If you have always been a road runner and you are looking for a way to change up how you train, and to build some endurance for races that have different terrain, there are some things that you can do. If you don't love to lift weights and you group classes don't interest you, you can still go out on your own and attempt these different activities. Give any of these a try and start seeing results.

Bike Trails

Biking trails are a great way to get some endurance training in, either running them or biking them. They often have some topography variation so you will be going up and down small hills, changing your heart rate, causing your muscles groups to work harder at certain points, and helping you to push yourself to be in better running condition. Find out if there any in your area with tall hills to climb.

Stairways

Running stairs is old classic exercise when it comes to training, and it's a great one. While doing this you will:

• Build multiple muscle groups
• Increase cardiovascular strength
• Help with coordination

Not only can you exercise by running up and down the stairs in cycled, but doing box jumps and other things can also create a muscle toning addition to the workout. There are many great downloadable stair workouts that leave you knowing you got a great workout in.

Sprint, Run, Climb

Is there are slow or steep hill in the area where you live? If so, you want to set up a course. The course should last for about 5 minutes and you can repeat it. You will sprint at 80 percent for the first couple of minutes, and then jog until you get to the hill. Once you get to the hill you have to push your limits as hard as you can to get to the top. You then job back to the starting point and repeat.

You can start doing these things on your cross train days if you are following a specific program to train for your races, or when you don't have a long run around the corner. Look around your local area to see if there are some trails or parks that you don't know about, that you can utilize to mix things up. Hitting the pavement isn't always fun, try these different activities to build endurance and work other muscle groups.