Day Seven!

I think today was the best practice we've had so far, in terms of both our lesson/discussion and our running. The lesson was about different feelings we have and how to cope with them. Each and every girl participated by sharing examples of times when they have felt sad, angry, jealous, etc., and how they can changed their response to it the next time it happens. For example, one girl said she sometimes gets jealous of her friend who has a big house, but the next time she starts to feel that was she will just remember how nice her own home is how much she likes it because it is where her and her family live together. Learning to control our responses to feelings is extremely applicable to running because runners often feel pain, discomfort, frustration, a lack of confidence etc., and must learn to block out bad thoughts they sometimes think about themselves.

The girls chose to run inside the school today, so they ran different courses through the hallways, up and down stairs, etc. I think they really enjoyed changing up the scenery and it helped them to stay focused on the task at hand and pace themselves in a better way. The girls didn't give up today and had one of their hardest workouts, so I was proud of them. We need to slowly start bumping up the mileage so we can have them ready for the 5k! Hopefully some of them worked on coping with negative thoughts and feelings while they were running :)