Resistance.

I walked past them, looking longingly. I started to step up on one, just to see, but I stopped myself just in time.

I am, of course, talking about the treadmills in the rec center.

I did it! I went on my lunch hour, worked out and resisted the allure of the treadmill. Instead, I lifted weights for about 40 minutes.

(Aside: My upper body strength is PATHETIC. How did I ever carry around a 2-year-old and a six-month-old at the same time?)

It was hard for me, to go to the gym and not run. Every nerve in my body, every thought in my mind was screaming "Run, run, run! C'mon Beth, you know you want to run." Since I've had success with running, it's all I want to do. But I realize and recognize (and have the opinion of experts) that weight training is just as important to my health, to my body and to my running, so I need to do that more.

I almost bolted when I was resting between reps once, but I pulled all the stubbornness and willpower residing in me (and that is quite a lot) and stayed with the weight machines.

I'll run tonight, no biggie.

---

On my run last night, I did something totally out of character for me: I didn't time it.

I've chronicled here before that I like knowing mileage and time and all that. You might even say that I'm obsessed with it.

In "The Complete Book of Running for Women," the author says that you shouldn't time every single run. Her reasoning is that if you don't hit your mental time, then you may get discouraged. Or if you don't hit your pace for the first mile, you may slow down.

She's absolutely right. I try not to look at my watch while I'm running, but around mile 3, I'll give it a peek. And every time, if I'm not about where I think I should be, my heart falls a little bit and instead of being motivated to push harder and make up the bad time on later miles, I slow down a bit.

So I didn't time last night's run. I have an idea of how long it took me, and it wasn't that far off my regular pace. I do think that I had a steadier pace than usual.

---

I have something new I'm going to try, but I need to think about it a bit...