Summer holidays

ftm42

dustboy - not near the 'real' canal! We have remnants of it running through a couple of local parks [the dog loves running along it in one park as there's a fair stretch that's free flowing, but it's filthy and silty in the other and dries up if it hasn't rained that day!]. The park is about 10 minutes' walk away so we quite often take the dog down there, but on foot rather than cycling as we still have some busy roads to negotiate before we get there. Basingstoke council, bless 'em, do provide lots of cycleways but you still have to teach the drivers to give us some space when we have to use the road!

[Deleted User]

Can't the eldest watch the others occasionally whilst you knock out 2 or 3 miles just to keep your hand (feet) in ?

You could reduce your miles & up the pace temporarily for convenience. I only usually do 2-3 miles (4 occasionally) but attempt to complete the route as quick as I can. The benefit of this is it takes less time and so increases my availability for family duties.

Worth considering !

ftm42

I thought my school holiday problems

[see thread http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=144734&last=1&V=1&SP=]

were over - treadmill repair man came yesterday, said the belt was slipping, showed me how to tighten it up, then gave it a mini-service. Ran on it today and guess what - after 13 minutes [and just as I plucked up confidence to up the speed a bit] it slipped! I tightened it - it slipped again. So, I finished my 'workout' by running round the block twice [takes me <6 minutes per circuit] while leaving the kids on their own!

Just started a tread re treadmill misbehaviour - repair man came yesterday.

Whopper - as for leaving the boys, the eldest is only 11, so I'm a bit reluctant to leave them on their own with him in charge. Mind you, after today's performance, as long as they're in front of the TV they don't get up to much anyway. If I did 3 miles it would take me half an hour tops, so it's feasible I guess. A bit of pocket money if they behave...? If I did today's circuit, I'd have to run it 5 times, which isn't as bad as it sounds and I sometimes try to run hard up one hill that takes up about a quarter of the circuit so I could call it hill/interval training!

Gazmanmeister

I heard on th enews last evening that some schools are to stay open during the summer hols and offering parents a chance to drop off for various activities at reasonable rates. Are any of your schools remaining open AB?

ftm42

Nope. I have booked my oldest 2 in on a free day activity tomorrow at a local school, but that was the only session left for the entire summer when I went to book, and they'd only just given out the leaflets!! Youngest is 6 so they couldn't take him.

I think I'm going to either have to run round the block while they're in front of tv if it's wet; run round the park if it's fine; run before hubby goes to work in the morning; or run after he comes in [whenever that is - he's very unpredictable!]. Oh well. His reaction would be to just skip it for the whole summer and get fat/unfit.

ftm42

Hey - I have changed from Moaning Minnie [seems like that's what I was looking at earlier posts!] to Happy Harriet! I've found that I can go out for a run at lunchtime and leave boys in the house. I've done it twice now - once running a short circuit round the block twice to finish off a session I started on my treadmill but finished outside when the treddie started misbehaving - again; just done 3x a longer circuit round the block. Out for half an hour and they were perfectly fine, having spent the whole time sitting on the floor in their rooms, making Star Wars mini-models. [best 2 for £1 I've ever spent!!]

Maybe summer won't be so bad after all!