Punching Bag
I’m not going
to deny the fact that I’m mean to Eric. I have a history of throwing things at
him and the every now and again meltdown. He takes it in stride. The times when I am usually the nastiest is when we exercise together. I’d call him every name in the book, curse
like a sailor and sometimes I’d even give him a whack. He was my punching bag
when I was mad. Could you think of a more perfect punching bag? I was mad at
him because I was slow, I was mad at him because he could run faster than me, I
was mad at him that he could do it and not get out of breathe, I was mad that
he didn’t have to train and could just go out and run a 5K. I was just MAD. He was
afraid to workout with me and do you blame him?
When he told Carrie we would do the triathlon with her way back in
September 2013, I was shocked. And who
would have thought that that one act would change me. Not only did it motivate me
to start working out and lose weight, it got me to consider running again. I always
liked biking and swimming but running was always the devil. Now I love running…yes
I just said that. And I have become nicer.
Pacesetter
In the beginning,
I still had my anger issues with Eric and running. But after my meltdown early
last fall, where I temporarily quit, I’ve decided to use Eric to my
advantage. You see, he is a great pacesetter. When I run on my own, which is most of the
time, I’m still slow. However, when he goes with me, he makes me run
faster. Now I’m not talking about the 8
minute miles that he can do (and has to do for the soccer fitness test), I’m
talking about 12-13 minutes miles he makes me do. When I run alone, I rarely
get below 13:30 for a mile. I don’t have the drive to go faster, I just enjoy
the run. Eric pushes me, but not too much. I need him to get faster. For
instance, early on I was doing about 15 minute miles and was walking a lot.
After our first 5K, my pace got faster, thanks to Eric. I ran at that faster pace
for a while and we did another 5K where Eric pushed me faster yet and I broke
into the 13s. And now I run in the 13 minute range all the time. So I’ve
realized that running with Eric means I will get faster. I no longer curse or hit him. I just run a few
steps behind him and enjoy the faster pace. He is the key to me success.
Here are the splits from our latest run Monday night:
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