Auxiliary workouts – Weight lifting?
I’ve started adding auxiliary workouts to my running. This all started when I injured my knees a few years ago and was forbidden from running by my physical therapist – side note, always listen to your PTs.
I took up swim conditioning, because there was little to no impact and my knees were just dandy putzing around behind me in the water. I started seeing fun things appearing on my shoulders (whoa, muscles!), and decided to keep swimming even when I added running back into my routine. It even helped on recovery days to loosen those sore running muscles! (Bonus points if you can not drown while attempting to butterfly stroke while your legs are coming off a big weekend)
Then…I couldn’t make the swimming class fit into my schedule. So like any brain zapped athlete (I can call myself that, now, right?), I looked for another way to work a different workout into my schedule. My good friend Jessie convinced me that powerlifting was the ONLY choice I had, and she’s really smart so I listened. I believed her, mostly.
I started lifting 12 weeks ago. We worked on form and set up a program which has been a blast! I’ve made HUGE progress (though this is expected of beginning lifters) and already see results in my upper body and my core (my lower body still looks like I run, eat good food and drink beer… a lot).
My fear is that this isn’t going to work in the long haul. I’ve been able to keep up in both areas of training, but at some point, one expects that at least one of these areas will suffer. I’ve felt great in both workouts, and they seem to be complementary. But I’ll keep you all posted. We all know the trail running comes first; if I have to I’ll back down on the lifting.
Until then, I’m going to keep lifting heavy things and putting them down. Repeat.