Fun With Cardio

One of the big challenges I face as a running-enthusiast is finding activities to compliment my cardio training without over-taxing my body on my “non-running” days. The idea is to take a rest from running, but at the same time continue to build cardio strength and over-all fitness be it flexibility, strength, endurance, etc. If you’re able to find an activity that actually complements your sport of predilection, for me running, by strengthening core muscles and reinforcing the muscles that support the key running joints, then you have disco my friend.

This desire to build up all the fronts probably helps explain in part the huge popularity of triathlons. The tri has been one of the fastest growing sports for the past 10 years, and when I ask people why the tri, often it’s because their joints can’t take the incessant pounding of running exclusively, but can take running in small amounts, or something similar.

I would love to compliment my training with pool time or more time on the bike, but with my limited cross-training time it just doesn’t work out for me. My time for cross-training is usually when the Guppy takes her nap, and that means finding my mojo in our house while she’s sleeping (which eliminates going to the pool or hopping on my bike, obviously!).

Que-in free weights, yoga, and random DVDs. On my recent visit to see the in-laws, my sister-in-law loaned me copies of some various exercise DVDs she had. I’m a firm believer (no pun intended) in changing-up my cross-training routine every 4 to 6 weeks to keep it fresh and affective, so I was thrilled to try something new.

I have to admit feeling slightly silly when I watched the introduction of the DVD. “This can’t be serious” I thought to myself, haughtily. “How out of shape the participants look” and “This can’t possibly be for real athletes like me.” I totally admit to my feelings of superiority, because they are important in reminding me of how ridiculous the ego is, and how wrong it usually is about, er, everything!

It was a good little workout cardio-wise, and I’m looking forward to trying a different one on Wednesday. As for the strength-training part (this is what I thought was so “weak”, how could I be building strength- we had no weights! No resistance bands!), let’s just say that about 20 minutes after finishing the workout I noticed that my shoulders weren’t responding with their normal quickness. My traps & lats felt very tired and very weak, and when evening came and it was time to put on my jammies, wow, hello shoulders!

Guess I found out where my current weakness is!