Running with a Friend

Yesterday was a great day. I had a 10 miler to do and my friend and running partner C joined me. We trained for the marathon together last year but have only done a handful of runs together since. She has only been running 3-4 miles a couple times a month, concentrating more on biking this year. She ran the first 4 miles with me and I didn't want the miles to end. The conversations you have on a run just don't happen as easily when you are doing other things. I have been doing all my runs by myself which I have enjoyed, I didn't realize how much I missed running with C. I am hoping to be able to run with her throughout the summer, we have plans to take the kids to the track. They are old enough now to run or there is a park next to the track, and of course plenty of hikes since she is also my hiking partner! After school my kids did the Hershey's track and field event. They both ran the 50 meter, 100 meter, and standing long jump. Neither one placed top 3 but they had a lot of fun and has spurred them on to do better next year. We started exercising in the morning about 3 weeks ago, (with about a week of when we got a new puppy). They have been loving it and Brooklyn gets right out of bed which is amazing, since all year I have had to drag her out of bed. We started back up this morning, they did a circuit of jumping jacks, dribbling a soccer ball, squats, box jumps and jumping buckets. They had a blast.

Changes

This past year has brought so many changes! I have become a group fitness leader, Insanity instructor, swim instructor, and a lifeguard. I am loving my job and teaching kids to swim has been so much fun. It's amazing to watch the progress that can be done in 8 sessions! I am also teaching Insanity 2 times a week. This has changed my running, and I am enjoying the scheduled cross training. I am currently training for a half marathon and I am only running 3 times a week. In the past I would run 5 days a week and still try to squeeze in cross training, at least until the weekly mileage added up and I would be to tired. Now that summer is finally here (yay 70* days!), gardening and work are keeping me busy. My kids will be out of school next week and my schedule will surely change again! Every summer seems to be better then the last. My half marathon is June 14, and then I will probably scale back running for the summer. I don't have the time or energy to train for a race and keep up with my kids. There will still be some shorter runs but also lots of biking, swimming, and hiking.