Inception and Day 1

My precious ones after their first 5/3rd Junior race in 2013

So not too long ago, Annabella talked about signing up for Girls on the Run. It seemed like a good idea and would be a safe endeavor for someone with monocular vision. Well, Mom (yeah, that's me), missed the sign up period for this lovely program so Annabella was a bit bummed when the girls started changing into their bright pink shoes after school one day and she wasn't included. Oops.

So, ingenious thinker that she is, Annabella thought that we could just do our own version of Girls on the Run. I thought about it and agreed that it would be a good idea and found some sample training plans online. This also was a great plan since Lillian is not old enough to do GOTR, but is definitely interested in joining us. So, we had our plan and were ready to go.We even did a prep run/walk prior to our "official" start date!

And then...Annabella got Strep Throat and we were sidelined for quite a few days. And then it was Easter weekend and we just decided to try again the next Monday. And so we did.

I found a Couch to 5k app that would tell us when to start walking and start running without us having to keep checking on the time. It worked great and we are ready to go again this afternoon for our second run/walk. On the off day, Tuesday, we were supposed to do some cross-training to keep our bodies moving. I didn't do a whole lot, but the girls went to the playground with their friends and ran around and played basketball for nearly an hour.

Also, the name "The Running Zoo." We wanted to think of something to call our program since we didn't want to use the name Girls on the Run. The girls thought about having t-shirts made with our logo on it and each person in the Zoo has an animal name. Mine is "Scurrying Mouse," Annabella's is "Fast Cheetah," and Lillian's is "Dashing Fox." So we came up with the name "The Running Zoo," not to be confused with the petting zoo. Since Dad works at a screen printing shop, we are hoping to get some t-shirts made up with our logo (yet to be determined, maybe a picture of all of the "Zoo" animals?) and then with our animal name on the back. These girls are really getting into this ;).

We made one of our initial goals to be to run the 5/3rd Jr. for 1 mile (or longer). Then, we'll shoot for a 5k after that. I will try to update this ever week or so, and let the girls do some guest blogger writing as well.