Symbiosis

It's 4 days to the Ann Arbor-Dexter run and Serene Koh ran her first ever 10K today! Yup, that's right, I rock... :) 57:02 minutes, 678 calories and 5:41 minutes/km. Not shabby at all if I should say so myself. And I figured if I can do this in the 3pm hot sun, I can do on a cool Sunday morning. I wasn't planning on running the full 10K today really, but by the time I got to 9.5K, I was like, I've come so far, what's another 500m? And so I did. I'm planning one more run on Friday- which may or may not be another 10K- and I should be ready for Sunday. Under an hour. That's all I'm aiming for.

It's amazing, really, what your body can do when you apply yourself to a task- who knew 6 weeks ago that my body's capable of running continuously for more than 45 minutes? Like my dad says, it's all about slowly increasingly the mileage. If you can do 6K, you can do 7K. If you can do 7K, 8K's a cinch, etc... The other thing that has really helped me is yoga. It's made me a better breather (yes, there *is* such a thing), and as a result, a stronger runner. It's also strengthened my calves and quads (those warrior poses kick major ass!) which really helps too. I've come to look forward to yoga a lot, and it's become more than just about toning muscles in places I didn't know I had muscles to tone in the first place. In that hour of sustained concentration and focus, I become acutely aware of my body and its different dimensions- my posture, alignment, breathing, reach, strength, center, etc, and I find that kind of self-awareness very calming. Plus it's all me- the poses don't rely on machines or weights- it's what my body is capable of and comfortable doing at that moment. I'm not into the more spiritual aspects of yoga (although I love that my instructor sings her ohms) but I have to admit that as tough as it sometimes is (beads of sweat dripping onto my yoga mat probably indicates a fairly decent workout), the deep burn that comes with yoga is actually kinda of cathartic, "cleansing", if you will- both mentally and physiologically- and that's something I find deeply alluring. The fact that my running helps my yoga (it builds the stamina I need to maintain those sustained downward dogs) as much as yoga is helping my running just makes it all the more perfect.

Namaste :)