Róisín Treacy -Athlete-review

My name is Róisín Treacy and I joined Yoga Sacred Space during transition year of secondary school. I hadn’t done much yoga before TY but I was doing some classes at my school. I tried one class with Teresa as many people recommended it to my mum and I instantly loved it.

It was like getting into a Porsche after being in a Nissan! It was such a calming space where I could let go of any stresses from school and training.

I also had an injury just before I started with Teresa and my injury healed within a few weeks after starting yoga. I also stayed injury-free for the rest of transition year despite doing huge amounts of training. I was releasing all the tight muscles in every yoga class and it actually strengthened my core and legs a lot for my races.

Yoga is harder than many people say! There is no doubt in my mind that participating in yoga during TY made me have the best running year of my life. The breathing exercises in all the classes were incredibly useful for difficult training sessions and competitions.

I won the All-Ireland 1500m indoor title for the first time ever that year and I thank Teresa for this. She gave me a breathing exercise for races where I countdown from 5 continuously in my head and match it with my inhales and exhales.

I’m still using this technique and plan to use it forever! I also won the 1500m All-Ireland Schools Steeplechase that year with the same technique.It helped me forget the pressures of competing and performing when I was only tuned into my breath. In both races I felt as though I wasn’t even working hard and someone else was doing the running for me. It was an incredible outer body experience and I hope this feeling happens in many more races because it makes winning so much easier!

I did one specific 800m race in the Leinsters in TY where I was coming last for 3 laps out of 4 on the indoor track and I was about to give up completely when I just suddenly found a huge change of gears and stormed to victory with only 100m left to run. I never felt anything like this and I believe it was thanks to Teresa’s breathing technique once again!

Unfortunately I had to stop Yoga for 5th year and 6th year as I didn’t have enough time to do it along with running training and a lot of studying for my Leaving Cert. I am now heading over to Colorado to embark on a running and academic scholarship and I hope to return to Teresa’s yoga classes online during my time in college. I believe this will take my running to a whole new level during my stay here.