Go ahead be weird. Wait! You’re already weird, you’re a runner.

An interesting thing happed on this mornings run. Today was a hill workout and I sought out my favorite hill to conquer. It was a fairly standard workout but for the last two weeks I began mixing in an alternative training technique, backwards running. Although it is outside the norm of training techniques, it does seem to be an incredible quad workout. By time I reach the top of the hill my legs are screaming. During my second repetition of backwards running, I was passed by another runner on the other side of the road. He was going in the opposite direction but he clearly had noticed my running technique. He waved and I returned the gesture and continued on with the workout. I wonder what he thought. If I were in that situation I would think it was very odd but I would have been intrigued. I think he was interested in what I was doing because he continued to watch after an extended period of time. Perhaps I will see him running hills backwards in the future.

I got the idea of backwards running from an article that I read a few years ago. Basically this gentleman bet that he could run a marathon backwards. He ended up winning the bet and continues to run backwards today.

While running backwards may be a bit odd, being a runner already makes you a bit weird. Unfortunately, only a small population in the U.S. partakes in the sport of running. Why not give them something to talk about, it may be unique enough to start the next training craze i.e. barefoot running, carb loading, protein + carb supplements, Ultra running; 50 states marathon runners, etc.