November 5th, 2010 – 3.75 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Tonight’s run was really great. I know I say that a lot and they are great in general, but this one was great in particular. Last night Chris and I decided that Jordan needed more activity and less television. You can’t argue with that…. but I did anyway. I really didn’t want to sacrifice my run to parenthood! Running is how I get away from all the things that bind me. It’s not that I don’t love my family. I love them madly, but my run is what makes it easier for them to live with me.

Despite my whining and complaining about it, I was forced to take the boy with me on my run. This was not the first time Jordan had joined me on a run. There have been several times when he was misbehaving in school and I have taken him on runs as a form of discipline. I thought it was a fine idea, but I was concerned that I was setting him up to hate running and really, when he is old enough, I would love to have him as a steady running partner.

For now, when we run together, I play the role of Drill Sergeant and he whines and complains the whole time. This time was no exception really, but I expected it so it didn’t frustrate me like it normally would. However, overall he was really great.

I was feeling a little sting in my right heel and ankle, but it wasn’t too bad. I was determined to get a decent workout tonight. I knew we were going to run about 3.65 miles and that’s a lot for Jordan, so we did it in 4 and 1 intervals. He did GREAT!!!! He ran every interval and when we got to the last half of the run, where there is a slight decline, I had him pace me. It’s much easier to get a decent workout if I‘m not constantly turning around to make sure he’s still running.

I went into Drill Sergeant mode and pushed him whenever he was slowing down and on the last 60 seconds of each interval, I really had him kick it up! He hung in there and there was a time or two when he was really making me work for it. I was really proud of him!

I had been thinking that I really need to focus on speed work and if he can do again what he did tonight, he would be a huge help to me.

At about the last 100 yards of the run, we were headed toward home. I told him, we would walk to a certain corner and then sprint as fast as we could back to the house. When I said “Go!” , he was off like a shot and I could tell that he was considering this a race and he had no intention of being beaten by his Mommy.

Well, he did get beaten by his mommy but I had to kick it up to a 6:37 mile pace to do it. He was really moving! For him to do that after having already run over 3.50 miles, I thought that was pretty good!!!!

I was so proud of my little dude and we had a great time. I hope we can do it again soon.