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My friend Katelin was visiting Boone this weekend, and one of her requests was to go on the Blue Ridge 
Parkway. She asked if I needed to exercise, since she’s been keeping up with the blog about the Jump Start Diet, and suggested that a hike could be a fun way to sneak in some exercise during her visit.
However, when we woke up on Saturday morning, we were greeted with an interesting forecast. It said that even though the weather looked pretty in the morning, don’t “get cute” and stay outside too long because there will be a storm and hail.
Get cute? What does that even mean? We weren’t sure, so my fiancé, Katelin and I decided to disregard the forecast and enjoy the parkway while it was still pretty out. We headed to Price Lake and hiked around it, enjoying the fresh mountain air and perfect scenery. We weren’t pushing ourselves too hard, so I doubt it was the best version of exercise.
Then, thunder. It was a light rumbly, so we didn’t worry too much. But then all of the sudden it sounded like 
hell broke loose. Within moments, torrents of rain began to fall, and we were only halfway around the lake. We had gotten “cute.”
Good thing I was wearing my New Balance gear because the lightweight material really whisked the moisture away from my skin and didn’t feel heave at all. All three of us began sprinting through the woods for a while (talk about awesome cardio). We had to stop eventually though because the trail began to flood, and it was too dangerous to run in the mud.
The best part was when the hail came. We were briskly walking, almost out of breath when CLINK!
“Was that hail?”
CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK!
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Nothing like mother nature to tell you to pick up the pace with your outdoor workout.
It turned out to be like one of those adventure books you read as a kid. We ran into another group coming from the opposite direction, horrified that the trail had flooded, so there was no way to cross it. With some teamwork and logs, they found a dry way to cross the temporary river.
My group on the other hand? Addison leaped over, and Katelin and I got soaked trying.
By the time we made it out of the wilderness alive, the rain had stopped and the skies were beautiful again.
I’m pretty sure the weather decided that we needed to up our cardio, and that’s why we had to deal with the hail apocalypse. But even though it was less than ideal, it was oddly fun. I hope all of you go out and experience nature as your form of exercise. It’s a nice break from the gym and workout DVDs while still getting the Jump Start Diet ‘s recommended amount of exercise.
Any thoughts on exercise? Email me at NikkiRoberti@Gmail.com or tweet me anytime @Nikki_Roberti.