Love it or hate it, cross country running is good for you!! How do I know? Julian Goater tells us so in his book ‘The Art of Running Faster’
I was looking for a bit of inspiration before this morning’s cross country race, and I happened to come across this book belonging to my husband. I only read a paragraph or two, but his words came back to me as I was trudging through the mud into a headwind on the South Downs. Goater states that running and racing cross country gives us a whole body and mind workout which will make us more effective on other surfaces such as track and road. We have to vary our stride, pick up our knees, pump our arms, and engage our core. We have to be mentally tougher and have ‘stickability’!!
Today’s course was hard. If we weren’t running uphill through mud we were running into a very strong wind. The final 1.5 miles were straight into the wind and it was all I could do to keep moving forward. I felt like I’d given it my all when I finished. It would’ve been much easier to stay in bed this morning and run on the road later, but I’m sure I will have benefitted more from pushing my boundaries on the Downs.
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