Running Success

When I am really tired, I like to go to bed early. Unfortunately the rest of the family tends to make noise till 10pm or after. So I fall asleep only to be awakened by someone and unable to sleep - like now. Of course that does give me the chance to blog a bit! :)

I have to mention the progress that has been made in running within our household. I wanted to provide some high intensity cardiovascular exercise to the children that would also be challenging. I decided last year to have them run 12 laps around the edge of our property. This equates to 2 miles. At first the children had some naive enthusiasm for running but this quickly turned to despair when their precious computer time was tied to their daily running. Many times during the past year when I brought the kids out to run, only one of them finished without walking. The exception was my 10 year old, Conall, who really put some effort and pride into his running. I think I might have given up with out his faithful effort and motivation. He has been the best runner all year long and he holds the fastest time for any of the children with a time of 15:59.

Today was a pretty exceptional day in the running logs of the children. Conall is still running well but Danielle and I have seen two other children move up in performance. The first one is our 7 year old Aidan. He has been trying hard during the entire summer to improve. He has come from just finishing the race to a time of 16:14 today. He is a pretty tough 7 year old. I have seen Aidan fall during the race and continue with blood coming from his scraped up legs. When I asked him if he is OK, Aidan responds while running, "I just put my pain behind me, Daddy."

Also today Brendan who is 13 really put in a fine effort Even though Brendan does not like running in the least, he is really applying himself. Today he finished at 16:34! This is over 1:30 faster than his previous best time! His average heart rate was 186 BMP.

My 12 year old Fiona who prefers sprinting has also improved her 2 mile time to just over 19:00 Not to be forgotten is my 5 year old Aine. She has worked up to running 6 laps or 1 mile.

Part of the recent improvement in race times is due to my vacation incentive. I have promised them that I will take them all to "Swimming with Dolphins" if all of them (except Aine) can run under 17:00 during the same race. Or if they individually run under 15:00 in any race. Conall, Brendan and Aidan don't trust the group and are shooting for running under the 15:00 mark This will be tough.

I run with the kids around 2-3 times a week. I have been increasingly challenged as they improve. Fortunately I also have improved and still hold my #1 ranking. Last week I ran my best time of 14:40 (a minute under my previous best). This is probably my high mark and in a little while the kids will trounce me. But in the short-term it means that I am the only one who is qualified for swimming with the Dolphins!