Cross training - my thoughts

I am a big believer in cross training i.e. doing other things than your main sport. I know most runners just run and probably being specfic to one sport will give the best chance of performing well, but I just can't do it. If I ran 5 or 6 times a week I would just blow up or get injured within the month. But, perhaps it is my inability to concentrate on one task at a time that is the problem. Still, looking back at past seasons some of my best results have been achieved off 30km total running miles a week. I am in no way claiming to be good, but I have won the odd race, completed the Bob Graham with limited fuss and completed the OMM Elite so I would like to think I am a fairly competent fell runner. So, my weekly training at the moment is a hard short run (1h), a track session and one long run (2-4h) at the weekend. To that I add 2 long (1-2h) steady bike rides, some yoga sessions and a swim session. The amount of running seems quite low compared to a lot of other fell runners out there and I will just have to see in May whether my approach works for ultra races.

The main advantage of my approach is that it leaves a day on the weekend free just to have fun and not feel guilty about 'missing' a training session. After my cold and wet run near Inverness (just past Balnain) on Saturday around Eskdale Moor (the one up here not the lakes) which was 10M long took 2h over a mix of estate roads and rough moorland (bagging the peak Carn nam Bad on the way), I went east with Emily on Sunday. The forecast was great, but the main worry was the distinct lack of snow near Inverness. We put the hiking boots in with the xc-skiing stuff and it was only until just past Dufftown that there was snow on the ground. When we finally reached Clach forest however, (do a search for Huntly skiing on Google) there was snow everywhere and we had 3h of superb skiing. My technique leaves a lot to be desired and was a bit of a all-over muscle workout. I know I have just held forth on me not being a slave to a training programme, but I still felt the need for exercise so I went up Tap O'Noth, Scotland's second highest hill fort, which wasn't very far but steep. The 'short-cut' on the way down ended, as it so often does, with an ingloriuos battle through gorse. I had to stifle my frustrated yelps of pain as walkers wandered by a couple of meters away on the perfectly good path. A fantastic end to a great two weeks.