Rica Rica Rewind---Do what? The man who thinks I am crazy went running with me?!
Instead of heading to the gym right after work, I went home to see my husband and his friend who had just flown in for a few days visit. I figured I would say hi, socialize for a little bit, and they would go to the driving range when I went for my run. After I changed and started stretching, my husband said “Wait, we are coming with you; I figured we could go to the trail.” I asked him if they were taking the bikes and when he replied “No, we are running with you,” you could have knocked me over with a feather.
The husband, as I have mentioned, is supportive of my running and racing, but thinks I am crazy. He dislikes running, which, to be fair, I largely disliked running until the last year, and I have never sat and asked him to run with me of complained that he never did. I was so happy that he suggested it and jumped on the chance to bring him out with me, secretly hoping that the running bug would bite him too.
We took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed over to the BWI Airport Trail. I was a bit nervous because I don’t run with anyone, and I typically run inside on a treadmill. What if I could barely run a mile outside? I figured it did not matter; it was not a contest and I was going to a take a nice easy run anyway and would be good practice for the races that are coming up.
The downfall of only running on a treadmill? I do not know what certain paces feel like; I just go without feeling. I downloaded an app for my iPhone that has a GPS built in and tried using it as a guide, but after a several minutes of fiddling with it I discovered it stunk (to which husband said he would get me a Garmin 405 as an early graduation present!!) so I used the stop watch on the phone instead, put the it away and decided to take off on what felt like a good pace. A few minutes in, the husband asked me to slow down, so I pulled up a bit (he thought I was doing a 9:30 or so pace and I about fell down giggling; no way—not this slow poke). The boys got about 1.8 miles into the run and decided to walk, but I told them I needed/wanted to keep going. I went for another mile (mostly up an incline that I did some sprint intervals with—ouch) and decided to head back since the sun was going down. Once I reached the boys, we all ran back to the car, where I estimated our run to be about 64 minutes long. 5.6 miles in 62 minutes? I will take it! If I can sustain that for a additional 5 miles, I will come well under my goal of 2 hours for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler!! It was nice to run outside and have varying elevations in the run; it makes it a bit more challenging.
The best part about the whole run? My husband actually seemed to enjoy himself; his shins never bothered him and he was impressed he could run the 1.8 miles without having run in a few years!! Maybe I will have a running partner!!
How about you? Have you ever gotten someone hooked on running?
10 comments:
my boyfriend plays college football...running is punishment. BUT I've gotten him to agree to try and head out with me some this summer. It will be interesting.
I think that is what husband's hatred of running comes from; he played baseball in college and running was punishment for them too. It was so nice to get out and do it with him though; I am sure your BF will kick butt like you do too!!
I have gotten friends hooked on running but my hubby is harder. I have gotten him to train for races in the past but it has never stuck. He is training for his first half right now and I hope he sticks with it after ... we'll see!
That's great that he ran with you and that you discovered running outside is awesome!! It's much easier (to me) because you can pace yourself and you aren't constantly looking at a clock or timing the run. :D Great job!!
That looks like a really great trail! It is neat to see an airport surrounded by green :)
Sadly, I cannot get my husband hooked on running. He is running the half with me on May 1st, but doesn't love it like I do. Although, he did do his first interval run last night and "seemed" to enjoy it. Who knows!
I tried to get my ex into running, but he never liked running with me. He said I was too fast for him, but if I tried to slow down to his pace, he didn't like that either because it was like I was "letting him win." I'm still sorry we were never able to make that particular activity work.
I am still planning to come do the marathon - drop me an email at absolutromantic at gmail dot com and hopefully we can make plans to see each other?
I can count on my one hand the # of times my husband has run with me. It's just not his thing and I think he'd rather be out there hitting/catching baseballs. :) Anyway nice work on the 5.6 miles! You'll be ready for Cherry Blossom in no time. :)
This is great! My boyfriend is really into fitness too and in an ideal world would love to run with me, but he has a disc misplacement back problem. Basically, exercise like running is not good and he may be on bed rest for weeks if it goes wrong. He is trying the treadmill here and there but for now, I think he and I will stick to biking together. Congrats on a fun run! :-)
hey! if you're ever up for a Saturday morning long slow run I got to the NCR trail most weekends...let me know =) Our TNT groups has pretty much every pace in it, walkers, runners, walkers/runners, the works
that's awesome that he ran with you! And nice job with the run.
I have a Garmin 405 and it is frickin' amazing.
Unlike you, however, I hate running with my husband. My husband is super speedy and though he doesn't intentionally do it - I feel pressured to up my pace and generally get winded/tired pretty fast.
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