My daughter Kirstin (child #2 of 4...19 years old) came to the last 5K I ran. Which was John Z MDA 5K last Saturday. (PR...27:25, in case I forgot to mention it) She felt the excitement and told me after the race that she wanted to run! YAY! I think she'll be ready for the Boca Grande 5K in Oct. I think my husband might run it too. I must make it look easy, because they both think they're going to beat me...teehee!!!
Kirstin and I did some basic stretching before we got started. We fast walked to the end of our street to warm up a little and set out at about a 12 minute pace. I showed her how to breathe, deeply and rhythmically. She's trying to quit smoking (my dream come true!). At first I had her walk when I heard her breathing becoming harder and waited for her to tell me when she was ready to run again. This is the way she'll learn to feel the signal when she needs to walk/run. I didn't bring a watch. I wanted this to be a fun run, no pressure, no pace timing. We did this for one mile out, then turned around.
Funny thing I noticed is she kept making a fist with her hands, just like I did! It took me forever to break that habit. I only had to mention it once, she did very well with keeping a great form, very nice posture and gait.
For the run back she said she was feeling great and wanted to go a little faster, so we went to a 10 minute pace. I knew she'd feel that rather quickly but I wanted her to feel how much quicker she'd need to walk if she did run faster. She didn't get far before she had to walk. She was very surprised she couldn't go further at a faster pace. I told her to picture a bottle of water. If you pour it out slowly for 5 seconds and stop...you'll still have a pretty full bottle of water. If you just dump the bottle upside down for 5 seconds and stop, you'll lose half the bottle. Now pretend it's your energy inside the bottle. Use it up a little slower and you'll have more for a longer time. That's endurance. She got it. I was pleased....lol.
At one point on the run back, Kirstin said she was done running for the day. I knew she felt disappointed that she couldn't run easily for 2 miles. I explained that she really did very well, that little by little she'd see a difference quickly. I asked her if she thought she could run with a few extra walk breaks just so she could say she did 1.5 miles. I told her we'd walk back the last .5 to the house. She said ok.
I did an experiment without telling her to see what she had in her. When she said it was time to walk, I said we'd just go to the fence post, as we got there I said we'd go to the tree. She told me she knew what I was doing....LOL...What she didn't realize was, I slowed the pace just a bit and made her push herself for the distance. She did it! She didn't flat out refuse to run, she didn't give up! I was so proud of her.
When we got home she was smiling to herself. I recognised that feeling of accomplishment. I told her how proud of her I am, that I think she'll be a great runner. I'm so happy she's quitting the smoking too.
She said she felt great, no soreness and she was going to run everyday. I explained that she should probably just do every other day at first to let her muscles heal and to see how she felt. I had a feeling her legs would be sore the next morning, and I was right. I love being right....lol. When she came into the kitchen this morning she said her quads were killing her! She was glad for the rest day.
We'll go out again Sat morning. Probably do the same distance the same way. Kirstin will get this pretty quickly so I figure we'll add distance in small increments. If she can get 4 miles in under 50 minutes by the week before Boca Grande 5K, she'll be READY!
