Bear with me. My coverage of this week’s Y classes will explain to you why I need advice.
I really liked Wednesday’s cycling class in the it’s-horrible-awesome kind of way. It was horrible because it hurt me, but it was awesome because I rode 9.4 miles. We did several “running” intervals during the class, and when the instructor said, “We’ll be focusing on running today,” I was thrilled because I know I can run. Well, it turns out that bike running is a heckuva lot harder than real running. I definitely want to add a regular cycling class to my cross-training schedule.
Today’s Tone to the Max class wasn’t too bad. We had an instructor-in-training, so the flow of the class wasn’t as smooth as it usually is, and she used too much equipment: Bosu ball, medicine ball, squishy-weighted ball, exercise ball, and dumbbells. The only thing we didn’t use was a body bar. I’m all about mixing it up, but let’s limit the equipment to an essential 2 or 3.
After TTTM, I took the Yoga for Athletes class, which I really enjoyed! I’d never taken an actual yoga class before, but it wasn’t a problem. We used our shoulders for a lot of the stances, and they were already tired from TTTM, but I don’t think I’ll let that stop me from taking the class in the future. I really need to work on my flexibility, and I think this just might do the trick.
So all these classes present a bit of a problem. If all continues to go well with my knee, I start my half-marathon training a week from Monday. During my training, I want to keep strength training (TTTM) and working on my flexibility (YFA). I know I should do some cross training (cycling and eventually swimming), and I want to do one day of speed work. Plus I have three other days of running (including a long run) to do. Am I being too ambitious? Can I drop a day of running for the cycling? Can cycling count for speed work? I feel like I need a trainer to tell me, “Do this. Don’t do that.” Advice, anyone?
4 Responses to “Advice Needed for Over-Ambitious Runner”
Wow!! That’s quite a bit of stuff going on! My thoughts would be that:
1) Cycling can’t truly replace speed work. It is a good supplement b/c it helps with overall turnover and such, but you need to do running speedwork to improve your running speed.
2) That being said cycling is an awesome form of cross-training especially like what you described. Normally I’d say you could cross-train on one of your “easy” running days.
3) Without knowing your training schedule I would say you could drop one easy day of running and put in a day of cycling. You should multiply the running miles by 3 to get an equivalent workout, but I’d say keep the cadence/pace at an easy level.
4) If you start to feel overwhelmed you could skip a day or two of the TTTM or YFA.
Those are just some of my general thoughts without knowing a lot of details.
PS. The best training for running a race is – running! What half are you training for?
I just found this article from Runner’s World’s Ask Coach Jenny section. It says pretty much the same things that I did, but might be of interest.
Ooohh, I’m in your boat! I have such a hard time fitting it all in – usually I just fall back on runnign and let all the rest slide! My training starts a week from Monday too! And my goal for this plan is to keep up the core work, strength and to fit in yoga. I’d love to see your final plan!!
I’d agree with crossn81 – cycling can’t replace speedwork, but would be a good substitute for an easy running day. If you need to cut something out, my inclination would be to cut out a day of the TTTM before anything else. If you’re going to run a half, I definitely wouldn’t go below 3 days a week of running.