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When I went out of town for a family wedding earlier this summer, I had my usual struggle over
being lazy (and being away from the support system that helps me exercise) vs. getting cranky,
restless, and irritable from not exercising. In Pack Your Workout Duds, I shared some tips for avoiding typical vacation pitfalls. One of my ideas was that if you had any active people in your family, you should make them your workout partners and fitness allies. This doesn’t just mean other adults—younger relatives can be great training buddies, too. When you involve them, your workouts turn into something that feels more like a game, which makes them much more fun.
I’m proud to have two workout buddies in my family: my sister-in-law Margaret, and my
seven-year-old nephew Aidan.
Meet the family
Margaret, a former competitive swimmer, runner, and canoe racer, was the inspiration for my
suggestion to make your active relatives your allies. As the only two even semi-serious athletes
in our family, we bonded quickly and have often helped each other stay active during the holiday
gluttony season. However, she’s just had her second baby.
“I want to be involved in your workouts,” she told me during the vacation. “But I
can’t actually do them with you just yet, so I thought instead I could time some of your
runs.” I was too unimaginative to see right away what a great idea this was. After all, I
have a watch; I could time myself.
But as I started my warm-up jog I realized that this workout was going to be fun, for a change. I
wouldn’t be doing a long boring jog by myself. I had companionship, even if Margaret
wasn’t actually running with me. And I had an audience, which meant I’d probably move
my lazy butt a little faster.
Partners in perspiration
When I got back from the warm-up, Aidan had also taken an interest in the proceedings. He liked
the whole timing idea. (He also liked my Indiglo watch, which he remembered from previous visits.)
Margaret decided I should do intervals up a fairly steep quarter-mile hill. (Gee, thanks, Margaret.) I would jog down, then try to power back up. Aidan decided to join me.
“OK, where do we start running?” he asked at the bottom of the hill.
“Right here,” I said. “Are you really running up with me?”
“Sure!”
“Okay then—ready, set, go!” About 150 feet later, both of us were sucking wind
but Aidan was keeping up surprisingly well. “You’re fast!” I said.
“I should be,” he said. “I’m smaller and lighter than you!”
I slowed a little so we could stay together. I was proud of him for trying so hard, and I
didn’t want to leave him in the dust and discourage him. Truthfully, I was also glad to
have an excuse not to kill myself. Anyway, I didn’t even have to slow down that darn much. He
was doing great.
Two-thirds of the way up he said, “How do you do this? This is so hard!”
“Practicing like this makes it easier,” I said. “Besides, I have longer legs than
you do.”
“This is hard!” he said again.
Go Indy!
Nevertheless, when we finally reached the top and saw Margaret cheering for us, he decided to jog
back down with me and do it again. He found a few excuses to stall at the bottom of the hill, but
not for long. Then up we went, a bit slower this time. Aidan’s a big Indiana Jones fan, so
I told him I was sure Dr. Jones did stuff exactly like this to stay fit between adventures.
That inspired him to tell me about various spectacular death scenes from the movies, although he
assured me that it was just special effects and the actors didn’t really die. We were
breathing hard during this chat but still able to keep up the conversation.
On my final hill Aidan decided to stay with Margaret and help her time me. I missed him on that
last rep. Aidan’s parents were impressed when they heard what he’d done. For the rest of
the week, the first thing Aidan asked me every morning was, “Are you going jogging
today?” We did hill intervals together a second time. Another day he and I went for an easy
jog, and this time his dad came with us. Believe me, I had a lot more fun than I ever would have
on my own.
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