Training update w/e 1-24-16, or not

 As I mentioned in the post of looking forward to the year, I had tweaked my hip and upper hamstring . Turns out to have been a bit worse than I hoped. I was thinking a week off and I would be good to go but it has taken much longer. I tested things on the 7th and although i had a decent pace for 5 miles it hurt the whole time. I have not even tried to run since. It has been feeling much better for the past week now and I am ready to give it a test in the next day or two. I really needed to get things going again for my sanity and for Spring racing !

 I have not been completely idle as you would expect. I have kept up with the core and body weight and/or free weights nearly every day and in addition I have introduced something new to the arsenal,  Bikram Yoga.

 Yes, it's true. Although I have dabbled in some yoga in the past including almost a year of 30 minute workouts 4 or 5 days a week at home a couple of years ago I have never done a class before. Well, actually I did. Nearly 3 years ago I went to a hot yoga class at Arrichion with a friend. It was a 50 minute flow yoga. I lasted 45 minutes and decided I had enough of that !

 Then several months ago my #1 training partner Laura began going to Bikram and fell in love with it. I think she has missed maybe 2 days in nearly 6 months now.  I had been considering giving it a shot so why not now ? So on the 8th I met her at the studio with one goal , last the entire 90 minutes.
 I did survive and what a workout  ! I did have to take several short breaks but I did at least one set of all the poses and despite sweating over 5lbs of water I kind of enjoyed it. Much different than the other class I had done before. Since then I have been to 9 classes in two weeks. I have already noticed a lot of improvement but I have so very far to go.

 Although I can't see myself doing it 7 days a week I do plan to try and get in at least 3 classes a week , maybe 4. It is time consuming and can be hard to squeeze in a class everyday and once  do run again I need that time for training.

 For those that aren't familiar with Bikram Yoga it is a 90 minute session with 26 poses bookended by breathing exercise. Every class is just like the one before it, never varying from the routine. The room is typically around 103-104 F
 Here is a chart of all the poses.Each pose is done twice before moving on to the next. If you click on the picture it will zoom so you can actually read it !

 I do hope to have some running for you on the next update but for now, namaste