Saturday, December 14, 2013

Week 5

Week 5, how long does this thing go?  Race day is January 26th.  I try to think about the fact that it should at least be in the 40s temperature wise by then.

Sunday: A Long Run Leads to Hunger.
   I ran on the treadmill in the early part of the day and it was a good run.  Emily ran later in the day, around 4:30pm.  She finished her run and took a shower.  We all decided to go out to dinner.

 We got into town, and due to holiday festivities there was no parking,  so we headed up to the next town.  While on the freeway Emily became really hungry, then it hit me that she had not eaten since she ran 6 miles.  I do not know how many calories an 11 year old burns on a 6 mile run, but for me it is about 600.
This is the position assumed after eating a few chips and waiting for dinner #poorbaby

 When a person runs a long distance, they do not feel hungry directly after, but when it hits, it hits strong.  I have been so hungry after a run that I have had Emily bring me carrots in the shower because I don't think I can make it another minute, so my heart was breaking for this kid as my husband was telling me not to speed.  I tell you I was feeling like mother/trainer of the year at this point.

Tuesday: School Closed Due to Inclement Weather.
 Our regular routine was off, and the run was more like a Sunday run where we had to run separately on the in home treadmill.  I did mine earlier in the day as usual, but this time Emily went out there with her dad.  I thought it was great that they could spend the time together getting in shape.  It was a late run though, ending at 8:00 pm.  We usually go to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 pm.  I asked Emily if she had a hard time sleeping on that night and she told me there was no problem.

Wednesday: Another Snow Day from School.
 I spent most of this day cleaning and organizing one of the spaces in my house.   Having run four miles on Tuesday, and then spending the day cleaning, I was tired and my back was sore.  I knew in my mind that I could probably get away with skipping the two mile jaunt, but if I skipped, what message would that send to Emily?    It felt longer than two miles, but overall it wasn't bad and I love watching guilt free television!  Sure enough after dinner Emily and her dad went out to the game room and worked out together.
Emily and Haley playing in the snow

Thursday: The Bear Run.
 The girls were finally in school and I was not going to mess up this indoor treadmill run together!  I had everything packed.  After I picked Emily up from school, we headed over to the gym.  Em had warmed up for a total of two minutes and 30 seconds.  I was concerned about her ramping up her speed after only a short time, but then when she turned it up to only four MPH I figured that was still a warm up mode.  It wasn't long until we were running right a long.

For some reason this was very difficult.  I knew I was struggling, but could not get a clear message from Emily.  She took her headphones off after the first mile and did not want them back on.  I asked her "Do you want a hair tie?" "Do you want to just turn on your iPod without the headphones?" "What about the TV?"  Her answer was "no" to all.  She looked determined and focused, but more or less she looked like she just wanted to get it over with…at least that is how I was feeling.  Eventually she told me she had to take a bathroom break (we ALL have this happen at one point of training).  When she came back she ran for a while then complained of stomach pain.  I explained to her that it is OKAY to walk it out and not worry about finishing.  I told her that if she needed to stop that I would stop with her.  She finished it out with me by walking.  I am proud of her decision to listen to her body and how she was feeling.

So what happened?  Why were we feeling so stretched?  The gym was warmer than where we are accustomed to running.  We keep it at about 60 degrees in our running room at home, and the gym is warmer that that.  From the reading and studying I have done concerning youth, they do not have as great of a cooling mechanism as adults.  So something that may have been uncomfortable for me to be able to push through could have been very painful and grueling for an 11 year old.  The gift of education is such a blessing, especially in this type of circumstance.

I heard once that there will be tough runs and there will be easy runs.  The tough runs make all the other runs more enjoyable.  The tough ones are also few and far between, if they were not, no one would run!  I shared this info with Emily.


2 comments:

  1. This is my favorite blog post so far. You ladies are doing it even when its tough; most people would quit at this point! Good job glad to be a part of this in a small way!

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  2. Thank you so much for your encouraging comment Jan ❤️

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