Summer Running had me a blast but oh for the summer nights~!

So we are a full week into "summer" at our house.  "Summer" meaning no school, no school schedule, no school discipline, no school getting ready, no school getting dressed, no school making beds, no school diet....no school!  Yay, balloons, confetti, irritating horn blowing and dancing!   AND, just as I suspected, the temptation of pushing my runs later into the morning has commenced.  The battle ground has been set, the perimeters of the fight are defined and I am already waging the war!

So far I have been a real good girl at daily doing something for a workout.  I'm not sure if I have already blogged the announcement of getting ready for my 25th anniversary cruise at the end of June, (I don't read my own stuff), but that is what is consuming my workout mentality.  I still am pushing myself in my running, inching forward in distance and slowly slimming down my per-mile speed, but I am doing a lot of ab and arm workouts on my own and I just have to say, for the first time, I am seeing SOME results. (Blog to follow on the relentless and seemingly no win situation on aging bodies....I promise.)  I can do those workouts anytime in the day when I see the living room is clear of spectators and I've gotten a good motivating look at my stomach, which is a fail-safe motivator!

But running, which I DON'T do inside on a treadmill, must be done outside and for me must be done when I am highly focused and motivated.  Therefore, certain conditions must be in place for me to get my optimum run.  I now see I am what I guess could be described as......A RUNNING DIVA.   Great title for a blog...maybe I'll change mine later.

Running Diva?  Something tells me she doesn't run!

Secondly, the summer has brought me three more challenges....two children and a husband.  I don't think they read this blog.....hehe. My adult daughter home from college, not too much of a problem, other than I stay up a little late waiting for her to get in from her social life.  Not being as young as I used to be I'm just not recovering from late nights like I used to.  My son had a bright and unrealistic thought of going with me last week. He was determined, bless his little 11 year old heart, to run with me two miles.  In addition, my husband, who usually does his cardio at the gym, has announced his desire to walk the trail with me as I run so he can enjoy the beauty of the atmosphere.

 So picture this....my husband takes off on his walk...gone....!  I have my son insisting he will run and be ok if he walks at some point, he'll finish out on his own....in a park...ALONE....all the women know where I'm going.    He and I start to run and....I'm trying to estimate....10 yards in he stops.   Now there I am, on a wooded trail, focused and NEEDING to run two miles hard for speed, with an eleven year old who now will NOT RUN and I am going to just go on? NO!!! DAH!!!

I stop and try to prod, coach, encourage AT LEAST a mild speed walk so I can keep him in my "back of the head eyes."   No good.    I walk with him to the cut through where there is a bench and I can run the fastest mile ever back to him in a "few minutes".   He agrees and I take off fuming that now my mile will be about worrying that he remembers that strangers are bad and how I'd like to ring the man-I- married's neck for being wired to not think like a woman!   I come around the corner at the cut-through...no son.  I continue to the 2 mile finish blocking out the nagging voice in the back of my head that he has been abducted and think if I can get up at 5 am and sneak out the house no one will ever come with me again!   As I round the finish line corner, there he is at the car.  I get him and make him run the hill in the middle of park 6 times with me....revenge~!

So- now my son will not come anymore with me, but my hubby does.  Really it's harmless, he walks and does his own thing and we meet at the car and it's a seemingly harmless routine.  BUT, it is challenging me to block out distraction, which I guess I should be grateful for that challenge and opportunity to work on.  In a race, there are hundreds of other runners, spectators and crazy stuff going on and a runner must be able to focus inward on the little things they have to take care of for themselves to run a good race.  Running is half a mind game after all.