Welcome to March, the month most of us associate with the start of spring and the end of winter running.

Unfortunately, this rarely is true in Colorado Springs. January and February often offer more fair-weather running days than March and April. While we will enjoy some comfortable temperatures, we also will encounter cold, wind, rain and snow.

I used to run outdoors every day regardless of weather. But now I am training for a triathlon and have cut back drastically on running. While I exercise every day, I do not necessarily run every day and have come to enjoy other workout alternatives.

So when the weather turns sour in the next few weeks, I simply will opt to swim or spin on the bike indoors. Done properly, swimming and cycling are great indoor alternatives to running. If you are new to either activity, the important part is to keep exercising as you would if you were running. You need to boost your heart rate and keep it up to get a quality cardiovascular workout.

It would not make sense to swim a length and then rest or spin a minute and then coast. You wouldn’t run a block and then stop, so don’t start that with swimming and cycling.

I’m no expert on swim or bike training, and the workouts I do aren’t of the same quality as those done by someone who’s been in either sport for a long time. An online search will yield dozens, if not hundreds, of workouts based on your skill level.

I’ve tried many swim workouts, but two stand apart. The first is 15×100, with 20 seconds of rest between intervals. Swim each 100 hard and at a consistent pace so the time of the last one is within a few seconds of the first one. The second is two sets of 10×75 with 15 seconds of rest between intervals and a full minute between sets. Neither of these workouts involves all-out sprints, and neither is an endurance-based set.

If you choose to swim instead of going out for a run, you should utilize a proper warmup and cool-down, and swim long enough and hard enough to become as fatigued as you would be from a run.

Cycling alternatives are more difficult for me as I might be the world’s worst cyclist. One thing I discovered is you have to be in good cycling shape to complete the workouts. I could handle something such as 15 sprint repeats of 60 seconds, but I struggled with other workouts such as two legs of 12 minutes (or 15 minutes) hard.

After doing those a few times, I experimented with workouts such as 1×10, 1×15, 1×20 and 1×10 minutes hard (55 minutes total) with about 2-4 minutes rest, and 2×15 followed by 2×20 minutes hard (70 minutes hard). Both workouts kicked my butt and took me way out of my comfort zone.

Other cycling alternatives include attending a spin class, and there are various locations that offer this.

Bottom line: There should be something all runners can do when temperatures drop and conditions deteriorate. So work hard, keep your heart rate up and enjoy the change in scenery.

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Manning is a former member of the U.S. Mountain Running Team and a math teacher at Fountain Valley School. Read his columns on the first Thursday of each month in Out There.