Switch It Up And Try Something New
You might like it!
In high school I got kicked off the swim team. Apparently my coach thought missing one event of the final meet of the year for a Blink 182 and Green Day concert wasn’t appropriate, so she gave me the boot. I ended up losing my spot in the lane that day in practice and didn’t get my time to shine at the most important meet of the year, but I did have fun at the concert. Since then my time in the pool has been limited to say the least, but almost 10 years later I am starting to look at the pool again in a positive light.
I’ve been running my heart out day in and day out for the last few years and I still love it, but I’m getting the feeling I need to switch it up a little bit. I train for marathon after marathon putting in tons of miles, but after reading about training and listening to others talk about training I realized at some point I need to shake up my training a little bit. Of course if you are going to run a marathon then running is your best bet to train, but it’s not a bad idea to try something new every once in a while. Mixing up your routine can help you from getting bored or stuck in a training rut, may help to prevent overuse or repetitive-use injuries and may actually make you faster. Training on a bike once a week if you are a runner may actually get your feet moving a little bit quicker at your next race. There’s no harm in at least trying it out.
It was 80 degrees yesterday afternoon in sunny San Diego and I was aching from my long run the day before so I decided I should take my own advice and switch it up—I went for a swim. It was really nice and I got in a good workout even though I thought a recovery day was my only option after such an intense run the day before. Being in the water took me back to my days of swim team and made me remember why I liked it so much. I just needed the little push to mix up my routine and try it out again. So get out there and enjoy the spring weather and mix it up. Try something new, you may like it.