All aboard the "cross-train"!

I've been thinking a lot about "cross-training" lately.  Mainly, due to the training schedule I am following, made by a super-fast runner, (she must know what she is talking about) Nicole Stevenson (google her, she is really fast!).  She has "core work/cross training" added into my schedule every week.

At first, I thought this was going to be a huge problem for me.  I am a runner, because that is what I like to do.  I like getting out there to run every day.  If I wanted to bike or swim, I would be a cyclist or swimmer, wouldn't I?  Also, it is winter.  I don't have a membership to a gym or pool.  Hmmm.  Oh, and I don't know how to swim either.  Small details.  Oh, and I don't have  a good bike.  Hmm.

Yoga I can do.  Yoga I enjoy.  Lots.  As it turns out, my three-year-old loves yoga also.  He has the Sunrise Salutation down.  So cute.  I couldn't help but think, "is this yoga enough?"  I usually cheat in a run on the same day as yoga as well, to make myself feel a bit more 'cardio-exhurted'.

Then.  It hit me.  There was something else I could add!

Enter: Runner's Bootcamp!!

A couple of years ago, when I was in some good running shape, I had joined this weekly workout session in the winter, and really enjoyed the pain workouts.  I went to a school gym, and with about 25 other people, endured an hour and 15 minutes of torture, lead by David Brooks (a passionate Guelph runner who founded Road Race Results).  The workout is designed specifically for runners, so the entire time I am feeling like I just want to cry and crawl back to my car, I tell myself that these moves are going to make me a better runner.  Think burpees, shuttle runs, holding a plank for more than 2 minutes, (try it.) lots of crunches, stability work, etc, etc.
I am hoping that by making my core stronger, and working out in an anaerobic way, I will have more "pop" in the last couple of kilometres toward any finish line I come to.  Here's hoping...

Failing all of that, I do sweat lots, so that has to count for something?!

The bonus, is that I can add some of the 'moves' I have learned into my regular yoga routine :)

For now, this works as "cross-training".  Perhaps in the spring I will attempt some sort of other 'sport'.  Don't hold your breath, though.  I'm not.

**I am getting a wee bit of exercise these days by taking the boys out to the toboggan hill--lugging those snowboards, toboggans, etc. up the hill for a couple of hours must work some extra muscles, right?!**

Milo, post tobogganing

Happy Running! Or Cross-training!