Thanks to Nellie (Brooklyn Active Mama) for another great Thursday 44.  Today I did arabesque raises (single leg airplanes!).  

I started with my left leg as the balancing leg – 

From the start position, I hinged forward and lifted my arms to the sides.  

I tried to make the moves very slow and not just fall out of the position.  (some times weren’t as successful as others!)  After completing 44 with my left leg as the supporting leg, I switched sides.

I decided not to use weights for the second set.  Even though I just used 5 pound DBs, I knew that if I tried to do 44 more with them, my form would really suffer.

This was a fun move – balance, core, control, hamstrings, butt, lats – all kinds of work being done!!!

Today we did the 100s Bootcamp.  The goal is to do 100 reps of 10 different moves – we did 90 today which is an improvement from the 80 we did last time we did this  workout!!!  I told the ladies – next time we will get 100!!!  (time constraint is part of the problem)

OK – so maybe I’m not talking about horses – but, anyone who runs knows – NOT ALL RUNS ARE GREAT!!!  And – NOT EVERY RACE WILL BE YOUR BEST RACE!!!

Hunter learned that lesson the hard way on Tuesday.  His final cross country meet of the season and he went in with high expectations of himself.  Their coach had them doing sprints for 15 minutes before the race (and it was 90 degrees) – not sure why they did so many but….

The gun went off and Hunter took off – he shot straight to the front.  He has never tried that strategy and I was worried (with good reason).  There was a point a little before the half-way that we could see the runners again and he was still running strong near the front.  

I told him to settle in for a couple minutes and then push hard at the end.

I ran down to a spot about 200m from the finish chute so that I could tell him to go for his final kick.  When I saw him I could tell that he was done.  Usually when I tell him to pick it up and kick in he really increases his speed.  Not this time – he had nothing left.

He was so disappointed at the end!!!  

I told him that he tried a new strategy and he just needed to work on it – it’s a fine line between going out too fast and hard and being able to finish strong.

He still ran a consistent time for what he has been running this season but not the race he hoped for and he was completely bummed for the night.

It was a good learning experience – I told him that every single runner has races like that and you have to deal with the disappointment and move on.  

One of my worst races ever was the Regional track meet my junior year in high school.  I was running the 2 mile which I had won in every race all season.  I started off in the lead but went out way too hard – in the end I was 3rd (only the top 2 advanced to the State meet).  I was crushed because I knew that if I had run a smart race I could have won and qualified for State.

Thankfully, Hunter is 12 and bounces back quickly!!!  Now he is looking forward to wrestling, basketball and track – fun stuff ahead!!!

What was your most disappointing experience (racing or otherwise)?

Happy Thursday!!!

Kim