W5R1 done with the tribe all together again. :-)

[VeganNelly]

Our 12 year old daughter has been flagging a bit and thought she might want to just do a brisk walk today; she has needed lots of encouragement to finish runs recently and we have reassured her that she doesn't have to do this if she doesn't want to.

Today she was being very down on herself and saying that she would never have finished the runs if we had not been urging her on and we were reassuring her that it was still HER legs that did the run and the credit was her own. This seemed to change things for her a bit and she decided to do W5R1 after all- and finshed it in fine style, and even ran through a stitch on the last run. We were sooo proud of her. She was listening to the podcast herself and I think that helped too.

I had to do the last two runs by myself in the badger cull zones so it was nice to do this one with my sister and kids again.

My MP3 packed up so my sister and I had an earphone each on her MP3 as we only ever listen with one ear anyway.

The boys were bouncing around and jumping over logs as usual, finding it very easy. It wasn't that easy for me but it went ok and I'm trying not to think about the other Week 5 runs at the moment.

[runswithdogs Graduate]

Your daughter and everyone else is doing great. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if you run or walk. Getting out in the fresh air and exercising is what is importan - even better that you're with family. I think listening to the music and the encouragement directly would help a lot vs having someone in the group yell the start and stop times. If she likes the shorter intervals, she's free to go back to them after graduation - I love a good run-walk myself and I can go faster and further if I incorporate running.

Will you do a 5k fun event together once you've graduated? We have a group that runs every New Year's Eve with costumes that get more elaborate by the year

[VeganNelly Graduate in reply to runswithdogs]

She was like a dog with two tails afterwards- so proud of herself!

yes, we are considering doing some park runs, there is a local free one on every week and also my sister found a (very expensive!) event which is on World Vegan Day and all the goody bags and snacks will be vegan so we quite fancied the idea of doing that one as we have now joined Vegan Runners and so could wear Vegan Runners vests- it's a little over 5k- as it would give us something to aim for if we manage to graduate as it is at start of November! I think it will be very important for me to still have goals as I know I won't keep it up otherwise.

[melly4012 Graduate]

Well done all of you! How lovely you can do it all together. I think it's amazing that a twelve year old girl is out exercising at all - nothing could have got me out running at that age! Keep supporting her like you are, I'm sure it's of great value to her. Well done again!

[OldPossum]

You are all brilliant and I love that you are all doing it together. Tell your daughter she is amazing and I wish someone had helped me discover running when I was young. 😀😀

[MVeganlatte Graduate]

It was lovely, wasn't it?!

Even running along, sharing the earphones on my mp3... we must have looked a bit daft... but I knew you needed Laura....

[JaySeeSkinny Graduate]

I can just see you all running together! Fantastic. And boys also seem to have so much more energy and fitness. I think it's great running as a family, it gives you something else in common and may give you some extra quality time with the kids. Keep it up!

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Well done all of you - sounds as if it's going really well. I wonder if your daughter is finding it tough if you are running a bit fast for her? Amazing that she is giving it a go!

Letting her do her own thing with the podcast sounds like a great idea - we all need a bit of Laura in our ear.

[VeganNelly Graduate in reply to Ullyrunner]

Hi there Ullytunner,

I don't think it's that we are running too fast for her, in fact I think sometimes she goes off too fast (maybe swept along with our boys) and pays the price later, but we all do try and run at our own speed and if someone is behind after a run, we go back and meet them, so I don't think it's that.

My sister was the one that really really wanted to do this, with no thought of anyone doing it with her, and then first one then all the kids suggested doing it with her, and then after they had started I also joined in, by accident, and kept going, so there really is no pressure on her to do it or to be doing it at a particular speed. Today she was amazing tho..she did it all herself, nobody was urging her on at all and made it look easy- she was so proud of herself.

She is a very mild character in some ways and easily discouraged, so while I don't want her to be put under pressure by us encouraging her I also would love to see her succeed at this as I think she is stronger and fitter than she realises and it would be great for her to succeed after having to dig a bit deeper than she has probably done before. After we had finished we were having our usual chat about what it had been like for everyone, and when my sister asked her how she felt she answered 'As tho I own the world'

[Ullyrunner Graduate in reply to VeganNelly]

Brilliant - teenage girls are so often lacking in body confidence. It will be a great achievement !

[sparky66 Graduate]

Ahh great family there.. high five fellow vegan..

[VeganNelly Graduate in reply to sparky66]

Hello Sparky66! We are a vegan family- all the kids are life vegans and the boys were proudly wearing their Vegan Runners vests today