Momentum Monday: Adding Soccer and Hot Yoga into Training

Well hello lovelies.

What a great weekend it was. I spent some time on a patio with friends, a few hours at a New Balance event, a couple hours suffering through a long run in the heat, a few more hours barreling through the local hills on my bike and Sunday afternoon celebrating my mum.

MANY years ago when I was still new to the whole life thing.

Looking back over my training this week, I was still cautious as I find I am not fully recovered from the marathon but I am almost there. Just making sure I am eating lots of healthy food, sleeping extra hours if I need it and easing up on intensity if I am tired.

I added a couple of new things this week. For one, I am playing a couple of team sports this summer just for the pure fun of it and to connect with a few of my friends who are not in the endurance sports scene, including my sister and brother in law.

Love these two to death.

I also found I was suffering from sore legs and super tight calves so I wanted to add a bit of extra TLC into my routine. My local Goodlife Fitness just added in a hot yoga studio and I was beyond thrilled! I got up early on a Thursday morning to check it out, following a particularly grueling workout on the Wednesday night. I had done my first brick workout of the season with my team which involved a trail run and a time trial bike session that involved hill repeats in a high gear and a hard tempo effort. Tired doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I take fairly regular spin classes at the club so I had kept an eye on the renovations at the gym but I had not seen the transformation until Thursday. Until now, the upper level of the gym used to be extra machines and space for stretching, but the gym is so big that the renovations never impacted my workouts.

My gym at 5:30 AM

I was so pleasantly surprised at the transformation. It was like walking into a hot yoga studio. The process was quite simple as well. I picked up a chip at the front desk and placed it in front of my mat for the instructor to collect before class started.

There is a separate room with storage, a sink and yoga supplies before you enter into the practice room. I loved how hot they kept the room and the floor was almost spongy which made the balancing poses an extra work out.

The class itself was lovely. It was hard enough to get a work out in but gentle enough to not be difficult at 6 AM. It was the perfect way to wake up. I will continue to incorporate hot yoga into my regular fitness routine going forward because it helps ease tired muscles, increases flexibility and range of motion and works on building core strength. Another key thing hot yoga provides is heat training adaptation. I had a particularly difficult long run this weekend because of the heat and humidity. Totally not complaining on this one, I will just begin to add in mid-day runs, use the Goodlife Fitness sauna and continue taking a weekly hot yoga class to help my body adapt to heat training.

This is what my workouts looked like this week:

MONDAY: 10 KM with 3 one mile repeats

TUESDAY: 1 hour soccer game

WEDNESDAY: Brick workout – 45 minute, zone 2 trail run. 1 hour time trial road ride

THURSDAY: 1 hour Hot Yoga Class at Goodlife Fitness, 1 hour run workout with a 5 KM tempo run

FRIDAY: rest (and MAN did I need it)

SATURDAY: 17 KM long run in the heat

SUNDAY: 2 hour, 60 KM road ride

What is a new thing that you have added to your training this month?