Besides all the very fun and sometimes extreme cross training my family does that I wrote about yesterday, I do have a more set round of “boring” cross training that fits into my routine. Maybe it is better just called “exercise” but the purpose is to make my running stronger so in many definitions this would be called cross training.
Sunday mornings is my swim date with my daughter. We have been doing 2000 meters in an hour and it has been wiping me out so it is definitely working. But she is getting so much stronger in swimming and is aiming for a minimum of 3000 meters and maybe much more in one workout. It’s not fair that she refuses to do this alone and so I am forced to do the whole distance too. But my swimming is getting stronger and I am using muscles that have been dormant for a long while. This is especially good for my core and arms which receive minimal attention otherwise.
One of my more dull and painful routines is pushups or burpees several times per week. I don’t do a whole workout, just a bunch of those horrible exercises. It is not fun but it works for core strength.
I have always done a lot of biking, and in the last couple years I have biked to work for probably half the year. The winter weather is not conducive to that right now but come March I will be back at it.
And then there is the regular stretching of mostly my quads and hamstrings after most of my runs.
The goal of all this is to improve my running. If this age thing is going to catch up with me it is going to have to work very hard for it.
But if you’re into much more fun cross-training ideas, read yesterday’s post here
In the Shadow of the Rockies 