Upward mobility (and cross training challenge)

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Today's motivating theme is: "upward mobility"

"The people that get to the top of the success staircase first are the ones that keep moving their feet even if given the chance to ride an escalator. An opportunity to rise to the top should be used as a way to climb faster, not as a chance to relax on the ride up."
~Molly Ford

I was feeling low motivation for long-distance running this weekend, so I took a different approach to keep my feet moving. I split my run in two parts: 1 part muddy trail adventure, and 1 part (slightly) shorter-than-planned road run. The end result: higher total mileage and much more fun!

Speaking of mixing things up... Again, I have left the new-to-you cross training challenge to the very last day. (But I haven't missed a month yet!)

Don't let my procrastination fool you, I love this challenge because it encourages me to vary my workouts, which keeps things interesting after so many years of running. Variety is the spice of life, no?

April's adventure: "100 Ups."
The exercise is deceptively simple. It looks like (and is) slow-motion running in place.
Should be cake, right?

In the true spirit of the exercise, I did the 100 Ups barefoot. By 50, my heart rate had risen. By 90, I could feel tension in my calves and quads. I won't say it burned, but I definitely felt those muscles working.

The verdict: 100 Ups are definitely going in my strength training rotation.

My other new-to-you cross training conquests to date:

• January = burpees
• February = cardio kickboxing (with reviews of free, online workout videos)
• March = stability ball strength training

Also in the new-to-me files: Twitter!

Follow me @RunTraveler

What would you recommend for May cross training?
What do you do to keep training/work/life interesting?

Shiggy

Today's run was deep in the shiggy.

"What the heck is shiggy?" you ask.

Shiggy is what mud runs aspire to be and never will achive. But perhaps that's too cryptic a description, so here is Urban Dictionary's apt definition:

shiggy (noun)
Off-road hashing (running) trail through muck, mud or other wet areas. Term derives from shigella/shigellosis - bacteria causing dysentery occurring most frequently in areas of poor sanitation such as pig sties and back-water swamp lands. Term first used by Brits & Aussies on Hash House Harrier runs (in Asia) in 1940's.

Sounds horrible, right?

Well, that's a matter of perspective...

Lily pond in Gulf Breeze, FL

Let me start by saying that I had foolishly scheduled a 12-miler this morning. I scheduled that long run thinking only of my next race, not of much-needed recovery time. I truly believe in an ebb-and-flow style training plan, with some hard weeks followed by an easier one. But I wasn't planning to practice what I preach.

As a result, I have been bordering on burnout. Those of you who follow on Facebook will know that after back-to-back racing weekends, I was not looking forward to my long run. I already swapped my Friday morning run for an hour on the stationary bike, and the idea of running 12 miles on Saturday morning was making me itch.

So I didn't run 12 miles this morning.
I slept in and went hashing in the afternoon instead.

Off trail at the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
This is what today's "trail" looked like.

The hash route made me itch in an entirely different way... We ran through brambles, skirted around swamps, and waded knee-deep into a drainage ditch. (Trying to jump the ditch was out of the question. Those who tried just made a bigger mess.)

I have never been such a muddy mess after a run.
It was glorious!

Guess which shoes went running today...

Hitting the trails was just the break I needed from long-distance road running. This trail running thing might become a new habit.

(I'm pretty sure Hubby wasn't happy that we took his nice, clean car. We usually use my 10-year-old workhorse for the dirty jobs. But we survived and I think the car upholstery did, too. PS - Speaking of shiny, pretty things vs. workhorses... The answer to yesterday's quiz: that Chanel bike costs $17,000.)

What's the muddiest, messiest thing you've done lately?