Upper Body Strength

When you think of distance runners, this is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. And, although its true that you don't need to look like the Terminator to run 26.2 miles, a little bit of upper body strength never hurt anyone. While sprinters should focus more on power, distance runners should focus more on endurance in terms of their "weight lifting" routine. Because your legs follow your arms, upper body strength can help get you to the top of a hill or past the runner just ahead of you in the final 100m. Upper body strength also helps with running form, keeping you from slouching and/or bringing your arms across your body (this throws off your stride by wasting energy fight a side-to-side motion). RunnerDude has thankfully put together a good workout, and a pretty comprehensive Q&A on weight-lifting for runners can be found here. If anyone has any other suggestions, let us know... I've always found swimming to be a pretty good upper body / core workout!

... the picture is from my favorite weather.com advertisement :-)