I did my first serious cross training today. I had to start one day. I think today was as good as any other day. It gave my ankles another day of rest.
I know I have to cross train, but I haven’t decided what type of cross training yet. Cycling is the easiest option. But I was thinking about getting an Elliptigo bike as well. Or don’t you call those elliptical things bikes? I always call the version they have in a fitness studio a cross-trainer, but this Elliptigo has wheels, so it looks like a bike. At the same time, the motion you make is more like running. Maybe we should call it a running bike.
I was also thinking of getting a gravel bike to cross train, but I know I don’t really enjoy biking. So today I just took my city bike out for a spin. First to get an ice cream with Sara. Afterwards I did a little tour of more or less 20 kilometers. Together with the kilometers I already rode with Sara, it made almost 30 kilometers. Not bad for a little cross training.
It’s not like running
Cycling is, for me, not as fun as running is. I prefer to have my feet on the ground, rather than on pedals, but I’m almost 50 years old. I am already prone to injury and all experts advise older runners to pick up cross training. Or at least to run less, because the impact of running on knees and ankles is very high.
That I haven’t picked up cross training so far, mostly has to do with building up slowly. I don’t think it’s wise to start running and cycling at the same time and do strength training on the side. It’s too stressful for the body. That’s why I wanted to start with one thing and slowly add other things to it.
Core
I am already doing yoga. I slowed down a bit when I started running. Swapping some of my Vinyasa flow classes for Yin yoga. In the last couple of weeks I started doing core work four to five times a week. The next thing to do is structural strength work. I do some, but not regularly yet. Let’s see if I can find some time in my schedule to include that as well. The goal is the same goal as my biking; run more, run father and nothing else.
