Running rest days

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After four consecutive running days, today is a rest day, which means that I am putting in a strength workout. Of course, due to a certain pandemic, this happens at home instead of in a gym, which really means that I try to find a quiet spot in the house that does not have a billion Lego pieces all over the floor. After hitting enter on my computer to launch a program I just finished scripting, I roll out my mat, put some music on, and go through my 45-minute core and HIIT routine. Some days (not today...) I also throw in some 25 minutes upper body strength as well. As usual, at regular intervals of a few minutes, I’m interrupted by one kid or the other. If nothing else it adds on an extra multitasking component to the workout ;)

 

For the first few years of being a runner I never did core or strength workouts on top of my running, nor did I ever manage to squeeze in other types of cross-fit training sessions, although these are of course part of most training plans. I deeply regret this now, because I think that I could have performed a lot better if I had. Of course, I knew that I was missing out, but with my kids being very little at the time and lots of work-related travels, I did not want to take extra time away from my family and spend hours at the gym.

The benefit of adding training sessions that are not the usual easy run or speed sessions was suddenly revealed to me last year during summer holidays in Canada, where I was confronted with very hilly terrain for three entire weeks. I struggled on these steep and long hills for the first week, in fact, I had to take A LOT of walking breaks. After that initial week, one day I ran 10 km on that same hilly route without having to walk once, and literally everything went uphill from there ;) By the end of the holiday I was in the best shape of my life, and shaved off 10 minutes from my previous PB at the half marathon I ran shortly after!

 

But really, and ironically, it has only been since the COVID lockdown that I managed to put some serious effort into core & strength workouts. During the last three months of working from home, I started to do 3-5 of these workouts per week, and I am now at the point where I definitely feel the benefits of this: my endurance is getting better, my legs don’t feel as tired after those long runs, my speed sessions are getting faster and faster, and I like what I see in the mirror ;)

I am particularly fond of the Dirty Dozen: you don’t need any special gear, you can do these exercises anywhere, and you can easily adapt them to your level of fitness by adding or removing reps as needed.

 

What are your favorite strength/core workouts or cross-fit activities? Please feel free to share them in the comments!

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