C.I.T. - Carter in Training

9:43 PM

I'm really tired. I stayed up all night Friday night chaperoning a youth lock-in. I made it to 5AM - the longest I think I've every gone. I'm too old to go the whole night. I got about 45 minutes from 5-5:45. Then I got just three hours on Saturday. And I haven't caught up yet. I slept hard last night but woke up at 4:30 to do my long run. So I am going to bed right after I finish this post.

I did 12 this morning but you'll notice my total for today is 13. That's because I ran a mile with my 8 year old son, Carter. As previously mentioned, he is training for his first ever 5K and I couldn't be a prouder dad. Is prouder a word? More proud? Who cares. It's about 8 weeks until the 5K and my wife wrote out a training program for him after looking online. Not sure why she didn't consult the running expert in the family. (That would be me by the way) But I have to admit it's a pretty good training schedule. He ran four half-miles last week but today was the first mile. He's run several miles before. He did 26 last Spring for his school's participation in the Country Music kids marathon where they do the marathon one mile at a time. But it's been a year so I was curious to see how he'd do today on his first mile in a long time. Needless to say, he did great. I was hoping to run somewhere in the 10 or 11 minute range. We have a goal of running 27 min. for his 5K or 9 min. per mile. I thought at his age that would be doable. We've told him that wherever he finishes in his age group for this first race will be great. Just finishing will be the victory, but of course he would like to finish strong and place as high as possible. So we put 27 min. as the tentative goal thinking that might place well. I'm proud to say that we ran a 9:30 mile today - on our first one! I was very impressed and proud of him. It reassured me that we will be able to do 27 min. for this race. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

By the way, I've started some slight strength training with my running routine. I hard from one of my podcasts about a website called hundredpushups.com. The goal is in 6 weeks doing push-up reps 3 times a week, one can do one hundred push-ups without stopping. So I thought I'd give it a try. They also have a "200 sit-ups" page. I thought about doing both at the same time but then reconsidered thinking that might be a little much. So I'll do it after I finish the push-ups program. I am starting week 3 and it's going well so far. It's not easy but I'm keeping up with the training and I can tell a difference.

Finally - I reserved my room for the Goofy Challenge next January. I'll be staying at the Pop Century hotel. I'm very excited as I've never stayed there. I figured since I'm going alone I would try a new place. Can Not Wait for that trip but I don't want to wish it here too quickly.

My next race is less than three weeks away. My first relay. It's going to be a blast, plus a little getaway for my wife and me. OK, I'm off to bed. Have a great week!

Keep runnin',
Albert