Cross-trained (ouch!)

I've been working on my Nordic Track pretty consistently and I've worked up to a level where I can do a good workout on it without feeling like I'm going to DIE (but not without an unpleasant amount of SWEAT--yuck, but that's the price, I guess).

I'm all over the HOORAY FOR ME! over that, but I also read a SparkBlog recently about cross-training and how you can get EFFICIENT at a workout and not really be improving your OVERALL fitness as much as you'd like (or something along those lines, at any rate).

Brought me back to a time when I was running cross-country in college, workouts anywhere from 5 to 9 miles at a time, feeling really (really, really!) healthy and I decided to join some friends for their aerobics class. OH MY GOODNESS! That aerobics really (really, really!) kicked my butt--YOW, that was painful!



And that was my first taste of the pain of getting EFFICIENT at one form of exercise.

So, late last week, I decided to throw in a couple of Coach Nicole's 10 minute workouts to mix things up a bit (note to self--Kickboxing is nice, but complicated "step, cross, jab, punch" kinds of routines are not my thing without a whole lot of stop, figure out, stop, try, FAIL, stop, figure out again).

You guessed it, the quick start jumping stepping thing kicked my butt.



Nordic Track was a fine relief as a BREAK from my BREAK!

So, yesterday I decided to go up and down our stairs for a while--shouldn't be so bad, it's not that different from Nordic Track and I do use stairs on a daily basis, right?

Yeah. It kicked my butt.



But, in a weird sort of way, I do think it's the RIGHT TRACK, more or less BECAUSE it kicks my butt.

So I will continue to do these highly unpleasant workouts and I will hopefully be able to report back that I'm getting good at my stairs and good at the jumping/fast stepping thing.

And if you EVER hear I'm able to do the complicated "step, cross, jab, punch" kinds of routines, well THEN you'll KNOW it's a whole new me!