Runner of the Week: Sage Rountree

I've corresponded with this week's Runner of the Week, Sage Rountree, a few times over the past year. Back in May '09, I posted a review of a book she had written The Athlete's Guide to Yoga (VeloPress, 2008) as well as on the video of the same name by Endurance Films. Then the following July, I posted another review on her newest book, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga (VeloPress, 2009). I was impressed by Sage's knowledge of yoga and running as well as her willingness to share the information with me. After all she's written for top publications such as Runner’s World and Yoga Journal and has published articles in Running Times, Inside Triathlon, and Endurance Magazine.

I finally met Sage in person, a couple of weekends ago when I attended a USA-Triathlon sponsored workshop on supplemental training activities triathlon coaches can use with their athletes. The workshop was divided into three parts-Yoga, Resistance Training, and Running Drills. Sage lead the Yoga portion of the workshop. She was very personable and even though I was the only participant that needed a little "help" in a yoga position or two, she guided me in a very supportive manner. My body felt awkward but not my being. Thanks Sage!

Read on to learn more about Sage and her experiences as an internationally recognized authority on yoga for athletes and an expert endurance sports coach as well as being an athlete herself.

RD: You're located in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC area. Are you originally from that area?
Sage: I've been here ever since grad school, having been sucked into the university town vortex. Happily, it's a great place to be stuck. Before living here, I grew up in Winston-Salem, NC, and I was born in chilly Buffalo, NY, long enough ago to vaguely remember the Blizzard of '77.

RD: I'm sure people ask all the time, but is "Sage Rountree" your birth name?
Sage: Yes, they do, and I can see why, especially since I became a yoga teacher! I was born Sage Hamilton (my parents, in search of a flower name, got my name from the Burpee Seed Catalog), and I married the wonderful Wes Rountree for my last name. He tried to convince me not to take his name, because it's so hard to spell (there's no "d," and he's no relation to the very cool Richard Roundtree).

RD: I see you have a Ph.D, but I seem to recall you telling me it was in something like English Literature. What brought you into the world of yoga?
Sage: Prenatal yoga, when I was ready to feel the connection that yoga fosters. Before that, I'd had a few frustrating experiences with yoga—frustrating not because they were bad, but because I found them much harder than expected.

RD: What are the benefits of yoga to someone who runs?
Sage: Yoga confers whole-body strength; flexibility for fluid range of motion through the running stride; and mental focus. All of these directly complement running.

RD: If a runner (who's never experienced yoga) wants to join a class, what's the best form of yoga to look for, if there's not any sessions specifically geared for runners or athletes in his/her town?
Sage: It can be tough to choose a class, because without guidance you might stumble on something that's too slow-paced (and therefore boring), or too fast-paced (and therefore disheartening), and think that's all that yoga has to offer. My best advice: keep trying till you find the right fit. To help in that, you should look for classes that will teach you the proper alignment. These may be called "Hatha," "Beginners," "Alignment-Based," or "Iyengar." I really like the Anusara style as a good fit for runners; it focuses on alignment and on plenty of backbending, which, done carefully, can have huge benefit for runners.

RD: Your books The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and the The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga are great tools. How did writing the books come about for you?
Sage: I'd long wished aloud to my husband that I could find a book that explained how to mesh endurance sports and yoga. One day, he posited that I should write the book myself. All the books on my shelf at the time were published by VeloPress, so I approached them, and the rest is history.

RD: In addition to being a renowned yoga instructor and frequent contributor to Runner's World and Endurance Magazine, you're also a triathlon coach. How long have you been a triathlete? What drew you to the sport?
Sage: I did my first triathlon in 2005, thinking the training would be a welcome break from training for road marathons, and it was.

RD: What got you into Triathlons?
Sage: The fun of the new, and a desire for cross-training after a season where I incurred a stress fracture. I came for the variety, and I stayed for the friendly people and the crazy joy of doing three things in one event.

