On days that I just want to be lazy and drink coffee, my son asks to go for a run…
Before my son was born I was really big into running. Hell, before I broke my knee I was running close to 5 miles a day.
Then, of course, I broke my knee a week before Laiken and I got married and entered physical therapy for a bit.
A year to the day from when my accident happened, I ran a 5K with my family.
My knee has never been the same and I struggle greatly with running these days.
I don’t have full range of motion in my leg. The bottom part of my leg turns pretty red when running and is extremely tight. And my foot tends to fall asleep after 1 mile.
Incredibly frustrating considering I never had issues before.
I fight through it. I deal with. I roll-out my calf and ankle more. And it helps. But it’s a struggle.
It also turns into an excuse occasionally.
He’s been running since he was born.
When my son arrived, I quickly became that parent with the big ass BOB running stroller. Laiken’s grandparents are huge runners and didn’t hesitate to buy us the stroller.
Cooper and I would set out on our run with him only being a few months old. He’d sleep through most of it, but it was something he and I did a lot during his first year.
Then, I found CrossFit, my business took off and I found myself running less and less (unless it was in a WOD).
His time in the stroller decreased when it came to exercise, and increased for trips to Target.
“But strollers are for babies like Morgan…”
This is the statement he hit me with the first day we got back to running together.
Now that Morgan is here, we’ve upgraded our single BOB to the big ass Duallie stroller that can take up it’s own lane!
I wanted Coop to roll with me again.
After 2 days of fighting me about getting in that damn stroller he finally was cool with going running.
Not only that, he actually started asking to go for a run after about a week of running every morning at 6:30am.
Toddler as my running accountability partner
It may sound crazy or come off like I can’t push myself to go run, but damnit…some mornings I don’t want to. Some mornings I’d like to just have my third fourth cup of coffee and potentially get to the office earlier…
But there is my son, waking up at 6:00am and asking me if we are going on a run today.
My answer…Yes.
My answer will always be yes (unless it’s raining a shitstorm ??). Unbeknownst to him, he has sort of become my running accountability partner.
Laiken is normally asleep or tending to Morgan, so most mornings it is just Cooper and I for at least an hour. Him purposefully asking if we are going for a run gets my ass in gear when I’ve already decided that I don’t want to.
I never want to tell my son, “No bud, we aren’t going for a run this morning.” Because he will follow that up with the most common question a toddler asks,…”But, why?”
I don’t ever want to feed him a line of bullshit like, “Daddy just doesn’t feel like it” or “I just don’t want to this morning”. Because the truth is, I do. I do want to run. I’m just making excuses.
So shoutout to my son who pushes Daddy every morning to be a better runner and get my ass back in shape for my journey back to CrossFit.
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