About two years ago I discovered Crossfit. It's an amazing way of exercising your entire body, getting your weights and cardio both in at one time. I worked out for about a year, loving all of it except for the runs. I hated running. So after a year, I decided to embrace the part I was hating the most. I quit Crossfit and starting running exclusively. I followed training plans for a half marathon and then actually ran a half marathon! I was hooked! I loved running and I love racing!
Fast forward 10 months and I've decided I need to add weight training back into my workouts. I have been having some hip pain and even a bit of knee pain which I'd never experienced before. I debated between yoga and Crossfit and decided that Crossfit offered me both range of motion and strength. Plus the gym where I worked out is offering Crossfit Endurance. It's a class built for runners! They give you a program depending on your goals and it's all about, you guessed it, running!! Woo hoo! Now I will be doing some form of Crossfit five days a week. The Endurance classes focus on speed training, something I hadn't been doing.
I did my first Crossfit class today after not lifting one weight in the past ten months! Let's just say, Wow! I'd forgotten how it feels to be a beginner. I know I'll be sore tomorrow, but I purposely scaled the workout down a little so that I'd still be able to run tomorrow. But I am so excited to be doing something new again. That is one of the things I've discovered about myself. I will never be one of those people that can say I've been doing one thing for 5 years or 10 years. I love variety. I love trying something and feeling like I've mastered it enough to be ready to move on. And I think that's why I was ready to add Crossfit back into my schedule. I don't want to burn out my love of running. I want to have enough other variety that I still look forward to my running days.
How about you? What do you do to keep things fresh? Have you been running for years or are you a newer runner? Do you do anything else or do you just run and are okay with that??
