Continuation of Bridget’s series on preparing for the Disney’s Princess Half Marathon
Part 1 of Bridget’s “Princess in Preparation” Blog can be found here.
Part 2 of Bridget’s “Princess in Preparation” Blog can be found here.
I am on vacation this week in the Smoky Mountain National Park. When I am not vacationing at Disney World you can find me here. I love being outside enjoying nature and getting a little exercise in the process. I was wondering if I would be able to keep up with my running while on vacation and while I have to admit the running has temporarily fallen by the wayside, fortunately my exercising has not. I have decided that when schlepping a 23+ pound toddler on multi-mile hikes, that counts as strength training.
So far I have been on three hikes, the hardest of which was probably on Sunday. We hiked 5 miles round trip to see a waterfall. The hike was uphill both ways and until you have hiked in the mountains you always think that your grandpa was crazy when he said he walked to school uphill both ways. I carried the baby in and my wonderful husband carried him out after we were all worn out. The last quarter mile or so my 40 pound, almost 5 year old son decided that he was not going to take one more step. He was DONE! Somehow I decided that carrying him piggy-back was more appealing than strapping on the sweaty baby carrier again. I have read training advice that says that to build stamina and muscle you need to sprint at the end of a workout. I may not have been running, but if carrying a 40 pound child at the end of a hike doesn’t build stamina and muscle, then I don’t know what does!
One thing that I have found a bit discouraging is the fact that the miles seem much longer in the mountains. Running on the treadmill, watching TV and listening to an Ipod is very different from actually being outside, time and distance passes much quicker that way. Of course hiking on a trail full of rocks and roots is obviously very different from running on flat pavement so to compare the two is probably not very accurate, but I am learning the true meaning of distance nonetheless.
Bridget (who is learning to be a runner)