"A person has three choices in life. You can swim against the tide and get exhausted, or you can tread water and let the tide sweep you away, or you can swim with the tide, and let it take you where it wants you to go." – Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

It’s been a good week: Some regular 7-mile training runs, a 10-miler indoors on Saturday and then what I’ve been looking forward to for the past month.

This morning, Riley and I headed over to Edgewood Golf Course, the cross country skis and poles piled in the back of my vehicle, for a little cross-training.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for some time: It was a hobby I took up last year in an effort to supplement my running. While I don’t remember the specifics, I went out a handful of times before stopping last February. This winter, as I trained for the Arizona marathon, I didn’t want to chance an injury on the ski trails, remembering last year that I fell over and tangled my skis a few times, and stretched some tendons and ligaments in ways that didn’t feel all that pleasant.

Out on the trail, it was just the two of us. Along the river, Riley skipped, sniffed and plowed through the snow. While I started out with my iPod, I turned it off after a few minutes: For me, I just wanted to soak up the solitude on a sunny winter morning as I shuffled across the snow between the trees.

While I’ll never be a good skier, it was nice to mix up my workout routine and get some low-impact exercise (minus the first wipeout). While not as demanding as running, cross country skiing provides some good cross training and variety from the rigors of marathon training. And despite the minus 14 wind chills, I still worked up a sweat to give myself a decent workout.