TBR Jr. Starts Not-So-Serious Training

TBR Jr. has been itching to run for the longest time. In fact, he quit all other sports last year—football, swimming, and baseball—saying that all he wanted to do was run.

For the past months, I had been searching for a kid’s run club for my boy to join so he could run with other kids his age. Unfortunately, the only club I found—one at his school led by my old running coach—recruited only one interested participant: my son!

Fearful that running with an adult thrice a week would bore my son to death (no offense, Coach!) and turn him off from the sport that I’m hoping he’ll love as much as I do, I never enrolled him.  I opted instead to sign him up with the best running coach for this 8-year-old boy: his mother! Uhm, yes, that’s me!

So, last December, we had our very first training session: 2km walk/run around Ayala Alabang. It was an informal coach-mommy assessment of his form and endurance without him knowing; I kept it fun and light, just the way he likes it.

Oh boy. There was a lot of room for improvement: he bounced and tiptoed with each step, his arms were flailing, and, as with any boy his age, he started off too fast. After a few intervals, I was able to slow him down a bit and teach him about pacing. But, as soon as we crossed the 1 minute mark of running, he would ask in between breaths: “Can we just walk again?!”

With the busyness of the season, that was our last run. And, all throughout the Holiday break, TBR Jr., sounding like a true running addict who’d been bitten by the bug, would repeatedly ask me: “When are we going to run again?!”

On the first day of this new year, we finally found time to run. Plan was for TBR Jr. and I to run, while hubby and Li’l Miss Bull Runner would bike.

– Right before our run on New Year’s Day. The kids are alive and perky.  I just woke up from a 2-hour nap (is it not obvious?) and I was lethargic due to the excessive eating (the weight gain is pretty evident too. Argh!) –

I set my Garmin to an interval workout: 1 min 30 sec run with 1 min walking intervals, 8 repeats. With one punch on the start button, we were off.

By some miracle, my boy had remembered everything I taught him weeks ago. His form had improved, he ran at a good, steady pace, and even as we ran past the 1:30 mark, he was doing completely fine! Awesome!

Unfortunately, by the 3rd set, Li’l Miss competitive and aggressive Bull Runner started wailing. She didn’t like the fact that she was getting left behind. And so, our runs took on a much slower pace to accompany Li’l BR on her bike who, for reasons unknown to us all, did not stop crying for the next 20 minutes.

Amidst the background of my daughter’s bawling, my son and I did finish our 8 sets and ran extra to cover the full 2k. My son was smiling. And so was this mommy-coach.