I am cheating on running… with yoga. (You can add that to the list of things I never thought I’d say type.)
In Week 5 of my 9 Week Century Bike Race (100 miles) Training Plan, I decided to mix things up by nixing most of my running days. Why?
- I’m not actively training for any running races, so there’s no real reason to run besides the fact that I like it.
- I struggled to keep up with my cycling schedule because running made me too sore to bike long or hard enough the next day.
- All that cycling and running was making my hips reaaaally tight.
So far, I’ve swapped out 5 days of running (over 3 weeks) with power yoga classes. I was thinking about the comparison between the two earlier:
- Running, obviously, is the ‘harder’ workout minute-by-minute.
- I took my heart rate a few times in class, and it ranged from 90 bpm to 160 bpm (I have a really high heart rate naturally). Online estimates say a woman my size burns 300 – 500 calories during 80 minutes of power yoga.
- However, I’ve swapped out 3.0 or 4.0 mile runs (30 – 40 minutes) with an 80-minute power yoga class… so the end result (calorie burn) might be the same. I don’t count calories burned or eaten, but it’s an easy way to gauge how hard your body is working during an exercise.
- I’m not sure how much running helped my cycling, but I can definitely see how power yoga helps. It stretches out my tight muscles, builds powerful quads, and relaxes me.
- I’m still squeezing in one long run (about 5.0 to 6.0 miles) a week, so hopefully, I won’t have to start from running scratch when this cycling event is over.
- Yoga works my entire body (arms, core, legs) instead of pretty much just my legs. So I feel a bit more balanced all over.
All in all, I’d say it’s a good switch for Century training. And I’m really having fun improving my poses!
After class, I had the BEST dinner: Ginger Noodles with Tofu, a Rachel Ray recipe which Heather directed me to.
Heather’s review of the recipe said it was a little bland, so I swapped out the regular soy sauce for a Roasted Garlic Soy Sauce (and used a lot) and used about 5 inches of ginger between the two servings for the Husband and I. I also cooked off the extra broth because I wanted a thicker sauce.
One more modification: I made it around lunch and then let it sit in the fridge to cool for a few hours. I heated it up for dinner, but I think letting it sit brought the flavors out more.
Hidden in that bowl was broccoli slaw, mushrooms, tofu, whole wheat pasta, and lots of spice! 🙂
I also had a glass of Gatorade since I’m contained about my electrolyte balance.
Snacks this afternoon included a bowl of shredded wheat, honey, cinnamon, and almond breeze:
And pomegranate Chobani, strawberries, Grape Nuts, and 1/4 cup oatmeal.
A carb-y kind of afternoon because I’m tackling a 60 – 80 (I haven’t decided) bike ride in the morning! The Century is just in a few weeks… it’s crunch time!
Have you ever fallen in love with a workout? Which workout did you cheat on? 🙂
I love yoga! But I’m a runner at heart! I want to be able to sixty years old and still run five miles… so 4 years ago, I cut back on running and started doing hot yoga 3x per week. Because of this, I’m a better and healthier (injury free) runner. 🙂