Running Hybrids

Let's talk about how I miraculously obtained a bib for my favorite race, the Broad Street Run.  It's a 10 mile run through the city of Philly, entirely on Broad Street.  The first five miles are basically downhill, straight towards city hall.  They have to cap the race at 40,000 runners (the largest 10 miler in America), so beginning in 2013, entry was decided through a lottery.  I ran the race in 2011, 2012 and 2013.  Last year in 2014, I was not chosen in the lottery, which ended up being a blessing in disguise, because the run was just days after I found out I needed knee surgery.  This year, I decided that the BSR would be my triumphant return to running.

I didn't get picked for the lottery.  Again.

Cue sad trombone.  Seriously, I was really sad.  I mean, I am infinitely happier and in better shape than I ever was when I was running, but running gave me a feeling of power and accomplishment that I definitely miss.  I was just getting used to the idea when a friend decided her hip trouble wasn't going away any time soon and transferred her bib over to me.  #Win.

Panic mode set in pretty instantly.  I used to train 10 weeks for this race and now we're 5 weeks away.  Oops.  Plus I still had 3 more weeks left of P90X3, and I wasn't about to abandon what I've been working on for the last 90 days.

Enter a hybrid calendar!

Hybrid calendars are awesome!  They are perfect for people who want a wider mix of workouts that maybe one program doesn't offer, for people who can't ever choose just one program to do at a time, for people who get bored easily, and for people who like to mix up their at-home workouts with runs or workouts at the gym.  There is a great website called Workout Scheduler which allows you to pick from any Beachbody or MMA workout and create a calendar based on your fitness goals.

Another reason I like hybrids are because they force me to cross-train appropriately.  A couple of years ago, I was running probably 5 days a week, and I really messed up my IT band.  After a lot of physical therapy, I learned the necessity of lower body stretching and strengthening.  I always stayed away from really strenuous lower body exercises while running because I figured running was strenuous enough.  Turns out, my legs, hips and core weren't strong enough to support all the running I was doing.  That's when I first picked up the original P90X.  I found that my speed and stamina increased, while my soreness and injuries decreased.

Since I needed to add running in, I decided to create my own hybrid using the workouts from the last month of P90X3, since that is what I'm in right now, and they are my favorite workouts in the program.

Essentially what I did was take out some of the cardio-heavy workouts and replace them with running (I left in MMX though because it's my fave).  I also rearranged some things from the original calendar to make sure that I wasn't do my long runs the day after leg day.  Ouch.

Of course I couldn't forget Rachel!  She is running BSR as well and is just about to finish T25 (maybe we can get her to guest blog about it!).  She has never done P90X3 before and we didn't think it was a good idea to throw her into a month 3 hybrid, so I made her a PiYo hybrid.  I'm actually kind of jealous.  It's pretty good:

I love creating hybrids, so let me know if you ever want any advice or help planning yours!