Proud Dad

I changed things up a little this past week.  I ran a lot less.  My reason?  My knee had a little something going on.  It is not he same pain and I wouldn't really call it pain, but it is something I am a little concerned about.  So that is why I decided not to run on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  At least it is one of the reason.

It is now Sunday evening and I can still feel 'something' in my knee.  Not enough for me to take any more time off, I do plan on running on Monday, but enough that I am glad I didn't officially run this last weekend.

"Officially Run"?  What does that mean?  I did get some running in but not a constant distance.  It was track meet weekend for my kids I coach.  They had a meet on Thursday which I could not attend due to work (if was a meet beginning at 9:00AM) but I did attend the meets on Friday and Saturday.  The running I did was back and forth, over and over, in the infield of the track cheering on my runners and relaying splits, letting them know to either speed up, slow down or just plain relax.  Since there were 4 different 1600 meter races and 4 different 800 meter races I had kids in, I was back and forth quite a lot.  The kids did well and had fun.

OK, now for the Dad Coach in me to come out.  My oldest daughter, Melissa, was able to run in her first ever track meet on Friday.  She is in 4th grade (10 years old) and not officially on the team since the school only has 5th through 8th grade on the team, but since I on of the coaches,  she is allowed to run at all the practices and I was able to get her into a race this year. She ran on Friday in the 1600 and was really excited.

We planned on her trying to run a 7:30.  I knew she would be able to, but would she be able to get through the pain associated with the last lap and a half of a 'mile' race.  Our goal was to run 1:50 per lap which would translate to a 7:20 in the end.  Easy numbers to remember.  Her first 200 meters and also her first lap were really fast.  Excitement!  She settled in on lap 2 and 3 and then on the final lap, she didn't fade, she kept going strong and finished with a time of 7:05!  I was so proud of her!  She was so proud of herself!  Of the 3 meets this year, her time is the second fastest on the team.  OK, not too many girls have run this year in the 3 meets, but she did excellent.  This Dad is smiling :)

I will continue to run this coming week.  I have a little less than 3 weeks until my first race after the injury, a half marathon in West Virginia.  I am excited and a little nervous.  I want to run well (as always) but don't want to go through the pain of the IT thing again.  I will keep rolling though and even bring the foam roller on the trip.  I will...

Keep on Running!!!