C25K with kids?
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Christinichka
Posts: 171 Member
I did C25K a few years ago. Haven't ran much for the past few years and gained more weight. Anyways it's always been my goal to get back to running but became hard after my divorce and having a small child with no income to purchase a good jogger or gym membership, stress of trying to start a career, and school, etc. I know excuses, excuses.
Fast forward to today. I recently started to make life style changes to better my health and lose weight for good this time. I have been working out consistently since the beginning of June. And I want to start doing the C25K soon. My son who is a month shy of 7 years old will either ride his bike or run with me. The past month I've been doing exercise videos or power walking outside while my son rides his bike (he's been learning sidewalk riding and finally has it down YAY!) Originally I thought I'd have him ride his bike but the more I think about it I would love for him to run along with me. I am super out of shape still so he'll likely leave me in the dust LOL. The reason why I thought about having him run is because he always asks me if he can run home from different places. I rarely let him because we're usually in a hurry at the time, or it's on a road that's too busy for me to just drive slowly along to keep track of him. So the idea is that he can harness that zeal for running and we can spend some quality time together. Another reason being either way he will have to be with me since I have him 100% of the time and I don't have money to join the gym right now. And a final reason, I didn't grow up with good healthy role models at all. Parents didn't exercise or teach me about it. I was one of those kids who only ever ran or did anything physical when I was made to in PE. And always felt like a failure because I couldn't run the mile in X amount of time. Only as a college student did I realize PE went about it all wrong (at least at my schools) because they never taught us how to be runners, or build up endurance... but instead we'd do various sports then all of the sudden they'd announce tomorrow would be the dreaded mile run day. I thought I hated running, that I'd never be able to run, that I was destined to fail at it. But alas I know better now. And I want my son to be able to learn young how to be physically active.
That all said. I would never force my son to run. I want it to be something he wants to do. I plan to give him the option of biking or running. We'll probably do it at the track for starters in case he wants to sit on the sidelines for a while.
So I wanted to ask if anyone has ever run with their kids, and what your experience was like. Any advice? I am a complete novice when it comes to running and especially running with kids!
Fast forward to today. I recently started to make life style changes to better my health and lose weight for good this time. I have been working out consistently since the beginning of June. And I want to start doing the C25K soon. My son who is a month shy of 7 years old will either ride his bike or run with me. The past month I've been doing exercise videos or power walking outside while my son rides his bike (he's been learning sidewalk riding and finally has it down YAY!) Originally I thought I'd have him ride his bike but the more I think about it I would love for him to run along with me. I am super out of shape still so he'll likely leave me in the dust LOL. The reason why I thought about having him run is because he always asks me if he can run home from different places. I rarely let him because we're usually in a hurry at the time, or it's on a road that's too busy for me to just drive slowly along to keep track of him. So the idea is that he can harness that zeal for running and we can spend some quality time together. Another reason being either way he will have to be with me since I have him 100% of the time and I don't have money to join the gym right now. And a final reason, I didn't grow up with good healthy role models at all. Parents didn't exercise or teach me about it. I was one of those kids who only ever ran or did anything physical when I was made to in PE. And always felt like a failure because I couldn't run the mile in X amount of time. Only as a college student did I realize PE went about it all wrong (at least at my schools) because they never taught us how to be runners, or build up endurance... but instead we'd do various sports then all of the sudden they'd announce tomorrow would be the dreaded mile run day. I thought I hated running, that I'd never be able to run, that I was destined to fail at it. But alas I know better now. And I want my son to be able to learn young how to be physically active.
That all said. I would never force my son to run. I want it to be something he wants to do. I plan to give him the option of biking or running. We'll probably do it at the track for starters in case he wants to sit on the sidelines for a while.
So I wanted to ask if anyone has ever run with their kids, and what your experience was like. Any advice? I am a complete novice when it comes to running and especially running with kids!
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Replies
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I've been running with my 7yo for 8 weeks now
it takes a lot of encouragement and occasionally bribery and dragging him by the arm. And then there are days like yesterday when I run for my life just to watch him disappear into the distance.
You have to go the child's pace but you'll still get a workout. C25k seems perfect for kids, I think most active kids will find the first few weeks pretty easy, which should build a lot of confidence going into the harder weeks.0 -
My son is five and sadly he complains the whole way. We tried it last summer (my daughter was around 8 months) and she cried the entire way so we stopped. Wanted to pick it up again this year, but I think I'm going to have to start waking up earlier so I can get out and do it before the kids are up! Good luck.0
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I tried c25k with my 8.5 yr old but he would run to fast in front of mr and loose interest very quickly so it didn't work but now we know he doesn't want to do cross country like he thought. I have been running when hubby can watch both kids but yesterday my oldest finally learned to ride his bike without trainers so he went with me today. I am on week 7 so I have long runs and we go to the grade school across the road from our addition. It is set back from the road and is surrounded by country fields and paved all the way around so he just rides as I run around and around the building. (1/2 mile each time around) And he stops on the swings when he gets tired.
I have tried running with both kids before and we ended up walking most of it because it is really hard to run and push my chunky toddler. You will figure out a way to make it work for both of you. Just keep trying. Good luck0 -
Thanks for the response. Sounds like a mix of experiences. I guess I will just have to give it a shot and see how it goes. The trickiest part will be deciding when to do it. I usually work out at 5 or 6 in the morning (before work) but that won't work with the little one. So maybe evenings a few weeks days and Saturday mornings?
Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of counting on someone else to watch my son. Just got to make it work with him some how maybe I will try the park idea and some other incentives. I am thinking a sticker chart for him too. He loves sticker charts! 0