RD: What do you enjoy most about the tri? The swim? The bike? The run?
Sage: I like funky swims, like the 53-degree rough chop we enjoyed at the 2008 Age-Group World Championships. Like yoga, they put me totally in the moment (the drive for survival will do that!). But the run is always my favorite part, both because I love running and because my cycling is so mediocre that I get to feel fast as I catch the cyclists who don't like to run.

RD: What are your favorite training foods?
Sage: Plain old original PowerBars (the classic, chewy ones, called PowerBar Performance Energy), in Peanut Butter or Honey Roasted Nut. Tried and true, they've worked for me for so long. I'll eat most of one for breakfast before a race or hard workout, or as snack or lunch on the bike. I've also come to love, much to my surprise, the flavor of the PowerBar Double Latte gels. They don't taste so much like coffee to me as like caramel. Ah, sugar!
Speaking of sugar, I'm also very partial to afternoon tea—scones, muffins, and the like—when I'm in heavy training. My children were completely spoiled as I trained for Ironman Coeur d'Alene last year; we went to various bakeries and coffeehouses for snacks almost daily.
RD: Scones for training. I like that! Now I have a good excuse when I pick one up with my morning coffee. Guess I need to find a race to train for too, huh?
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RD: Are you a lone runner or do you run with some buddies? What do you like about each?
Sage: Both. I have a fantastic group of women I run with most weeks; I love it for the camaraderie, for the humor, and for the extra push. I like to dissociate and focus externally in the early stages of a workout or race, and I can be very chatty. I also like the work of bearing down and focusing that I get in my solo runs. To that end, my ideal long workouts—bike or run—involve riding or running to meet a group, doing the middle section with them, and continuing on alone.

RD: What’s the funniest or oddest thing that’s happened to you while on a run?
Sage: The Frosty 50K at Salem Lake this January was run on a very, very cold day—14 degrees at the start, and not much warmer at the end. For hours, I enjoyed listening to the sound of the ice on the lake. Sometimes it gurgled like a toilet in distress, which was funny; sometimes it wailed like a musical saw, which was odd. That sound really stands out as a memory from that day.

RD: What’s your biggest running and or triathlon accomplishment? Why?
Sage: It's cliché, but probably requalifying for the Boston Marathon at the Boston Marathon.
RD: That's an awesome accomplishment. I'm still trying for the qualifying time to get there in the first place. Maybe this fall at Marine Corps it will happen for me.

RD: Do you have a favorite brand of running shoe? Which model? Why?
Sage: I've been running in the Adidas Supernova Glide for a while now, and I really like them. My favorite shoes ever were the Asics Gel DS Trainer 12s. Rest in peace, friends.
RD: It's funny, but the discontinuation of a faithful running shoe, is like the death of close friend.

RD: Do you have a favorite race that you run each year?
Sage: The UNC Wellness Center Super Sprint Triathlon, which takes place across the street from my house, is a logistical favorite. While I prefer long-distance races, I actually place better, comparatively, at short races. Some of my past favorites are gone now, the Coach Bubba 20K in Durham and the Carrboro Classic Long-Course Duathlon. They've gone the way of the Asics Gel DS Trainer 12s.

RD: If you were speaking to a group of non-runners or runner wannabes and trying to encourage them to run, what would you say?
Sage: Work together. Accountability and positive peer pressure will help you build the consistency you need to let your body adapt to the (good) stresses of running.

RD: Open Mike: Share anything you‘d like about your running experiences, past accomplishments, goals, dreams….anything you haven’t previously shared.
Sage: I was a very nonathletic child and came to running while in graduate school. We had a big chocolate Lab who needed a lot of exercise. I'd take him on walks in the woods, then run to stay with him. That running grew very slowly, and what a gift that was. While it's noble to set a lofty goal—couch to a marathon, say—your body will adapt better if you take things slowly, organically, and for the pure joy of it. Keep it a treat, like running in the woods with a beloved dog, not a chore.

Thanks Sage for sharing with us a little about your amazing life and your gift of yoga that you share with athletes of all levels. To learn more about Sage, be sure to check out her website as well as the new website for The Carrboro Yoga Studio. The clip below gives a sneak peak into the studio.

