I put on some "work out clothes", tie up the old tennis shoes, load the 3 year old into the stroller.
We all head out into a gorgeous (Monday) night, with my 8 year old in the lead on his bike.
We make it down the hill and half way home before an accident occurs. My 6 year old, Jack, (pictured above jumping) decided he was not wearing his tennis shoes for this family exercise outing (read: He didn't know where either pair was) and that he "wanted" to wear his flip flops. He didn't want to ride his bike (which is what I wanted him to do) but walk/run like Mom and Dad. I informed my husband that this was fine...but, if anything happened to him, Bart was the one to stay behind. After all, he is not the one "training" (and man alive do I use that word loosely!) for a race.
Back to training. I'm walking. I'm running to the next driveway, and the next. I'm walking as my heart beats and my is about to explode, Jack catches up to me to run by me, then he is running ahead of me, then...BAM, he falls. He is such an accident prone child that I just knew this was going to happen...sure enough, he hurt is foot, knee, and hip. I cuddled him until Bart caught up, then I ran on, leaving Dad to deal with the training injury.
Even with the injury, the entire family made it all the way around the block (not a huge deal, maybe 1/3 of a mile total? twice...but I did walk more then I ran. I raced my 8 year old on his bike a few times, always cheating so I got a few seconds head start before he creamed me.
Overall it was not as torturous as it could have been. The running parts, especially the running part where I ran for about six driveways (I know, major big accomplishment, right?) were pretty hard, but I survived, and believe that next time, I will do even better!
And speaking of next time...that was Monday, it is now Thursday night and that is the only training I've done...unless you count the marathon eating of ice cream I did today at an ice cream party I hosted! It will get better, I just need to get into a routine and become more disciplined with it.
