When the Olympic Trials standard for the marathon for women moved from 2:45:00 (6:17/mi.) to 2:37:00 (5:59/mi.), or, from a time that I know I can get to one that I am really not sure I can do, this seemed like a good opportunity to adjust my target marathons from fast, flat(ter) courses to one that I actually really just wanted to do because of where it was: my hometown of Pittsburgh. This was my 12th marathon—I actually wasn’t sure of the exact number for a bit….somewhere along the line after you’ve been running a while, you just lose track!!! Pittsburgh and this hometown feel was a wonderfu ..read more

Incorporating yoga blocks into your practice can do all of the following: make a pose more accessible, deepen the stretch of a pose, and sometimes it will actually do both of these. Very often making a pose more accessible allows you to get a more targeted or specific stretch! You should never feel like you are in any way lessening your practice by incorporating props; on the contrary, props can allow you to be more in tune with what you need in any given pose on any given day, and to be more attuned to how seemingly small changes—like putting a block under a palm—can drastically change how a ..read more

There was a time, mainly in college, when I really disliked—nay, hated—the post-season break. This was due mostly to three main reasons: As a collegiate varsity athlete, so much of my daily life revolved around practice that I just felt really adrift without that structure. If you are a collegiate varsity athlete, your day centers around your practice. I was (wrongly) convinced that I would lose an exorbitant amount of fitness during my week off or however long my break was. This was rather anxiety-producing—on top of already feeling like something was missing from my day without my workou ..read more

A few times over the past year or so, I have thought to myself about how short 15 seconds actually really is, especially while running. On any given run, how almost absurdly easy would it be to go either :15 slower or faster than you did over the course of the whole run? On Dec. 8, 2019, I qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials by running 2:44:45, or just :15 under the 2:45:00 standard. Of course, the difference between that incredible marathon day and any average run is that on THAT DAY, I was laser focused on “running the red line" (as the pacers called it!) to hit *just* under that 2:45. By ..read more

I just love tree pose. If there is one pose that is easy to deploy in the middle of the day for a little “stop, drop, and yoga,” this particular asana might be it. Tree pose, or vrksasana, is a pose which, as I often will tell my students, works great as its own standalone one-pose yoga class, requiring balance, focus, leg strength and stability, and it is a hip opener! So next time you are in an afternoon slump—or maybe you are feeling great but need a little yoga break anyhow!—here are X variations of tree pose to plant wherever you may be! Tree is easy to do sans mat, with just a little spa ..read more

A little goes a long way when it comes to injury prevention. Taking just a little bit of extra time—I’m talking 5-10 min. per day, and probably not even every day—can keep you from taking a whole lot of time off due to a truly developed injury. Keep the weird little niggles and bigger ailments faced by runners at bay with these simple exercises. These 5 Exercises on the Half Foam Roller. Here’s a link to a higher density half foam roller in case you need one too! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ann Mazur (@runnersloveyoga) 2. These Shin Splint Prevention Exercises, in particul ..read more

Whether you are a student, a teacher, or a parent, the beginning of the school year is often one of the more stressful times of the year. This might be especially true this particular year, when so many of us have been online for nearly a year and a half and have settled into new routines as a result. Do we even remember how to do an in-person “back to school,” let alone one that feels like an odd mix of trepidation (is this even safe?) and enthusiasm for a “return to (sort of) normal”? How do we do this “back to school” thing again? It has been a while for all of us. I know that I myself, dur ..read more

Some of the most “basic” or essential yoga poses are not actually the most complicated of asanas. However, subtle and specific linguistic cues can make a tremendous difference in how you personally, individually experience a pose. You know how someone giving you a compliment can transform your day? One little bit of helpful language can also transform your yoga pose, targeting just the areas that YOU need to target. Here, I will give you my favorite tips and tricks for Warrior I, Warrior II, High Lunge, Triangle, Extended Side Angle, and Tree Pose. Warrior I Front toes face forward, back f ..read more

Even if you are doing yoga at home, you can practice yoga with me in beautiful places like the above overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains through runnersloveyoga.tv, where most classes are in the 20-30 min. range, geared towards the specific needs of runners, and new content is added weekly! Explore the library of workouts HERE. Since 2020, we all have—hopefully!—gotten better at navigating home workouts: how to do them, what to do exercise-wise, how to time our home workouts, how to set up the best home yoga space. From spring 2020 onwards, we rushed to buy and caused a fairly large back ord ..read more

During the pandemic, I became even more devoted to my daily swims. I really just love being in the water, and the water was really my saving grace for both mind and body for me during the long months of 2020 stretching into 2021. However, there was just one thing that did not get better with swimming: my eyebrows. The change was so gradual that it took me a while to actually figure out what was different about my face, and then it dawned on me: my eyebrows had started to turn bleach blonde from chlorine!! (Chlorine is a bleaching agent!) I am still on my first jar of this! It really does go a ..read more