The Carrboro Yoga Company from Mary Lide on Vimeo.

The Athlete's Guide to Yoga

The more I read and the more I begin to practice what I'm reading, I'm becoming a firm believer in whole-body strength including a strong core, balance, flexibility, and the mind-body connection. Developing all of these areas helps build endurance as well as provide you with a built-in "back-up" system, because each area supports the other. A strong core supplies the energy and supports the legs. Flexibility and balance helps prevent injury. Having a strong mind-body connection helps a runner become more aware of his/her body, knowing when to pull-back or push-through without injury. I'm also learning how important breathing is to the endurance athlete.

Yoga is a time-honored discipline that helps pull all of these areas together. Through Twitter, I've befriended the creator of two new tools for athletes. Sage Rountree is the author of The Athlete's Guide to Yoga (Velopress, 2008) as well as the DVD of the same name from Endurance Films. Sage really knows her stuff. She's a registered yoga teacher as well as a certified USA Triathlon and USA Cycling coach. She's also a runner having run everything from 5Ks to the half-ironman to the marathon, including Boston, with a PR of 3:39.

I am a complete novice to the practice of yoga. I began my first yoga experience a few months ago reviewing the DVD, Yoga for Runners and got hooked. I'm still a novice and have a great deal to learn, but the added flexibility and breathing control that I've gained so far have been very helpful in my running. That's why I was so excited to have learned about Sage's book and DVD.

For many, myself included, yoga can be somewhat overwhelming and intimidating because of the way it's often portrayed on TV—the meditating guru in a contortionist pose that you know you'll never be able to achieve. Well, like many things in the media, that's not a realistic portrayal of yoga. There are many beginner-level yoga classes, books, and DVDs available the will help you get started.

I was immediately drawn to Sage's book because I knew it was geared for athletes. In the preface of her book, she says she hated her first yoga class. With this kind of honesty, I knew right then, this author could relate to the runner and wannabe yoga student. We runners often can't see the point of doing something that doesn't involve aerobic exercise or strength training. Why do we need yoga? I stretch after I run. It will take precious time away from my training.

There are some good books available on yoga for runners and athletes, but The Athlete's Guide to Yoga goes a step further. This book explains how incorporating yoga into your training routine can benefit your overall strength, flexibility, and endurance. Not only does it explain the benefits of flexibility, strength, balance, injury prevention, and mental training, it shows you how to incorporate it into your training routines.

If you're a triathlete, you already know how hard it is to get in the needed training for the three events (swim, bike, run), so trying to add strength training and yoga into your already busy weekly training routine can seem daunting. Sage does the work for you by providing sample weekly workout charts including the strength and yoga elements for the base period, building period, and the peak period weeks of your triathlon training. She also provides similar workout charts for runners training for the half-marathon.

The book provides a wealth of photos showing each pose and the content is written in a very user-friendly tone. I'm a bit dyslexic with following directions so, if I can figure out the poses and be successful in completing them, just about anybody can.

Another added benefit is the home routines provided at the end of the book. Sage has provided several routines for warm-up, core -strengthening , cool-down, restorative, etc. This handy guide provides miniature photos of each pose in the routine as well as the page number in the book where more information can be found regarding each pose if needed. I actually ended up pulling this section out of my copy of the book and I use it as a quick reference when doing the various routines.

A sample DVD is included with the book which provides a preview of the full DVD version of the book. The sample DVD actually provides a complete warm-up & cool-down routine. The full DVD version mimics the book in its simplicity and non-intimidating ease-of-use. One great advantage of the DVD is that you can use the preset yoga routines that are provided or you can arrange the segments on the DVD to create your own personalized workout. Almost like having your own personal yoga instructor.

I highly recommend you try out Sage's book, The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and the DVD. A whole new world of strength, flexibility, and focus will be opened up to you that will definitely benefit your running. Look for her new book, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, coming out soon!