16 July, 2007

Ask the Coach:

Question

My child is off school for the summer and my morning running routine with my friend is being jeopardised by this as my son doesn’t want to go to summer camp. He wants to play in the park with his friend who is also my friend’s child. How can I maintain my fitness regime as I love to run and enjoy the time I get to spend with my friend?

Answer

Sometimes in life we have to compromises but this doesn’t need to be a major one. You should make it an event where both you and your friends go to the park with your children. You have the following options. As the children play in the park, you can warm up gradually in a shorter space around where your children are playing soccer with his friend.

Change your long morning run to the power of intervals. As one parent sets off on a 1 minute sprint the other parent minds the children. As she returns she enjoys her 3-4 minute rest walking or playing with the kids while the other parent sets off on her sprint interval. This way you get to play with your children and also get your fitness regime in. You should repeat these efforts 6-8 times and as you improve your fitness you can reduce your rest periods or increase your running time by 15 seconds.

The other beneficial part of this exercise is that you will teach your children the importance of exercise. It will also teach your kids that sunshine, fresh air and playing sports is a much more beneficial activity than TV watching and playing computer games. As monkeys see, monkey do!

There is optimal training and there is reality, you can make excuses for the hand you were dealt on how your weight creeped on “unnoticed” or you can take action, use you’re initiative and continue to be fit for life.