"I feel like I've been running, because I did."

It's the wisdom of an 8-year old. "I feel like I've been running." [pause] "Because I did." 

My hip was achy yesterday. I couldn't place why until I remembered, oh yeah, I ran 3 miles yesterday evening. It's frustrating to have only 3 miles cause my hip to ache. It's frustrating to have my pace be slower than a year ago. It's not unexpected, given my lack of training, but it is still disappointing. A recent entry in my Runner's World daily calendar stated the following:

"Live in the now. Seven-time Western States camp Scott Jurek focuses on the moment to get him through rough spots. 'I tune in to my breath, technique, and my current pace, and I stay away from what lies ahead,' he says. This is especially helpful when 'what lies ahead' is another 99 miles."

I'm in a rough spot right now. Not because of 99 miles to go, but because of how far behind in training I am. However, now is not the time to dwell on last year's pace, or last year's progress. It's time to focus on my running right now, in this moment, at this pace. Time to give myself more opportunities to say "I feel like I've been running. Because I did."

My two left feet

I looked down after putting on my socks and saw this:

Huh. Oh well. That's how my running of late has felt anyway, like I have two left feet.

 

Stumbling

Bumbling

Fumbling

My running isn't smooth. It isn't fast. It isn't long. Right now, running is as much an exercise in patience as it is an exercise of my body. I feel frustrated, sore, weak, fat, and slow. Still, I pull on the shoes and go. Because it won't get better if I don't. 

Bounding!

Runner's World Daily Calendar Entry

Once or twice a week, in the middle of your regular workouts, bound from foot to foot for about 30 meters. Maximize your “air time” while minimizing the amount of time each foot spends on the ground. Cover more distance with these bounds than you do with your normal strides.

I'm a big fan of the workout ideas in my Runner's World daily calendar. Actually implementing them is a whole other story.

Enter my Little Man.

Right now, my 8-year old is interested in running. He ran in the Grim Mile last June. He also ran a 5K with me last August. "Remember when I beat you, Mommy?" he often says. Kids... [insert eye roll] Since he'd like to participate in both of these events again, he's started running with me. Yesterday, he ran a mile with me to a local playground then played on the swings while I ran rectangles around the park to finish out my 3.1 miles.

Here's the thing about running with a kid, while he gets tired by the end of the mile, he rebounds quickly. So by the time I was done with my additional 2 miles, he was ready to go again. I had purposely decided to run the 2 miles around the park and have us walk the mile back to the house because I assumed he wouldn't want to run again. I was wrong. The resulting journey home convinced me of one thing: my workouts should be more kid-like, that is I should make a game out of them.

The rules of Little Man's game were simple...on the "lighter colored" sidewalk squares, run through them trying to just take one step on each square. Extra points were awarded if you had minimal steps leaping across driveways. Stopping and jumping from square-to-square was also allowable. The points system was a little arbitrary and difficult to follow, but, to be fair, he is 8. At first, I watched but didn't participate. Then I remembered the above calendar entry from over the weekend. I realized that really what my son was doing was bounding. And it didn't seem like such a "workout" to bound with him. I'm fairly certain that the folks working in their yards were probably amused watching a grown woman leaping down the sidewalk after her son. But I'm also fairly certain that looked a lot less strange than if I did that on my own. Either way, I had fun and got some extra exercise in. The points were tallied and I'm sure I didn't earn as many as Little Man, however I've already requested a recount. Results pending... ;)