Training Days 50 & 51 of 71: A Competitive Sport

I am four and a half weeks from the marathon and this is my second to last week of hard training before the mileage ebbs off leading up to the race. Tuesday I ran 5 miles down through Hancock Park and back, today I ran 10 miles on a big loop through Beverly Hills and back. Both runs were fine. Tuesday I found myself experimenting with increasing my speed. For about a mile I leaned forward a lot more and sped up significantly. Today since I had to get back to teach a yoga class I tried to keep my foot on the gas and maintain a strong pace as well. Now that I feel more capable as a runner I am noticing a growing desire to enhance my performance that I think is unique to running.

One of the immediate distinctions that was made at the Yoga For Runners training between yoga and running is that running is a competitive sport, while yoga is (supposedly) completely noncompetitive. I can definitely feel this difference now that I am doing both activities for several hours a week. In my yoga practice I am fundamentally interested in exploring what's happening in the mind and body as I move through different poses. It feels more like a daily exploration. Any "progress" in my practice (being able to do difficult poses) is a happy surprise that I don't really strive for, I just experiment with.

Meanwhile, since I ran the half marathon (and placed 3rd in my age group, apparently they are mailing me a medal), I have become increasingly interested in being able to run faster and longer. I have yet to run my first marathon and I'm already looking up the qualifying time for my age group for the Boston Marathon (3:40). I guess for the first time in my life I feel like I could possibly become good at a sport - become good at running. I attribute this mostly to my yoga practice. I feel like I have a secret weapon since I spend so much time stretching and strengthening already. I have such deep reserves of strength and balance right now. This paired with what yoga has taught me about overcoming mental blocks makes me feel like it is entirely possible for me to run significantly faster for longer distances. Might take a lot more training, but it's possible.

As odd as it may sound, I do think all of this boils down to that inner stillness. When I connect with the feeling that I'm fundamentally okay, that I'm content in the present moment, that there's nothing to be afraid of... anything feels possible. It's just about finding out, over and over. Finding out if I can or can't. More often than not, I find out that I can.