My mileage was pretty low this past week. I was mentally ready to run again last Tuesday, but I waited until Friday to run again, as my foot needed a couple of extra days to recover after my half marathon. The arch was hurting quite a bit and my big toe was not happy to be in any of my shoes. The nail on my big toe is still hanging on, but it's tell-tale black and blue hue suggests it's only a matter of time before it falls off.
This week will probably also be an easy week, too. I'm leaving for a conference early tomorrow morning and, between the four hour time shift and conference activities, I'm going to just go with the flow. I'm hoping to get in a short speed work session this afternoon between laundry and packing and a couple of shorter easy runs while I'm in Cincinnati. I plan to log at least a couple of miles on Thursday morning with a conference-going friend who is starting to train for her first half marathon.
After the conference and travel madness is over, my plan is to run 3-4 times a week for the next couple of months. I want to maintain a fairly solid base, so that I'm ready to kick off marathon training in late December or early January. My plan is to do one speed work or hill work session, at least one shorter, easy run in the 3-5 mile range, and one longish run in the 6-10 mile range each week. I'm also planning to continue going to my yoga studio at least once a week and to do some more shorter practices at home to work on building core and upper body strength as well as keeping my hips stretched out. In fact, I'm considering shifting most of the focus to yoga for the month of November and aiming to do yoga every day for the entire month.
How do you approach running when you're not training for a race? Have you ever done a yoga challenge?
It sounds like you've got a good plan for keeping those legs strong and ready to run! I did a yoga challenge back in 2011, thinking I'd do 40 days of yoga. I think it took me almost three months to actually COMPLETE my 40 days of practicing yoga...I found that unfortunately, I don't really want to do yoga every day. But I do try to stretch a bit every day, mostly before bed.
ReplyDeleteYeah as long as you maintain a base you'll be ok. I do a lot more cross training during off season. That way I don't burn out.
ReplyDeleteI am taking this entire week off from running, I think, and then will resume next week. I want to keep running 2-3 times a week, but want to focus on cross training more. I do want to keep my weekend long run in the 10 mile range so I don't loose the level of fitness I worked so hard to attain! I have a 30 day yoga pass at core power that I am going to activate at the end of the month, so that will be my focus for the next month or so!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a wise running plan.
ReplyDeleteI did a 21-day yoga challenge last year. I enjoyed it, but found it difficult to maintain when a family crisis popped up mid-month. (On 2 days I called 10 minutes "enough" to count toward the streak.)
Have fun at the conference!
I think we're going to be on a very similar marathon training timeframe :) I am starting up late Dec early January myself. What plan/training program are you going with? I'm shooting for a Hal Higdon one myself but will probably mix in some of my local running store/group's marathon program as well.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good plan. I usually try to run 3 times a week and do something else one day a week. I find that otherwise I get sick of running and nobody wants that! My long run on the weekend is usually about 10-12 miles and then I do a couple of shorter ones during the week.
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