The Running Man

Last year Todd got into running, with the help of his brother Nate.  And wouldn't you know it...Todd's a natural!  If you know me in any measure, you know that I hate to run.  It's definitely not my idea of fun.  But for Todd, it is a huge stress reliever and it gives him a great sense of accomplishment to know that he just ran 5 or 8 or 10 miles.  

Currently, he is training to run the Teton Dam Half Marathon again, but it's a little tough on him for a couple reasons.  For one thing, Rexburg weather is not so great for running right now.  There are days when it's bearable to be outside, but the March wind usually makes it an inside running situation.  Todd is faithful and will go to the gym when he has to, but he doesn't like to run on a treadmill at all.  He'd much rather be outside on the road where there is an abundance of scenery and a lack of freshman girls trying to pick up on guys.  (Not everyone goes to the BYU-I gym to work out.)  Another reason it can be tough is that he's still trying to get over his IT band injury from last year.  I think it's going a lot better this year since he found some new stretches and strengthening exercises.  Even with a tight leg, he trucks on and is doing great.  He's got his training schedule going and sticks to it pretty well.  By the time the race is here in June, he'll be ready for sure!  Last year his time was 1 hour and 40 minutes.  He hopes to beat that time, and at this rate I'm sure he'll be able to.

On the side of this blog are a couple of things relating to Todd's running.  One shows his total miles run, which is steadily growing each week!  The other shows how his latest run went.  He has a Nike sport band that keeps track of his pace, distance, etc, which he downloads after every run.  It's been pretty handy and Todd has liked it...mostly.  After the first sensor ran out of battery he had to get a replacement.  (Yeah, I think they should make them so you can just replace the battery, too.)  Ever since he got a new sensor, it hasn't been very accurate at all.  I guess that's a common problem with those Nike bands, but we didn't know that until it was too late.  So dear ol' Todd has been wishing for something more sophisticated and accurate.  And basically, Todd is a gadget junkie and always wants the newest and best thing.  He doesn't always get them, but he always wants them.  This time I let his wish come true.

I didn't really get Todd any gifts for our anniversary or for Valentine's day, so I was wanting to get him a surprise gift anyhow.  I figured that since his nike band isn't doing its job that now would be a good time to get him the newest and best running watch there is.  So now there is a Garmin Forerunner 405 on its way to our house, which Todd has been anxiously awaiting.  It really is a cool GPS running watch and it is extremely accurate.  There are so many cool and

 useful features, so I'm sure Todd will be testing them all out.  You don't even have to plug it into your computer to download your last run...it automatically does it wirelessly when you walk into the room!  So in a couple of days Todd will have his new Garmin all set up, and the times and distances listed on our blog will be accurate again.  And hopefully the weather will warm up enough soon so that Todd will be out there running a lot more and enjoying his new toy.  I really hope he does enjoy it a lot, because those things aren't exactly cheap, so he won't be getting a new one for quite a long time, especially with our baby coming.  After that there will be ZERO extra money lying around.

One last thing that made me smile...

A few days ago Todd said that he had a dream that our little girl was about 12 and we had another littler baby.  Todd and our girl were running down the road together while I was on the bike with our little one in tow behind me.  :)  Todd is going to be a great daddy.  And he's already dreaming of turning our offspring into runners too!