It’s like the punch line to a bad joke. When you need a break from running—and if you don’t want to take a day off—you cross-train. But if you’re already cross-training and you need a break…
It’s hard to cross-train from cross-training.
One of the toughest things about not being able to run, practically speaking, is changing my training mindset. I can’t do a hard day-easy day cycle, only hard and harder, because to attempt to simulate running by something other than running is like starting a race 200-meters behind.
But even though all the cross-training I do is by necessity low-impact it’s not no-impact. I still get tired. I still get sore. And I can’t bust out the workouts day after day after day. In running, your legs get tired after a workout and you run easy the next day or two to give them a chance to recover. The trouble with cross-training is that there are no easy days. I can go shorter, but to do enough to get any sort of aerobic benefit is to push off recovery by another day.
Because of this I’ve (reluctantly) included days off every three or four days. Four is really my maximum if I get a quality two hours in each day. The interesting part in all this is not that it’s not as if I really physically need a day off. I’m tired, yes, but if you put me at gunpoint I could still probably get in a good workout. It’s that when I’m tired I don’t have the motivation to get in a good workout. For cross-training to work you have to have the right mindset, the right attitude of going at it. Three or four hard days in a row and my body is worn down enough that my mind rebels against that attitude.
This is how I am. Others are probably different. But knowing what my limits are and how to work around those limits has helped me put together some solid weeks of training. Even if it is different from running.
