Aramco Houston Half Marathon Training Week 7

Week seven of training brought more yoga and a run! It almost brought two whole runs, but I decided to not get carried away. :P I should probably rename these blog posts to "weekly yoga run down" but whatever.

Monday I went to my favorite gentle vinyasa class in which we focused on chaturangas. So it was anything but easy or gentle. Uff. But we did get to work on proper form and I'm still aware that I'm not strong enough to do them properly for a full class. Noted.

Tuesday I went to Barre with my co-worker Emily. It was tough but fun. Especially with a buddy.

Wednesday I jetted to the running store straight from work to make it for the group run. Our route was different this go around and we set out looking for Christmas lights! We went by an old house I used to live in, so I took them down my favorite street from when I first started running distances 8-9 years ago. Craziness, right? I got to run with the speedier group, but in reality they slowed down a bit so I wouldn't be running around town solo in the dark. Thanks guys! We had to stop at a bunch of stoplights and somewhere along the way I forgot to restart my garmin, so the time is an estimate of when we left the store to when we returned with our stop light stops factored in.

And then I rushed straight to a packed yoga studio for restorative yoga. Classes have been packed for the challenge, so we were practically stretching on top of each other. Uff.

I had the day off on Friday and had big plans to hit some yoga classes and do a long run, and somehow that ended up being just an incredibly lazy day with the pug.

Saturday I worked and Sunday I started the day with a power vinyasa yoga class. Showered, went to work, and then had big plans to head back to restorative yoga after work, but I felt like I was dying. I felt fluish and felt like I shouldn't spread that to everyone. Spread Christmas cheer, not death flu. PSA.

Aramco Houston Half Marathon Training

For the Houston Half Marathon, I've decided to do a 12 week training plan. I wanted to give myself enough time to recover from the Bemidji Marathon, but not soooooo much time that I no longer had a desire to run. I turn from motivated running beast to couch potato sloth in no time at all.

I decided to take two full weeks off from running to recover, running only when I needed some endorphins that only running can give you. And only for a few miles at a time. Instead during this period I wanted to add in yoga and strength training.

For the training cycle I plan to focus on more quality miles over quantity. I'd like to keep the strength training and yoga mixed in to the bunch as well as speed work, tempos and long runs. Since running 10-15 miles each weekend is super boring, I've swapped out some of the long runs for a tempo run, giving me two speed sessions in one week, but far enough apart during the week that my body shouldn't hate me, too badly.

This flexibility will also help me through start of winter. In the event of a blizzard/ice storm/major cold front, I can hack a 6-8 mile run with mileage at tempo pace, but I cannot hack a 12-15 mile long run.

What are you favorite workouts to do while training for a half? I'm looking for some pep to add to my routine!