Reworking my workout routine

RandiNoelle

Hello all y'all!

I'm a 5' 7", 29-year-old female. I am currently 185 lbs, down from my highest weight of 270 lbs (June 2015). I'm feeling a little stuck in my "same old" exercise routine and am wanting to switch some things up now that I'm a little lighter, and feel more capable and comfortable with the gym I attend.

I work out with a trainer twice a week for an hour doing weight lifting, strength training, and some HIIT on Monday and Thursday evenings. I do a water aerobics class on Wednesdays evenings that incorporates a lot of core work and some strength training (it genuinely is a great workout, if you do it right, and the instructor keeps me moving for the entire 90 minute session). There is also a hour long basic yoga class that I go to on Saturdays mornings. I love all of these things and want to continue doing them while adding more into my workout routine. The gym I attend also has several classes during the day, including a cardio boxing class, which I’m interested in trying out.

In the beginning of my weight loss, I was just walking then moved into jogging 4 miles every morning (all outdoors). When I started lifting weights, I slowly let that go (mostly because I became a little lazy and my bed was just too cozy for me to pull myself out of it at 4:45 in the morning) but would like to start it up again as I'd like to begin training for a half marathon taking place in April 2017.

My questions for y'all are:
1.) With the classes I take at the gym, would jogging 4 miles/3 days a week be overdoing it? If so, how could I incorporate jogging back into my workout schedule without wearing myself out?

2.) I’d like to bump up my workouts to 6 days a week. I know I need to allow my muscles time to rest and recover after hard workouts. Are there some strength based exercises I could do that won’t overwork these muscles that I can do the day after a hard workout?

shagerty777

Personally I think you'll have to concentrate on your training for the 1/2 and make it the priority while cutting back on the other things for now. Consider reading "Run for Life" by Roy Wallack, it's a great read, very entertaining and educational. He suggests alternative crosstraining programs for runners you might be able to use.

deannalfisher

looking at what you already do - adding running to them in training for a half-marathon would help - they would work well as cross-training (the water aerobics); or stretch/recover (the yoga) or strength training (maybe have the training reduce the HIIT a bit)...I would recommend finding a 0 to half-marathon program to try for structured training

RandiNoelle

Thanks @shagerty777 and @deannalfisher for your suggestions!

I'm defiantly going to add "Run for Life" to my Christmas break TBD list.