One proud dad.
For some reason, my oldest daughter Hannah has been asking to workout with my wife and I lately. She had expressed interest in doing triathlons before, but I don’t think Dawn and I really took her seriously, especially since she can barely swim or ride a bike.
This afternoon, she kept pestering us that she want to work out with us and go on a run. Fully expecting that she wouldn’t last very long, I suggested that she try running on the treadmill to see if she liked it and to allow her to stop whenever she felt that she had enough. While I am thrilled that she is showing interest in sports and exercise, the last thing that I want to be is one of those parents that push their kids into doing something they really don’t want to be doing.
I fired up the treadmill and started her off slow just to get her familiar with running on the mill. She did good right from the start and we ended up getting to a comfortable pace at 4mph. As she was running, I kept letting her know that she could stop whenever she wanted. To my amazement, she ended up running 1.5 miles and barely broke a sweat. She even got up to 4.5mph for the last few tenths of a mile.
She wanted to keep running, but I suggested that we see how she felt tomorrow and if she wanted to keep jogging, we could try it a few times a week. She starts soccer tomorrow so I would expect that practice and games should satisfy all of her running needs for now. Although, we may need to start practicing the swimming and riding more…who knows, maybe I have the next Chrissie Wellington living under my roof?
On a personal note, good 5k run tonight. The weather is getting back to normal and it was nice to get back outside.