lovely “Transcendent Yoga” Studio in Piscataway and vented out my frustration. She smiled and suggested to start taking intro yoga class and made no promise to improve my situation.  I started taking the Yoga class and got used to all the preliminary poses. Dogs, Cobras, Pigeon & Warriors became my friends.  I particularly like the downward dog for the calves and Pigeon pose for mildly stretching the IT band and Hip Flexors.  Three weeks into these classes I was feeling lot more flexible with my movement.  Started slow and short 1-2 mile runs and my feet were not complaining. Cheryl felt I was having too much easy time at intro Yoga class and challenged me to take her Pilates class.  I hesitantly took it up. Class started with 50 pushups followed by Wall Squats, Calf Raises, Bridges, Weights and abdominal workouts.  I was sore for 3 days but kept taking two of these classes per week.  After an year the class now starts with 92 pushups. I do complain and whine a lot in the class especially during abdominal workouts but for some reason I'm still hooked onto it. I’m extremely thankful to my instructors Cheryl and Denise. With their Yoga/Pilates classes I’ve been able to run few more half marathons and also survived my first full marathon last November at Philadelphia without breaking down.  I also did a strenuous but enjoyable Rim-to-Rim backpacking trip at Grand Canyon just a month after that injury. With all the extra mileage towards NJ marathon training I’ve not been able to do justice to Yoga/Pilates and Swimming these last few months.  Hopefully this will be an ongoing affair as I’m really looking forward to get back into training mode after the race on May 5^th.

NYC Half Marathon 2013 Update

Last weekend I ran the NYC Half Marathon. It was my first race of the year and my first time running in the city.  Getting to the city at the ungodly hour on a Sunday morning was annoying.   I ate a really nice Pasta dinner the night before and woke up around 3 am on Sunday morning.  I always used to eat a Panera Bread Bagel as my pre-race breakfast. This time I tried Scott Jurek’s famous Incan Quinoa Porridge. It was a lot easier to consume than the bagel.  Drove to the Harrison Station and took the Path and then a Cab to Central Park.   Just after getting off the cab I realized how cold it was. Met so many anxious runners like me as well as ton of experienced runners already warming up. Checked in my bag at the UPS truck and headed towards the start line.   Chatted and laughed with few Irish runners who were all dressed in Green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  We were sandwiched at the last corral and by the time I hit the start line it was 17 min into the race.

Started running comfortably without any pressure.  My fellow runners at the running club had warned me about the hills inside the central park.  My only goal was to run the 6 hilly miles of central park without breaking down.  I had run this course few weeks before so I knew what to expect.  I managed to finish the 6-mile loop in 55 minutes or so and headed into the 7^th avenue towards Times Square.  It was a fantastic feeling running on 7^th Avenue without any cars or taxis.  All I could see was hundreds of runners everywhere.   I continued to hydrate every 3 miles or so and had two GU gels at mile 5 and 10.  Finish time of my last three half marathons in 2012 were about 2 hr & 2 minutes.  I wanted to break the 2-hour mark and ran last 3 miles really hard. Despite all the hoopla I couldn’t beat my earlier time. I ended with same old 2 hr 2 min 5 sec again.  It was a slap on my face for avoiding speed work as part of my training. I calmly told myself that I would include speed work in future. Collected my finisher's medal, drank Scott Jurek's home made Anti inflammatory smoothie and headed towards home. 

It was wonderful feeling running in the city and finishing few blocks away from where I work. Final 7 miles of the race were a real treat with flat course and excellent views of the city.  And the whole event was organized very well.  Hats off to all the cheerleaders, musicians and volunteers who made this a fabulous event.  Hopefully I will run many more races in the city and one day perhaps get a guaranteed entry to run the NYC full marathon.

No time to rest now.  Continuing my training for the NJ Full Marathon at Long Branch on May 5^th.  One step at a time!!