UPPING MY GAME

My 17 year old daughter dropped me on a run for the first time last weekend. It feels good.

Not that I enjoy being dropped, but it's great to be outdone by your children. It let's you understand that they're maturing and dealing with the world on the same terms as you.

The two of us are training together for the Providence Marathon (May 1st) and we were out for a ten mile run on Saturday.

Now all of this didn't happen in a vacuum. I've had experience, with seven marathons to my credit. Not that I'm particularly fast, but I can lay claim to being persistent and stubborn. Once I start something, I finish it.

It's been a while though since I've run a marathon ... over five years at this point. I was an early adopter of CrossFit, starting in 2007 and gradually over time shifted my main exercise mode from endurance to strength & power. I exchanged the world of slow twitch muscle fibers and VO2 Max for the new world of fast twitch muscle fibers and One Rep Max.

I've been working on power lifting with a bit of Olympic lifting thrown in for variety. And it's worked for me as I can easily lift over twice my body weight.

Until ... last fall, when my daughter who has always "hated to run", fell subject to peer pressure and joined several friends to sign up for the Dream Far High School Marathon program. They began in October running a mile three afternoons a week and have gradually built that up, logging additional miles during the school week and a long run on the weekend.

That's where I came in. When she told me what she was doing, to her complete mortification I said, "Oh, I'll volunteer as an adult mentor for the long runs." Which means that I'm doing long runs with the kids, all of their training races and the Providence Marathon as well.

After some initial wariness and a warning that I needed to give her some space, I've been accepted as a running partner. Just what I'd hoped for over the course of my marathoning career many years ago ... spending time with my daughter on a run.

I've been faking it though. Relying on wile and my athletic base to get me through. I've been shorting my weekly mileage and this weekend when I got dropped, I realized that I need to get serious and log the weekday miles to support double digit long runs on the weekend. It's time to up my game!

What about you? What changes have you made that leave you needing to up your game?

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