Friday morning: I’m not sure how it initially started, but it is going. I remember telling my oldest son this past weekend that if he wanted to go running, he would need to do it at 5:00 in the morning because that was the time of the day where the temperature was less than 100F. Monday morning, I roll over and am startled by my son standing at the edge of my bed asking me if I am ready to go running. “What? No, I’m not ready to go running. Maybe another day, Bud.” I am sure he was sad when he walked away, but slink back into the dark and off to his bed he went. A couple of days later, the same thing occurs. This time when he wakes me he asks if today is the day we can get up and go running. This time while mentally a little more coherent to what he wants to accomplish, I am physically not up to it. The night before had been a late one and 5:00 came quicker than I needed it to. Thursday at work I started thinking about how my son was reaching out to me, asking me to lead and encourage him to participate in exercising activity. As a junior high and high school student I participated in many different sports. Cross country was my favorite followed by track and field, football, baseball and chasing girls. Zak has taken a liking to basketball and baseball. I continually push him to be better and offer pointers on how he can be better. “What if I turn him off to personal improvement because I am not participating in exercise with him?” Thoughts like this plagued me. I determined that the only real way to get him going is to get up and lead him. He has always been large for his age. Not overweight, just taller or faster growing than everyone else in his peer group. The last thing I want to do is give him the wrong impression about exercise which could hurt him later on in life. We got out of the US Navy three years ago this month. Since my separation from the service, things have picked up pace. My family grew to include 5 children and a large dog. I drive 25 miles one way to work every day (and if I come home, 25 miles back home). I decided to further my education by getting my MBA (which hopefully I will complete next spring). The school work has taken away any extra time I thought I might have had. I do the best I can to give my family any extra time not spent working, schooling or sleeping. Personal time is a rare commodity around my house. So all that being said, I kinda felt like not only was my son trying to take my advise and get better but maybe he is reaching out to his extremely busy father looking to bond. So bond we did. I told him last night that as hard as it would be, I was going to get him up at 5:00 so we could run some laps around the neighborhood. He was good with that and at 5:00 I poured myself out of bed to prepare myself for a run I hoped turned out better than I expected. Zak got up and got dressed faster than I did and was ready to go. He really has no clue about distance running (distance being anything farther than home plate to 1 st to 2 nd to 3 rd and back home). I haven’t measured it, but I think that my block is about 300 yards for one lap. I walked him around about half way and started leading him in stretching. He constantly asks questions. Most of them are memory type questions. Tidbits of information that hand out on a frequent basis which he likes to turn around and quiz me on later, “Dad, you pointed out some signs on the road the other day. What did they mean again?” or “Why do you think the Wii game Crash Bandicoot is called Crash Bandy-hoot?” These are questions I have answered several times before. Most cases I have already answered them that day. I let him talk and then ask him, “Zak, how many laps do you think we should do?” “I think we should do 5 laps.” I okay it and after stretching off we go. I failed to mention that Maverick, my 85 lb black golden retriever/poodle mix (Golden Doodle), wanted to go with us so I have him on a leash running too. We near the end of the first lap and I can hear Zak starting to breath hard. Maverick and I were taking it easy on Zak. We would have gone much faster, but we didn’t want to burn him out or leave him behind on the first trip. As we cross the line, I say, “There’s one lap.” And around we go for the next lap. As we are nearing the end of lap two, Zak says, “Dad, I lost count. Is this lap 3 or 4?” I give him a laughing response and tell him that we are coming up on two laps. As we get about a third of the way into lap three, I ask, “So, Zak, do you think you can make it to 5 laps?” “Oh yeah, Dad, I think I could probably do 10.” I tell him to calm down and let’s just worry about 5 for the moment. We make the turn you could call the “home stretch” part of the lap and Zak stops to walk. Now he told me during one of the previous laps that his PE teacher had told his class that once you start running never stop. You can continue to slow down if you like, but don’t stop. When I notice he is walking, I encourage him to keep going and I slow down to his new slower pace. As we cross the line indicating the end/beginning of a lap I tell him we can walk. We do a cool down walking lap and then stretch some more. Then we head home. I’m not sure how he felt, but even as short and as easy as this morning’s run was, I felt great. I sent him off to the shower as I, myself prepared to clean up for the day. I think that I will start getting up and working out again. The wife is working pretty hard to convince me to finally pull the trigger on a treadmill for the house. I have wanted one for quite sometime but have never quite been able to swallow the grand needed to purchase a quality device. I think a M/W/F morning jog will help both of us out. Who knows, the wife might join us too. After all, I am just making laps around the house.
