Moving Through the Dark: Trail Running and Yoga
A Running and Yoga workshop on the trails of Svalbard, built to bring joy, connection, and grounded tools into the polar night season ahead.
Workshop Overview
As the days grow shorter and the dark season sets in, this workshop is a chance to hold onto your energy and find joy in movement and community. It pairs a trail run through Svalbard's mountains with yoga built specifically for runners, so you leave with tools to carry with you through the season ahead.
Whether you have run trails your whole life or have never laced up a pair of trail shoes, this workshop invites you to build a positive relationship with movement, reconnect with the mountains around you, and learn how to support both your body and mind through the months ahead. Through running and yoga, you will explore Svalbard's trails with a guide who knows them intimately, build community and motivation by sharing the experience together, learn recovery practices built specifically for runners that you can keep using long after the workshop ends, and strengthen your resilience and presence to fully show up for yourself, even in darker times.
About the Run
Have you always wanted to run through nature and on mountains, but did not know where to start? Or have you already fallen in love with trail running and want to spread the joy? Maaike is a geophysicist by day at UNIS and a Dutch national team trail runner by night. She has spent years living and running the trails of Svalbard, and it is how she has come to know this place inside and out. There is no one better to explore it with. She will guide you up and down Lindholmhøgda, with short stops along the way to talk technique. Fueled by Tailwind Nutrition Norge, there will be energy gels on the trail to keep you going.
About the Yoga
Afterward, we head to Soul Peak Studio for recovery yoga with Ahyeong. It is practice built specifically for the body after a run, helping you recover through targeted work and grounding practices, with tools you can take with you and use on your own, long after the workshop ends. This pairing of trail and stillness, movement and recovery, is what makes the workshop what it is.
About the Hosts
Maaike is a researcher in geophysics at UNIS and the leader of Longyearbyen's running club, as well as a Dutch national team trail runner. She has spent years living and running the trails of Svalbard, and it shows in how she moves through them. She brings a playful and inclusive approach, encouraging runners of all levels to discover joy and structure through movement.
Ahyeong is the founder of Soul Peak Studio and a yoga teacher based in Svalbard. Since moving here, she has fallen in love with running herself, and as both a runner and a yoga practitioner, she understands firsthand how deeply the two connect. That passion shapes her approach to this session, helping your body recover and restore after the trail.
This workshop is fueled by Tailwind Nutrition Norge on the trail and by Soul Peak Studio afterward, with tea themed snacks waiting for you at the end.
No prior experience in running or yoga is required. This workshop is designed for all levels. We do ask you to wear trail running shoes for grip and safety.
Date: Saturday, September 12
Time: 10:00 to 13:00
Location: Lindholmhøgda, then Soul Peak Studio