This fall Heather and Patrick are training for a half marathon, and I am training for the full marathon. We all thought it would be fun to be able to ride to the course together and participate in the same race. Heather and Patrick are training together whenever they can, so they get up at 5 AM three mornings per week to run on a wooded park trail. Since Heather and I can't run at the same time without a babysitter, I'm still running my late night laps around the 1 1/3 mile, asphalt mall road like last year, but Heather and I found a creative way to make part of our training more family oriented.
Last weekend, Heather and I joined forces and took the kids to the nature preserve and running trail and took turns pushing the double stroller through the woods. Pushing two 30+ lb kids and a 25lb stroller with plastic wheels over sloping terrain is quite an undertaking that would be considerably easier if we had a stroller actually made for jogging, but we're having fun making due.
We had a really great time exercising as a family, instead of sticking to our normal separate work-outs. When our little participants got bored, I took the stroller and ran for short bursts while making motor sound effects. They screamed "Faster Daddy, faster!" as we flew up and down the hills. It was undoubtedly their favorite part of the day, meanwhile wildlife scampered deeper into the woods . When I tired and slowed to a normal pace they begged for more, but were surprisingly understanding of my exhaustion.
We've paid greater attention to calorie counting and diet customization as our bodies' demand for fuel has dramatically increased along with our training. A perk to exercise is that although we still have to watch what we eat, we get to eat a LOT. We're mindful of the fact that our behavior can be an example and influence our childrens' concepts of "normal" dieting and exercise. We're hopeful this translates into a healthy lifestyle and that our children grow into healthy adults rather than adding to the prevalent couch potato culture.
We've paid greater attention to calorie counting and diet customization as our bodies' demand for fuel has dramatically increased along with our training. A perk to exercise is that although we still have to watch what we eat, we get to eat a LOT. We're mindful of the fact that our behavior can be an example and influence our childrens' concepts of "normal" dieting and exercise. We're hopeful this translates into a healthy lifestyle and that our children grow into healthy adults rather than adding to the prevalent couch potato culture.
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