Waldo Canyon - Run w/ the Son

My wife is not happy.  She, our son and myself are running the Slacker Half Marathon (June 23rd) - we have all done it before, but not for a couple of years.  We are all looking forward to it.  Because: 1) we like it, 2) we want to do well and beat our PR's - and 3) because apparently she has a fleeting thought that she can beat him, due to him not having any training for it.

Politely we have reminded her that he is a teenager who rolls out of bed and can run, on no training, do well and beat her in just about any distance.  Is that nice to say?  No.  Is it true?  Yes.  Do we say it?  Well - we pick our spots carefully.  It doesn't go over well w/ her.

She has been getting some good training in for the race.  He has played soccer all Spring.  (I've been training quite well too, but this ain't about me).  His training hasn't started, she has been running, logging good miles and getting ready for a couple of months.

Her long runs have been up to 14 miles long.  His long runs have come on the Soccer fields.  It's not that I am picking sides - but she has no chance of beating him on race day and likely won't be within 15 minutes of his time.  That's no fault of hers - it's just the boy is simply a better faster runner than her.

However, rolling out of bed with no training and running a half marathon - despite who you are - is asking a fair amount, even for him.  So, a 3 week plan, w/ 8 training runs was conceived - and yesterday was run #1. 

The original plan was to go to a track - but due to strong, annoying winds - we went to Waldo Canyon.  ps - I will be doing the training runs w/ my son.  My wife wants to continue to train on her own - we are all okay with that.

The boy teenager has said in the past that he likes to run up hills, so Waldo Canyon seems fitting as there is near 1400' elevation gain over the 7 miles.  It's not too long of a run, but with the elevation gain and loss and some good concentration needed on the mostly narrow trail - it's a good test to see what the fitness and endurance level is.

We like to run together as we are not too far off being equal in pace for most of the distances we run.  The day will come, it's not too far off, where I will be the one who thinks they can beat the son - but in reality, can't. 

For training, it's a tough balancing job though to make sure he doesn't overdo it, or for that matter underdo it.  So, yesterdays run was a bit of a test to see where he is at, to remind him of the effort involved in climbing (and descending), and just to get him back to running a decent distance for a good length of time.

It went well - no need for a run report aside from noting that after 3 1/2 miles, the high point of the trail - he did run out of steam somewhat.  We made good time to there - being only 4 minutes off my previous best time to that spot.  (Final time was just under 1:20 = not bad)

He had not run on that trail before, so next week we will go back and along with knowing what he is getting into - will likely do better than this time.

So, the training journey is underway with track work coming up tomorrow and a Falcon Trail run at the Air Force Academy on tap this weekend.   As for Momma - well, she is still feeding us - so we are still okay - for now.