The big winner of our first giveaway is…. Kelly from a little messed up. Congrats Kelly! Get with the Redhead for your $25 gift card from amazon.com.

On to the call out.

Last week, Tammy @ My quest to tackle the Charleston Distance Run wrote a post about strength and weight training. She basically said she needed someone to help her stay on it and not just talk about doing it. I commented that I too need some help staying on top of that. And true to Tammy form of ass-kicking awesomeness she called me out.

Starting today I am going to attempt to get in some core work and strength training. I am not sure how I’ll do because I feel tired after my runs, but I know I need the strength training. According to this article at coolrunning.com, you must obviously run to be a better runner, but functionally strength training can help you get faster. The article gives some specific examples of exercises which work for runners. The big incentive for me is all about speed.

In addition, the strength training helps with the main thing that we runners must avoid: INJURY. This article at runningplanet.com has some reasons why we should strength train. Of course they are obvious, but for those of us who need a kick in butt to get in the gym these are nice reminders.

Thanks for the call out Tammy. Who else out there is going to join us?