54 Sun Salutations Down 54 to Go – Yoga for Runners – Part 1

108 Sun Salutations are a yoga tradition. I did my first 108 10 or 11 years ago and I was hooked but I’m not quite sure why. They are difficult, It takes a long time, it can hurt, I can feel like a wuss and the list goes on. But when you finish, and it doesn’t matter if you did all of them or half of them you feel good.

Yoga and running have gone hand in hand for me when I started training for my first marathon. In 2001, I was training for the 2002 LA Marathon and quickly made yoga part of my training. I had taken a couple of classes and got my butt kicked. So, I thought I dig a little deeper. I took a beginners class twice a week. It was great balance for my running. In fact, I probably worked harder on yoga than running.

In the following years I would keep up the yoga while training for marathons, half marathon, biking and swimming. I really liked yoga and it was making me stronger and more flexible, physically and mentally. Then I went to my first 108 Sun Salutation practice. It became tradition. I did them on Solstices, Equinox(s), or right around the beginning of a new year.

In 2009, I started an annual 108 Sun Salutation class at Breakthru Fitness. But the class schedule difficult to fit in all 108, so I broke it into two sessions. We didn’t have 2 and a half hours. Plus, 54 quality Sun Salutations at a time are hard enough. 5 years later and they are still difficult. Another  thing I threw in was doing the first 54 to purge out things we want to let go of in the new year. We write them down before class and then burn them after class. The second 54 will be for setting our intentions/goals for the new year.

Burning the things we want to purge from our lives

The rest is history. We did 54 last night and purged out a lot. Now we have 54 to go. You still have a chance to join us. Next Thursday, January 9, at 7;30 PM at Breakthru fitness. Or, you can do them on your own. Here’s last night breakdown:

6 sets of 9 Sun Salutation. We take about 1 minute between each set to wipe the sweat off our mats:

Set 1 – 9 Series A
Set 2 – 9 Series B
Set 3 – 9 Series B
Set 4 – 9 Series A
Set 5 – 9 Series B
Set 6 – 9 Series A
108 2014

Train Focused, Coach Steve Mackel – Yogi in Training

January 3, 2014 | Filed Under Steve's Posts 

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