Had a conversation today with an athlete/crossfit trainer/runner. I was sharing my achievements in certain areas of fitness and lack of progress in my running. As we continued talking and sharing stories and tips, he said something to me that I knew but I had been putting aside because I was listening to some other type of advice. You all probably know it and I am sure that if you have been training for awhile you already live it--if you want to be good at a certain activity, you must practice that activity. Example, if I want to be a great Zumba instructor, I should go and practice dancing, especifically Latin rhytms. However, if all I do is spin, there is no way that is going to help me in my dancing choregraphy wise. The same goes for my running, if I want to be a great runner, I am going to have to RUN, lifting weights and cross training will help me become stronger and will allow time for my legs to get a break from the pounding, however, if I want to be a runner, simple, I MUST RUN.
But running for the sake of running is not going to cut it. I need to put QUALITY runs. I can go to town doing Slow Long Runs and it will make me a Slow Long Distance runner. But, I don't want to be a slow runner anymore. I want to play with the big boys/big girls and to do that, I must get off my pretty plum bum and hit the road and hit it hard and fast.
And I leave you with this picture...yep, I have a marathon in 5 days. It is going to kick my trash because I haven't done a single long run since Ogden Marathon back in May, except for half marathons.
I decided to stick more to my weight lifting and run mostly for cardio.
Posted by: Tina | September 12, 2012 at 10:42 PM
I had the same issue when deciding what avenue I wanted to pursue the most. I love to run and I love to lift weights. Lifting weights doesn't necessarily lend its self to running because with running/weight lifting they do different things I still run some.....runners and body builders have such different body types..you know?
I decided to stick more to my weight lifting and run mostly for cardio.
good luck to you!
Posted by: Kimberly Storey | September 11, 2012 at 07:32 AM