So week two of my unofficial training is in the books. It was supposed to be an easy “off” week, but I’m afraid I didn’t make it so. I did my weekday workouts and runs as planned, but man, the heat makes it tough. We’ve had double digit days of triple digit heat now. And the humidity, my goodness gracious. After I run, my clothes take over a day to dry out from the soaking sweat. Insane.
The weekend was supposed to be an easy 4 miles on Saturday and cross train on Sunday. But I turned the weekend into a two day duathalon. I turned the 4 miler into 5, then went afterwards to yoga. Sunday I did an 8 mile trail run, followed by yoga. The trail run was fun. I met with some friends and we ran Erwin Park. It’s a great trail with some rather challenging parts if you choose to do them. It’s mostly mountain bikers out there, but we did see some other runners. We got started at 6:30 am trying to beat the heat, but we didn’t. It’s hot at all hours. Only bonus running that early is that the sun wasn’t leaning against our bodies right away.
As far as the second part of the two day duathalon, yoga also kicked my butt. For people who think it’s a relaxing easy stretching time. It is relaxing and stretching, but it’s not easy…especially after running. It’s hard holding a series of Warrior poses on tired legs. But hopefully doing so has made me stronger. I’m a firm believer in yoga for endurance athletes. It strengthens so many stabilizing and core muscles, which often get neglected by just running. It also does help those of us unflexible types to get more bendy. It also works all the other muscle groups that are also neglected by just running or biking.
Anyway, I was pretty sore after my “easy off” week. But hopefully I’ll be fine for this week’s more challenging set of workouts. Bring it!
Piratebobcat 