Day Six!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the second session last week so I skipped a blog about Day Five. Today the lessons was about eating disorders, which is definitely an intense subject and I was really scared to teach it. Thankfully, the girls really added to the conversation and shared how they balance their eating so they are making healthy choices for their bodies. We discussed why it is so important for growing teenage girls, and especially girls who run, to eat enough to take care of their bodies. I realized today that girls who pick up the sport/hobby of running at an early age can either really hurt their confidence and performance by not eating enough in order to achieve a certain appearance, or they can eat in a healthy way that allows them to remain strong and therefore confident in themselves and their performances.

The girls all ran about 1.5 miles today, which was really great. They are all different speeds and ability levels but are really putting forth the effort. I want to start setting distance goals for practice as we get closer and closer to the 5k, which I hope will really get the girls to realize what they need to accomplish in practice to finish a 5k race. I think that as we discuss issues that relate to emotional and physical health, it will increase the girls' confidence in themselves and they will be able to reach their potential while running. There is definitely a direct link between believing you can do something and achieving it!