Cross Training

Since I started running about four months ago I stopped cross country skiing and stopped walking. Except for backcountry skiing, the occasional snowshoe trip and squash game I’ve been exclusively running. while I want to make running a part of my life I know I should do other kinds of exercise, not just for variety but to exercise a different set of muscles or the same ones in a different way.

Two months ago I overdid my training, pulling the hamstring muscle in the back of my left leg. No matter how much stretching I do the muscle still gives me a low grade, nagging, annoying stiffness, especially at the end of a run or after sitting for too long.

Yesterday in the interests of cross training and the need not to drive the car, I rode my bicycle 24 killometres to the hardware store, to buy a GFI plug for the outlet on the front deck, and back. The first thing I noticed when I got home and got off the bike was how normal and how nice my left leg felt.

I suppose I should start swimming again then maybe next year I could enter the local triathlon. One of my friends already asked me if I was doing it this year. The answer is no. At this moment I have no interest in becoming a triathlete. I’d rather run up mountains or the Grouse Grind and do a half marathon or full marathon on a relatively flat road course.