My First Track Workout With My Toddler

I mentioned awhile ago in my 7 Workouts for Stay-at-Home Mom's post that I wanted to try taking B to the track with me to see if he'd let me get an interval workout in while he played on the football field. 

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Well, I finally took him this week, and I was completely prepared to be disappointed. I imagined he would want to run with me and cry if I didn't wait for him. I imagined he would be really needy and clingy and require me to stop 100 times. I also imagined he might dart right in front of us as we passed by, or run away beyond the football field perimeters.  

I was beyond thrilled when none of those things happened. He had a blast. It was a win-win situation. He was happy running around with his little buddy (one of my running buddies also brought her toddler), and I was happy running around with mine! 

We set the little boys up in the middle of the soccer field with snacks, a frisbee, a tricycle, a soccer ball, a stroller to push around, and I even had the ipod ready to play a movie if I needed to. We never needed the movie. The two boys were in heaven running around, rolling in the grass and dirt, and playing the entire time. I'm sure they got just as good of a workout as we did. (They were so cute. I wish I had brought my camera!)

Our goal was to do 6 miles with 3 of the miles being 800 meter repeats. I thought there was no way B's attention span would last long enough for us to get through all 6 miles. I was wrong again! We finished the 6X800 workout along with a 1.5 mile warm-up and cool-down, and the boys still weren't ready to leave. 

B was a good little coach too, making sure we didn't rest for too long between intervals. Every time we stopped between the 800's, B would run up and say, "Go run mommy!" Maybe I should buy him a whistle for Christmas...

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It had been way too long since I'd done a track workout, and it felt so good to do one again. I was in a fantastic mood the rest of the day because of how well the workout ended up going.  The endorphins may have had something to do with my good mood too. 

When we got home I gave B a bath because he was filthy from rolling around in the dirt and grass, and then he took a 3 hour nap because he did such a good job wearing himself out at the track. He was still sleeping when Scott came home from work at 5PM! I think the only reason he woke up was because he heard Scott and I talking. 

I love being able to get my workouts done before Scott gets home so I can just hang out with him and relax at night. 

I hope there's more successful track workouts like that in the future. I think there will be because this morning as I was taking B for a jogging stroller run, he said, "I want to go to track and play with Kayden." Way to make your mommy smile B. That sentence was music to my ears. :) I told him we could go next week. We'll start with once a week and if it continues to go well, maybe I'll even do some regular runs there. I don't mind running in circles if it means not having to push a heavy stroller, and B certainly doesn't mind not having to sit in it! 

What's the last workout you did that put you in a good mood? 

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