Cross Training

Do you cross train?  If so, what do you do?  I've talked to a lot of people and many of them respond "oh yeah, I cross train all the time.  I'll run intervals and hills and speed ladders, and run..." those are all great, all fun, all good for you, and all running.

Do you do any training for your body other than running?

Running is the best, for me, though all exercise releases endorphin and makes you feel amazing, there's nothing like the feeling of running.  But I do love to workout (when I can).  I'm one of those sick people who says things like "oh my word...   For 45 minutes straight I had my butt handed to me, now everything from the toenails to the hair on the top of my head is sore!  I can't even walk straight!  IT WAS AWESOME!  You gotta come with me tomorrow!"

There are definitely different camps, and I'm sure many of the readers here feel very differently (feel free to chime in) on the subject, but I am a born again crossfitter.  Yep, I drank the koolaid.
I love the exercises, the near perfect muscle confusion (which in it's most simplistic form that's what it is), the 'real world' movements, and just the raw attitude of it!  (more on that in the next blog!)

If you've never tried it, I encourage you to step out and give it a shot - it also doesn't hurt that the CrossFit community was one of the first and largest to fully embrace minimalist shoes for their benefits. CrossFit has also added in running into their repertoire:  many days will include rounds of 400m runs, they have Workout Of the Day (WOD) that's a 5k, and today's WOD is a 10k.  www.crossfit.com



For the next blog that's coming, be thinking:  what type of workout environment do you like?  What do you think of when you think of personal trainers?  How about Yoga teachers?  Drill Sergeants?
What do you feel like when you just beat a PR, or finish a tough workout?

Death, stress, fear, pain, grief.... and running

This week I was painfully reminded that there are things worse than death... and sometimes that's living.
I watch my wife's grandmother (who was one of "those" grandmothers who was more of a mix of a mom and a best girlfriend) struggle and gasp for air, I'll spare you the horrendous details, before she finally passed.

Grief is all around us.  Pain is ever present.  Stress is inescapable.  There is seemingly always something to fear.

These truths remind me why I run.  No, really.  I don't run to lose weight, I honestly don't run to stay in shape (although that is of course nice), I don't run to get a good tan or to enjoy the camaraderie of other runners, I don't even run so that I can write this blog.  I run to survive.  I run to escape.

For me, when the world closes in, I run like he**.  I run to feel alive, feel alone with my thoughts or sometimes to be completely void of thought all together.  For those miles, I run out from under the crushing stress, I run away from the fear that's chasing me, I run from the grief, and I run into the void of my own thoughts - into the sound of Nothing but my breathing... in and out, in and out, in and out... and for that brief time, everything else disappears.