Week 1 Recap

Ok, so I get a F for blogging last week. Sorry about that! Here's a recap:

Sunday: After my very hilly three mile run on Saturday, I decided to do an hour of yoga on Sunday to loosen up. When I started training for this half-marathon, I thought the shorter workouts in the first weeks of the training would be a perfect opportunity for me to start incorporating more yoga into my routine - I've fallen off the yoga wagon in a big way lately. I found a great website, yogatoday.com, which posts a new sixty minute yoga video daily. Every day, the workout focuses on something new (i.e. yoga for digestion, yoga for spinal flexibility, etc). I started incorporating shoulder-stands and the yoga felt great ... until the next day, when my hamstrings were SO sore. I couldn't believe that my first real pain from training was from a day of yoga and not running. I resolved to start stretching better after runs.

Monday: Mike and I have a standing date to run every Monday (the only weeknight he doesn't have to work). I took him on the Falcon crest run, from last Wednesday. He enjoyed the sights but not the hills. I didn't remember it being that hilly!

Tuesday: My hamstrings were still SO sore today, so I decided to take a day off of running. I had to do a snowy plover survey at work, and our beach is almost exactly two miles long. I figured it was perfect. The walk loosened me up but didn't add any stress to my already achy body. I also always love a good bird watching session. :)

Wednesday: I cannot for the life of me remember where I ran on Wednesday. It's crazy how your memory goes...

Thursday: I had today off, so I took a bike ride on my new-to-me road bike. I bought it off of Craigslist for $150. It rained in the morning but the sun peaked out and I was able to steal away for 40 minutes. Even though I'd been (up until lately) taking a 60 min spin class twice a week, it has not prepared me for road biking, which I found challenging.

Friday: Rest day, aahhh! We drove up to San Jose to visit my parents

Saturday: My sister has been going to a fancy yoga studio in Los Gatos for the last year or so and has been asking me to join her for a Saturday morning yoga session for months. Now that my shoulder's healed up (I wasn't doing yoga for about six months because of a pinched nerve in my right shoulder), I couldn't get out of it... ha ha, actually I was very much looking forward to it. I even went out Friday night a bought a new yoga mat, since my last one was not as sticky as it used to be. We showed up to the class about 20 minutes early to get a good seat. The yoga studio is so nice, very beautiful! The really crazy thing about the class which was really unsettling at first was the fact the studio is kept at a temperature between 85 and 95 degrees (and it wasn't even a Bikram class, that class is held at a temperature between 95 and 104 degrees!). I was so uncomfortable, sweating while I just waited for the class to start! But after about ten minutes, I got used to it, and I noticed my muscles felt much better, very loose! Also, my skin looked amazing afterwards (no dark circles under my eyes!). Another first was the class was 90 minutes long - I've never done yoga for that long before. All forty people in the class were pretty darn good at yoga, too. I definitely held my own but was not able to do all the poses!

Oh, and the yoga instructor was NOT human! First off, she didn't sweat! I was sweating just waiting for the class to start!! Second, she was so stick thin. Third, she was phenomenal at yoga - she could do things I can only hope to one day be able to do.