April 7, 2011: Encore ROGA!
Happy World Health Day! Today, the lululemon Grant Ave run club brought back an encore session of ROGA! It was awesome! 
A good 4.5 mile flat run along The Embarcadero followed by a yoga session with Caroline Almon. Started out at a nice pace and really tried to focused on my breathing to avoid the side stitch. I was trying a breathing pattern where I take two inhale breathes (fill and fill to max), slight hold, followed by a strong exhale. I wanted to see if this would allow my diaphragm and side to stretch more to try to reduce the onset of cramping. But around mile 4, I still felt a bit of a stitch coming on again on my right side. Maybe I lost focus towards the end, but still… boo, haven’t found a solution yet.
Thanks to Jan Alotte for the warm up and keeping the 4.5 pack energized all the way through! Jan talked to us about trying not to drag our feet while running, which creates an over hunched posture because our feet are not landing directly below the body. I think I do drag a bit because I think I’ve been running with a shorter stride than typical runners of my height. I guess it’s me subconsciously trying to conserve energy and pace myself.
Yoga afterward was good as always. The poses are not too intense, which is nice after a run. I think running makes me pretty tense actually, so yoga really allows my body to cool down and stretch out nicely. This is proven by me not being sore the next day.
Lastly, good luck to everyone running the US Half Marathon this weekend!!! 
Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4408079
