Thursday, June 26, 2014

Recap and Unpleasant Discovery About My Kids

Wow that week went fast! Here is the recap up until today:

Saturday: 3.8 miles, 10:53 pace

Sunday: 4.25 miles, 10:57 pace longest training run so far!

This week has been weird. I had a nice running tally going and planned on taking Monday off. Then my friend and I decided at the last minute to do an awesome hike. It was over 3 miles and 1,200 feet elevation though so it was a tough workout!

Hiking Mt Woodson

Enjoying the incredible view from Potato Chip Rock

I took Tuesday off instead. Wednesday I had a job interview in the morning then took the kids swimming in the afternoon. I only ended up doing 4 laps-lame but my neck was really hurting. Then today I got all geared up to go out for my run this morning...

My husband and I are struggling to make changes in our household. Due to busy-ness or who knows what our kids have gotten lazy and in our opinion unhealthy. They are not bad in comparison to some for sure, and they are not overweight but we have slowly been making shocking discoveries.
  • First, the sheer amount of time they will spend in front of a screen (if we let them) is staggering. It is mindless, pointless and ridiculous. So step 1 was to eliminate or unplug all screens. We *gasp* deleted all game apps from our iThings. Our kids need to be kids and stop being zombies.
  • Next there are sports to sign them up for but they don't start for a while. So we plan on doing more swimming and adding some jogging. We also need to get some bike flat tires fixed.
Today I discovered that I hate jogging with my kids. I'm a monster, I know. But hear me out. This morning I was looking forward to an easy jog with my boys. We walked our driveway to warm up then began jogging once we turned the corner. The route was a very easy straight stretch to a stoplight then back. Extremely easy. I think it amounted to maybe 0.8 of a mile. Each one took like 10 jogging steps before he stopped and whined telling me his legs hurt and he was tired-already. Wow.

The rest of the run consisted of me trying to encourage them at all costs, even holding hands. I told them to go slow just keep jogging. All they would do was walk and make excuses. Then it escalated to me barking at them and (perhaps not my finest hour) finally telling them that if they didn't exercise they were going to get fat like grandpa. I admit, there are better ways to motivate. But oh, the laziness, the whininess, and the unwillingness to try!!! My husband took them a couple of nights ago and said his experience was similar. I have not been that frustrated in a very long time. I had no idea this is what would happen. I mean we pride ourselves on being active and keeping them active but when it came to something that resembled a challenge, they gave up right out the gate.

I don't know how I will be able to keep jogging with them but I feel like we need to keep trying. I just need to do my run first, then take them along after I am finished. I thought I could go with them, have it be a really good warm up then I would complete my run. It was literally the worst part of my morning. I didn't get my own run in, and I was so frustrated by my kids' attitudes that I needed a timeout. I am just shocked by their unwillingness to try. Are we just raising a bunch of wimps? Where is the fire? Where is the excitement to do something active? I thought we were doing great, but I'm not so sure anymore. My husband and I are working on it and I will post more as things progress.

That being said our oldest son will run on his own, in addition to his football camp. I guess we experience both ends of the spectrum in our family!

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