Ever since school started this fall, Jay has been working hard on running farther and faster. He decided all on his own that he wanted to get used to running for 30 minutes at a time. One day, after a few weeks of jogging, Jay asked Jeff to help him get faster. When your dad is a cross country and track coach, use it! Private coaching sessions soon commenced. Father and son started meeting at the park one afternoon each week to do a speed and strength workout together. Jay's running form has already improved noticeably.
Jay is a very careful, deliberate guy. He likes to know what's coming so he can prepare for it. He knows that he wants to run middle school cross country next year in seventh grade, and he wants to be ready for it, so he's starting now, gradually building up his endurance little by little. It's working! Jay is able to run much farther now than he could two months ago.
As parents who are running nerds, Jeff and I have always explained how endurance training works to our kids, mostly to dispel various myths and to console any discouragement. The main tip that the kids have a hard time believing is that the more you run, the easier it gets. Sweet humble Jay took a leap of faith and put our unbelievable claims to the test, and he is seeing results!
My favorite part about all of this is how well Jay is taking to running. He is catching the vision! We have never forced running onto our kids, but they have always seen us run. Our family rule is that when the kids reach seventh grade, they have to choose a sport. It doesn't have to be running, but it cannot be football. It just so happens that running is right up introverted Jay's alley. Each day he plans out when he's going to run and how far he's going to go. He is feeling the results of his consistent work, and he wants more. He runs five days each week, and his weekly mileage total has hit ten miles for the past two weeks in a row. That's twice as much as I ran when I discovered running at age eleven!
Last week, Jay decided he was going to try completing a three mile run for the first time in his life. In his usual methodical way, he planned the time and the place: Wednesday night at 5:30pm on the paved pathway behind our house. Naturally, the rest of us had to go out and cheer him on while he ran. Since he knows the exact distance of the path, he didn't actually time his run; he just covered the 3 mile distance. He did it! It was so fun to watch him sprint the last 50 feet in triumph. We all clapped and cheered. It was a joyful family moment. Running really is the best sport.
1 comment:
Jay is a champion in every way!
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