Friday's recap

Sorry for all of the catchup! I wanted to make sure I talk about all of my marathon training from Week 1 all the way through Marathon Day - so I didn't want to leave out the first few runs, even though they aren't nearly as exciting to write (or read) about as the longer runs will be :)

Friday was my last day of work for the school year, so fortunately we had a half day and went home at 10:30am! Although I truly felt a bit nauseous from a huge, late dinner the night before, I was so invigorated by the fact that it was finally my SUMMER VACATION that I went out for a pretty easy 3 miler, as the schedule specifies. I ran up Michigave Ave for a couple miles, and then cut over to head to the gym where I attended.... my first yoga class!!!

Now, technically this was not my first class ever since back in college I did take one semester of a yoga class. Surprisingly, I hated it - OK, so it was better than the rest of my academic classes, but I definitely was not a big fan! I found it to be terribly slow and boring and I literally fell asleep at least once! So although I love pilates (the two practices have a great deal in common), I definitely strayed from yoga for quite a few years. However, recently I've become more and more intrigued because:

1) So many people seem to love it - maybe I owed it another shot?
2) It would benefit my running - lots of runners find that it helps them with their breathing and increases their lung capacity
3) The stretching will be great for injury prevention
4) Supposedly it's relaxing and "centering".... which is always a good thing right?
5) I also really want to learn more about yoga because I do realize that it has many merits for adults and children, and I would love to be able to give a training to my staff and students at school about yoga, maybe even teach a before or after-school program (like I have been teaching pilates to some of my students before school, just for fun). A few weeks ago I actually attended a Yoga, Psychotherapy, and Mindfulness training where a yogi, who was also a therapist, trained me and other mental health clinicians on how to incorporate yoga into their practice. It was pretty fascinating and I would love to be able to do this!!! So many of my kids are either hyperactive or experience post-traumatic stress disorder of some kind (or both!) and would definitely get a lot out of practicing the occasional yoga pose, or even simply yoga breathing or meditation.

I decided that I kinda liked it! I definitely had a better experience this time than I had before.... I also know that there are many different kinds of yoga practice, so maybe I need to find the class that I like the best. My gym offers a few different types so I look forward to trying more of them over the summer. Although it was more slow-moving than the type of exercise I usually like, I enjoyed the fact that many of the poses were very difficult for me and I look forward to the challenge of getting better at it!!

Friday I also kind of spontaneously decided to sign up for CARA, the Chicago Area Runners Assocation. I had been thinking a lot about joining since I currently don't have any running buddies in the South Loop, and I had heard a ton of positive feedback from other CARA runners and I knew I would appreciate the camaraderie and continuity of having weekly training runs with a big group. So, despite the fact that my rule is typically to run only every other day (to keep my plantar fasciitis in check!), I paid my registration fee knowing that Saturday morning would be our first run....