Winter Storm Pax and core exercises

The two rounds of wintry weather this week, courtesy of Winter Storm Pax, brought 15-20 inches of snow to my neighborhood. It began in the evening this past Wednesday, so I was able to do my 12-mile run that morning, as scheduled. Temperature was in the single digits. I had three tech shirts on, under a windbreaker. The latter, not of the breathable kind, resulted in a first for me: Ice crystals lined its inside, at the end of the run. Very interesting. But, I digress ...

By Thursday morning, the snow had already accumulated more than 10 inches, with more falling. I had an 8-mile tempo run that morning. What to do? In the basement was the "dreadmill." The thought of an 8-mile run on that would normally have been quite daunting. That morning, though, it didn't bother me much--probably had something to do with its not-in-working condition! There was also the Nordic Track, which, for me, is a lot more palatable as an indoor alternative to running; it's also really good for cross training. But, I didn't go for that either, because, with hours of shoveling ahead of me, I knew I already had a solid cross-training workout!

From Thursday afternoon through Friday, in several two-hour sessions, I almost got the driveway completely shoveled out, with the only work left being that ridge of hard-packed snow/ice that the county plow always leaves behind, when it eventually comes around to our local street. It occurred to me, as I was finishing up, that the 10 or so hours I'd spent on this shoveling not only constituted good overall cross training, in lieu of the 8-mile run that I couldn't do, but also actually included at least three of the pre- or post-run core exercises that are in my current training plan (for the March Shamrock Marathon)--except they are the "advanced" versions: (1) Lean forward, bend knee, shovel snow, stand up (i.e., front lunge, the hard way); (2) hold shovel with snow, step back while turning 120-degrees, bend knee, discharge snow from shovel (i.e., diagonal lunge with twist, the hard way); and (3) for very wet—and heavy—snow, lean forward, bend knee, shovel snow, squat down, stand up while holding shovel with snow (i.e., body+snow weight squat, the hard way).