On Celebrating Small Things: Fridays, Fall, and "Electrolytes for Everybody!"
Everybody needs something to hope for, to celebrate, to look forward to with feelings of joy. No matter the events of the larger world, you still need to be able to anticipate that good things, however small they may be, will come to you on a daily, weekly, and larger cyclical basis. I think this is one reason why the pandemic has been so mentally challenging: we are not sure there is an end quite in sight and we don’t have our usual things to look forward to—whether those are particular road races we do every single year or maybe a vacation spot we always visit. Every day can feel a little like Groundhog’s Day, the movie.
Just as all of your workouts add up to your present fitness, so do small positive moments contribute to your overall mental, emotional, and spiritual being. 2020 is the year none of us could have anticipated, but it is also the year to really cherish ALL of the good little things that we can get. The pandemic still occasionally gives me feelings that aren’t exactly déjà vu, but more an uncanny sense of “wait, this is really happening???!!” and I have to stop for a half second and remind myself, that yes, this, weird, weird present moment is not in fact a dream, but is real life. However, other good events are still happening too—and even some good things that have arisen precisely because of the pandemic, as crazy as that may sound. It is very easy to slip into looking at the negative side of things right now, so I am making a conscious effort to look at the positive and stay focused on them. There will be more years after 2020 that I’d like to be able to really enjoy!
My 3 Positives for 2020: Friends, More Yoga to More People, More Time!
Three very positive things to come out of 2020 for me are: 1.) closer friendships, 2.) an ability to reach more people with yoga, and 3.) a more flexible schedule which has allowed me to do more with Runners Love Yoga. The pandemic has actually brought me closer to my couple very good workout buddies, without whom I truly may not have emotionally survived 2020. Shout out to Ali and Julie, my running friends, and to Claudia, my swimming sister in particular here. My mom was right that you don’t need a lot of friends, just a couple very good ones.
Filming yoga for Runners Love Yoga TV under the watchful eye of Boo Boo Cat.
While pre-pandemic, I was actually thoroughly enjoying running all over town teaching 12+ in-person fitness classes per week, now I am able to reach a far greater number of people through Runners Love Yoga TV, which launched in April. There, you can take 68 classes and counting with me, anytime, anywhere that it works for you! In particular, it has been very meaningful to make all of this content very accessible to a truly worldwide audience: I may not be able to see in person how relaxed my students are after savasana, but I have gotten many heartfelt messages about how my classes have helped someone that have made this effort more than worth it for me. Of the 68 classes up there at the current moment, 56 of them I have filmed since March — these totals exclude the 9 or so “pose by pose tutorials" which are shorter videos which I have also filmed since March. Over the next 5 weeks, more than 25 more classes will be released, including the complete 16-class series Yin Yoga: The Complete Practice, which can serve as a library of accessible 20-40 min. yin yoga workouts for students to do again and again, and another 16-class series called Core and Restore, which combines yoga-based core, traditional core, and restorative yoga. Every single Friday, I release a new themed Friday Flow class! You can even stream classes from your smartphone or iPad to your smartTV (hint: most new TVs are also “smart”) with the AirPlay feature!
Because all of my teaching is now online (and because I prerecorded as many of my UVa classes as possible this summer), my current schedule is actually a lot more flexible in terms of when I do what, which is really nice. Though the gift of more time has definitely blurred the work/home boundaries even more—I’m definitely living that small business owner lifestyle 200% right now!—I know that my usual life would never have permitted me to do everything I have accomplished since March. Besides the many yoga classes, I am super proud of the new Runners Love Yoga activewear that will be released this fall! The other bonus of more “free time” is that I am not beholden to my normally very strict schedule of having to be at point A at X time every week (trust me, with 12-14 classes/week, plus my own training, this got a little nuts!), so I can run/swim basically when I want (assuming that I can find an open pool!)! Yay!
If I just made everything sound very happy rainbows all the time, trust me: things are often very hard, and I thank God very often for helping me to adopt my two kittens back in December 2019. Just remember that reframing things often makes things a heck of a lot better, and that focusing on the positives makes all the negatives fall a little more to the wayside.
Sharing the Happy Things
Since about March of this year, I’ve been brainstorming different ways to share little happy things on a regular basis through Runners Love Yoga. One of these is our regular Friday Flow classes, which I previously mentioned. (Side note: I take theme requests for these! Send them my way! I will do my best to make them happen!) When every day can feel too much like all the others, I really wanted to reinvigorate Friday! I love Fridays! So, they now always come with a new fun flow class at RLY TV!
While I am such a summertime girl, I also love the fall and realize this fall of 2020 brings much more trepidation for winter with it than most. (I can’t be the only one thinking, à la Game of Thrones, “winter is coming".) I want to enjoy my fall, gosh darn it, even with all the weird things stressing me out! So, besides Friday Flows, here are some other fun things in store at RLY this autumn:
Every single order placed at Runners Love Yoga in both October and November will ship with a FREE sample pack (worth $7.99) of Ultima Replenisher, my electrolyte drink of choice! No joke, I drink this stuff all day. It tastes fantastic and has been a lifesaver with my higher volume endurance training which I have needed to survive this pandemic. Now with any Runners Love Yoga order, you can try all the flavors, from blue raspberry to pink lemonade to cherry pomengranate! No code needed, no minimum size order needed: I will just put one of these in every single package!
In connection with the above, I also wrote “5 Tips for Hydrating and Fueling on Longer Runs” for Ultima’s blog! Go read it for a breakdown of how I handle hydration and fueling on all of my long runs!
Check in with the Runners Love Yoga Instagram on Friday October 8 and other Fridays randomly chosen throughout the fall for giveaways, fun challenges, and more!
On October 29, which is National Cat Day, we will be launching special limited edition cat-print masks which will even have a pocket for your own filter!
In November, we will be launching matching sweatshirt and jogger sets! These are amazing, beautiful, comfortable, and I’ve been living in the samples!!
Before 2021 begins, you will have more than 100 yoga classes to choose from at Runners Love Yoga TV!
Indeed, 2020 has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Remember to check in with yourself, your friends, and hang tight to the moments, activities, and people that help make you a better, happier you.
Below: after my first race since the pandemic started with 1.) the best donut I’ve had all year and an iced tea, 2.) saw my sister at the same race—hadn’t seen her since Olympic Trials in Atlanta at the end of February!, 3.) modeling one of many of my tie-dye creations since this summer which I hand-dyed myself!, 4.) a still from Friday Flow #25 featuring the theme of “Unwind”
