An Epic Journey

This has been a great fitness week for me and my kids. Tuesday the kids had TKD promotions. I love watching them meet their goals. They worked hard all summer, and they were both so excited about their new belts. I love seeing how proud they are of themselves. There are so many benefits to TKD. It's so much more than just a new belt. It builds their confidence, gives them pride, and teaches them perseverance.

I had a good TKD class this week as well. It was not an easy class. It was hot. I worked my butt off and felt confused and like I was messing everything up. But, by the end of class, I was starting to understand. I could see a little progress. We ended with sparring, which last year made me nervous because everyone was watching. This time I found myself focused on what I was trying to achieve. I didn't do very well, but I wasn't worried about what anyone was thinking. To me, that is huge progress. TKD has given me so much more confidence. It's incredible.

It was a good running week, too. I ran Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was great. I was motivated and felt great after. Wednesday, I was feeling sore and tired. I was running with a couple other ladies who didn't mind walking, so we ran a mile and walked two more. Thursday, I didn't run. TKD was enough, and I needed a day off.

Friday ended up being a day off, too. My hip was tight and sore following TKD, and I was feeling really tired. I slept in and felt a lot better after getting some extra Zs. We went to Crystal Lake in the late afternoon, and I swam some laps. I worked a little at breathing during the crawl. It's still difficult. I need a lot more work on swimming. Still, I love swimming, and it felt great on my tired legs.

Today has been the best day of the week. The Artist wanted to run. He asked if we could have an epic journey and run/walk into Enosburg from our house (what I thought was 5 miles). I want to encourage his love of running, so I agreed. I got to have a great workout with my favorite little guy.

We had a blast. It was a perfect morning. Warm, but not too hot. Sunshine. Blue skies. Perfection. We walked to the Rail Trail and started running. We ran a lot in the first half. He was excited and kept saying, "I can't believe we're doing this! I know we can do it!" He had such a great attitude. I let him dictate the pace and distance of our runs. We're working on pacing, and he does pretty well. But, sometimes you have to go all out and race your mom. I definitely did some sprinting.

Our longest run/walk before this morning was 2 miles. I didn't want to push it and have him hate it, so I gave him an out. At the halfway point, I offered to have Andy come pick us up. He enthusiastically denied the offer. He was going to do the whole thing - no matter what. This attitude thrills me.

We walked a lot more in the second half, but we still did some run intervals right up to the end. He was definitely getting tired. Our pace was slower, but the conversation wasn't. We had such a great talk, and I am looking forward to more of these moments. We discussed the idea of being proud of finishing and not needing to come in first. He tends to get really discouraged when he doesn't win, and I wanted him to understand that running is just about trying your best.

He definitely got it. The moment he saw that we had reached town he said, "We did it!" He walked taller, and the expression on his face was priceless. We high-fived and bragged to our friends at The Flying Disc. We celebrated with smoothies, and Andy picked us up. We ended up doing over 6 miles. It was an epic journey and so completely worth it.