Here’s to Keeping it Active!

I guess I should be pretty excited that I was asked what triathlon I was
training for the other day. Nope, I am just training for life. When we had our little boy in 2010, we wanted to stay active. I had spent a large part of my twenties working three days a week and playing hard the other four. Training for any race was easy when I had ten hours a day and I spent most of it playing in the mountains. Those were the days…

Several people wonder, how do you do it with kids? There are a few rules to keep in mind…
1- Let anything happen. I cannot plan a specific chain of events for my workouts. I can plan to go running and take the kiddo in the jog stroller, but if he is grumpy we stop and take care of it. Everywhere we go, I also try to have toys and snacks available. I am sure many of you know, anything goes with kids.
2- Look for any opportunity. I try to do five minutes of ab exercises before I go to bed every night. Again, five minutes is nothing compared to what I used to do, but it is something.
3- Look for any tool to help. For every sport or activity that you want to do, develop a method or look for a way to do it. Here are some things that we do, some obvious and some not so obvious.
Running- Jogging Stroller. Hiking- Kid Carrier. Cross Country Skiing- pull sled. Biking- trailer. Downhill Skiing- my husband and I alternate who skis and who plays with our boy. Rock climbing- bring some friends to rotate watching the kids.

I continue to look forward to the days when I can get in the pool more than once or twice per week. I look forward to when I can spend more than 40 minutes per work out. Compared to excursions during my twenties, forty minutes per workout is pitiful. More than anything, I do look forward to showing my little boy how much fun it is to be active and how big life can be.