Tried something new Sunday. I don’t usually run on the day following a race, but our vacation is coming up this weekend and I know I won’t get five running days in while we’re gone, so every day counts from now until Saturday. So, out I went.

Wow, my legs were tired from the race–I hadn’t counted on that. I knew instantly six miles were not in the cards. So I thought I’d try to get more juice out of four miles instead. I have one mile from home to my first water stop. I stopped there and did some reverse abdominal crunches–three sets of ten. Then I ran another mile, and did three sets of ten push-ups, and in between, two sets of side adductor raises. Ran back to the water fountains and did about ten fifteen-second shifts between the  plank and the down dog, then 100 crunches. Then I ran 1.5 miles back home.

It was a much better workout than just running 4.5 miles. Though it went into my monthly mileage total as 4.5 miles, it was a good, fulfilling, sweaty run, and I’m glad I did it. It might even get put into my biweekly routine. I might even play with slipping into one of the local playgrounds so I can use their bars to do pull-ups.

I don’t do any strength-training–my arms are fairly well-toned just from lifting the kids around as it is–but I could use more core strength, and this may be one way to get in more of that kind of exercise without having to schedule another workout.