Exciting Topics

I feel like I talk too much about running.  I’ve been thinking maybe I should cover other aspects of my life in my blog.  I do other exciting things besides run, you know.  For instance–yesterday at work I had a banner day in which I was able to successfully implement test item analysis in our learning management system. Rock on!

Yeah…maybe I’ll stick to running. 😉

And speaking of running, I think that I’m going to hire out DS#1 as a personal trainer/motivator for people who want to run but lack the will.  Because his determination is absolutely inspiring!  We ran a mile on Tuesday, at his urging, and he ended up with a PR pace of 9:31.  At that pace, I had a hard time keeping up with him, to be honest!

This afternoon after I picked the boys up from daycamp, I told DS#1 that I was supposed to run two miles today, but I wasn’t sure if my sore hip would let me, and he became all enthusiastic.  “Can I run with you, too?  Can I try to run two miles?” 🙂  Remember that his last long run was 1.55 miles, so this was quite an increase, especially considering it was pretty warm this afternoon!

I couldn’t say no to him, so down the road we went.  We ran the first mile into the sun, and although he started off pretty fast, he got tired pretty quickly.  So, we slowed down quite a bit, but he refused to stop.  When we hit a mile and turned around, it was definitely better, but he was still pretty tired.  We were running about an 11 minute pace, which was a bit slow even for him, but it was a long way, and the sun beating down on us made it tough for him.  I can’t deny that for me, it was kind of refreshing to run at a slower pace.  I didn’t feel like I was killing myself to finish, and while my hip still hurt, it was definitely not as much as it had the last two runs.

As we got closer to home, my husband came out and got pictures of us.  I really need to work with him to teach him how to use my camera in the different light settings, lol, but he does try his best! 😀

DS#1 kept asking me at the very end what our distance was, but even though I kept asking if he wanted to stop or walk, he said no.  When we got to 2 miles, he barely stopped long enough to get a picture taken with his dear old mom before he jumped into the pool. 😉

You can see by the pace and timing charts that we were all over the place during our run, but the important thing is he never stopped, and for him, that was a major accomplishment!

I was so proud of him, and he was so proud of himself.  For the rest of the night he kept saying, “I can’t believe I ran two miles!” It makes me so proud to be helping him increase his self-esteem and self-worth in this way. 🙂

And just so you know I do talk about other things besides running, after our run, I went into the garden and picked more tomatoes. Here I am using rubber gloves to pick them, because I have developed a horrible rash on my arms the last two weeks, and it always gets worse after I pick tomatoes.  So, my options were to stop picking them 🙁 or take precautions.  So, I look goofy, but it seems to be helping!

And here’s a shot to show that yes, it really is me. 😉

That’s all I have for tonight…maybe next time I’ll have something more exciting to talk about.  Like hockey!! 😉

Thanks for reading!