Running with Sam

Cross county was a wonderful way to add some exercise to Sam's routine this fall, and we missed it once practices stopped. The xc season made us realize that we should be better about making sure Sam gets in some exercise at least a few times during the week as well as on the weekends. It is what we want for ourselves, and we want to give her the same opportunity. She might say she is tired, but as a growing kid, she has a crazy amount of energy and movement is always a good thing. She only has gym once during the week at school, and yes, there is recess but only once a day. If it's nice out, she will play outside at her after-school care program, but with shorter days and less light, that time is dwindling.

Our fridge houses a "chore" chart for her, which allows her to see what we are expecting of her each day and to get her involved in the daily household chores; it also enables us to put exercise on the schedule as an expected activity. She is swimming on both Wednesday and Saturday now, and typically we'll get out at least once over the weekend for a hike or walk. This leaves us with one or two other days where I try to get out with her after school/work. We recently purchased a new reflective vest for ourselves, ours being a hold-over from our Bowdoin XC days (!!), and got one for her too (pink, of course ;) ) so that we could get out in the dark and still be safe running or walking around the neighborhood at this time of year. Today, we decided to do one loop around the block, which is about 0.4 miles. We donned our reflective gear and our headlamps and set off. Sam kept up a decent pace and we only walked a few steps at the top of the hill near the stop sign, and we had fun talking about food (Ha! Such a runner already ;) ) as we ran.

Although our walks/runs/hikes are short mid-week and it is an effort to get her out the door some days, it is really wonderful to be able to spend time running, walking and hiking with her on a regular basis!


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Got out this morning for six miles on the cart paths. Everything was covered in frost, and even the sky seemed white. Very pretty. Very quiet too, with the exception of my feet crunching on the thin layer of hoar frost building up in the packed sand. Felt good.