I read something in a book recently about children and running. Everything they do, in all their activities, they are running as they play. It is the adults that tell them to slow down, to stop, to calm down. (sounds like my daily mantra...) I've been doing some research lately on the history of running and humans. Contrary to old held beliefs we are made to run. I can only imagine the decline of all the ailments that plague western culture if we never told kids to stop running. The joy would always remain and it would never be a chore or something they had to do to maintain health as they got older, it would simply be in them. Much of my day is spent finding ways for Ale to expend energy. We really put him to the test on Saturday and he shocked me. We went on a 5.4 mile hike up a mountain. It was the first time we made him walk. We went prepared with an extra carrier anticipating his melt down. It never came. He complained once maybe twice on the way up that he was hungry but never once did he ask to go home or be carried. On the descent he and I held hands and ran most of the way. He would have gone faster were I not insistent on holding his hand and slowing him down because of the sheer drop offs of the trail. When we were almost at the bottom when I asked him [jokingly] if he wanted to go on a bike ride when we got home and I was met with an emphatic YES followed by tears when he realized I wasn't serious, followed by promises to take him the following day.

I'm slowly realizing how we short change our kids by not pushing them and underestimating their endurance level.

More to come in the weeks ahead..........