Crying in the woods...

How marathon training & yoga are intertwined

Since the beginning of January, I’ve been training for the Manchester marathon which has meant hours of running every week. The training has been a lesson in discipline and surrender all in one. Getting out for a run after a long day at work is really really hard. Training your mind to keep pushing on when all you want to do is stop, is really really hard. It’s been tiring and energising all at the same time. I feel strong and fit but also clunky and old in my bones, especially after a 4 hour run.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been researching and understanding my monthly cycle, trying to figure out how to structure my diet, exercise and rest around what my body needs. It has been fascinating to learn about a woman’s hormones, how they fluctuate and how this impacts the body. I personally find the last two weeks of my cycle to be a slog! I’m always tired, low in energy and personality, and moving my body for exercise feels almost impossible.

My partner has been coming out for some runs with me during my training and we’ve been out for a few trail runs which has been fun to get into. There was one particular run in January, where we went for a trail run on the second day of my period. For any woman reading this, you’ll be able to guess what happened next. I thought it would be fine. I had my electrolytes and a positive, stoic mindset. How could I go wrong?!

I think getting out of the car was perhaps the hardest part. It took me a good twenty minutes of sitting in silence staring out the window to muster up the energy to even open the car door and step out into the frosty air.

The start of the run started okay, but after 15/20 minutes, I started to slow down to a very slow jog. My legs felt like lead. Heavy, ploddy and as if I was dragging them along unwillingly. I had to stop for a wee and trying to chase back to my partner was practically impossible. The only way I could release the pain and frustration was to cry. I kept having to stop to catch my breath and give myself a pep talk. It was after an hour, when I had to sit on the cold muddy ground, my head in my hands, tears rolling down my cheeks that my partner dragged me back to the car to get us home. I felt torn between the feelings of failure and a need to keep pushing myself, yet also really wanting to surrender to my body, giving it the space to rest.

It's in moments like these that I try to let yoga be my driving force. I remember to come back to my breath, centring myself in the moment. Remembering to practice ahimsa (non-violence) towards myself and the act of Isvara Pranidhana (surrender), letting go to what I’m feeling in the moment, accepting sometimes that my body just needs to rest.

I often find it crazy that I’m in my mid-thirties and still discovering what my body needs after only learning the intricacies of my cycle in the last few years. It’s interesting to think what could be different for women if they had more education on their cycle and hormones from a younger age, how this might impact them differently over the course of their life.

I’m one week out from the marathon and my training plan is telling me to rest, go for shorter runs and trust the process of your training. Despite my body telling me to slow down, my mind is whirling away, wondering if I’ve done enough, or if another gym session will make the difference. Giving in and surrendering to what will be, is the hardest part for me.

Yoga doesn’t always have to be the physical classes. It’s during challenging times that the philosophy and lessons we learn along the way, help us off the mat too. In a week’s time, when I’m at the starting line, I’ll be remembering to surrender to the moment, to be present and to let go without clinging to the idea of “doing well”.

Love,

FB