Can housewifery be considered cross-training?

You just can't use the same muscles over and over again and expect to be injury-free forever. Thus the emphasis on cross-training if you are a runner (oh, I love how that sounds, "a runner", although what I've done so far can barely be considered much more than a slow jog). There is no way I am going to find the time to swim (just looking at water makes me short of breath, and all I can do well is the side stroke) or do weights, and if you ride a bike around here you take your life in your hands. And, having hit the streets and felt the high of being outdoors, the idea of a stationary bike or an elliptical machine seems more like waterboarding.

But wait a minute. How about housewifery? This morning I folded dozens of chairs and stored them in a closet; the lifting alone must count for something. I went to the store with my shopping bags and, having carefully balanced my load, I hauled them down two flights of stairs while wearing sandals with tiny high heels. I defy any man to do that without permanently damaging his knees or buttocks! There was bending and stretching--making up two beds--and more bending and stretching when my dishwasher detergent malfunctioned and left all my dishes covered with a kind of mineral salt film. After loading and unloading the rebellious machine, I had to scrub every item hard to get the danged stuff off. Then, to top off this workout, I slipped on a wet spot on the floor (still in my sandals) and did the splits with only minor injury.

What the rest of the day holds is anyone's guess, but if the Karate Kid could train for tae kwon do by washing windows or cars and doing chores around his karate master's home, housewifery is surely enough cross-training for my modest running goals. Okay, okay, maybe some structured weight training instead of that trip to the supermarket. You never know when the coming-down-the-stairs-with-shopping-bags-while-wearing-sandals-with-tiny-heels might combine with a wet spot on the stairs, and we'd have a new Olympic sport combining the thrill of the gymnastic parallel bars, the heavyweight barbell toss, and inadvertent poll vaulting.