Training?

Last night, I did some push-ups and lifted some of my dinky little 5 lb. weights with my wimpy little arms :) It was nothing major, but you've got to start somewhere when you haven't done any upper body workouts since the year 1997! And this morning, I got up and was out the door at 6:00 am for some hill repeats. Mt. Ararat, although small, packs a decent punch, and I managed 6 loops up and down the hill today - 4x going up the road and 2x going up the trail. My intent was to just try to stay steady on the uphill and work to pushing on the downhill and flats. I sure did feel like I got in a good workout, although I certainly wasn't fast! I ended up with 4.25 miles total.

Before you go all crazy, don't worry, I can promise you I won't be turning into one of those runners who loves track workouts and all that jazz. That is really not me. I've never been a true fan of "training" as what I really want to do is just go for a trail run and listen for birds and look at flowers and pick blueberries. But, Dr. Jamie keeps telling me that some of the weakness in my back is because my upper body is well, for lack of a better word, kind of puny ;), and I know that if I want to run well at Pisgah, I need to build up some strength on the hills (both up and down). So, I have penciled one hill workout a week into my planner, and am planning to do push-ups and weights 2x a week. Hopefully I can stick to it, and it will do me some good!

Saw a fox on the first climb up the road. It raced across the pavement, and stood on the embankment next to the tower, looking back at me for a bit before running off into the grasses at the top of the hill and disappearing. Beautiful animal.