Couch High School back in Missouri didn’t have a running track. That is one of the features we are taking advantage of during our stay here in Utah. We’ve also gotten us a family pass to the Rec Center.
As a family we’ve been using either the High School track or the indoor track at the Rec Center on a fairly consistent basis. We’ve tried to get to one or the other twice a week for “training” and then again on Saturday for “evaluation”.
For “training” we’ve done a number of different things. One of those was 15-30’s. After stretching everyone (except me – I can’t run anymore) alternates between 15 seconds of an all-out sprint, and 30 seconds of a light jog. About 10 minutes of this is about a much as any of them can handle. It is meant to help build stamina for high speeds (If alone a reasonably close alternative is to sprint the straight away’s and jog the curves).
Another one that everyone seems to like is Catepillar. We let Julie (our weakest runner) set a nice easy jogging pace. They continue at this pace for a stretch to let everyone get the feel for it and get into a comfortable stride. When Julie thinks that has happened she passes a baton that she is carrying to the person behind her. That person passes it back, and so forth, until it reaches the last person. When the last person gets it they then sprint to the front of the line, assume the jogging pace, and pass the baton back.
The pace tends to be a little slow for Joshua (our strongest runner) but it keeps everyone together as a group. Because of the group it becomes easy (fun even?) to run farther than any individual would do on their own. So this one we run for 2 full miles and even Nikki (6) can go that long. The group encouragement is always there, and the negative self talk is eliminated telling her (and everyone else!) that they need to stop. This might be our favorite training game.
For our “evaluation” we use the indoor track at the Rec Center. Rather than time how fast they can run a certain distance, we track how far they can run in a 12 minute timespan. I choose this because that we some don’t finish and then sit around waiting for the rest, but everyone finishes at the same time. We’ve only been doing this for about 4 weeks, but it is amazing how much everyone has improved in that short time. They have all gotten better at pacing, breathing, and have inceased stamina. I think they’ve all found greater confidence in seeing how they can do hard things and by seeing the improvement they’ve made.
For our running on Monday evening we went to the track at the high school. The track has some good sized bleachers on each side (home and visitor). Each set of bleachers has 4 sets of stairs with handrails. Today’s running was perhaps everyone’s least favorite. 4 times around the track and going up each set of stairs and then down the same set. Each lap had 8 sets of stairs.
This wasn’t timed, and everyone was told to stop if they felt their legs were too tired to safely come down a set of stairs. Joshua found this exercise quite easy. He basically ran the entire 4 laps with stairs. Kristie and Charlee were little machines who just never stopped even though they were much slower than their brother. Julie finished 4 laps too. Caitlin and Nikki did 3 full laps and Andrew did 2. I was very impressed with every one of them. They just kept going, and even though it was hard, they knew they could do more… they didn’t quit just because it was hard to do.
I wish I could do the same.
All I can say, is that my family is awesome and I love every one of them!
