Father's Day Reflections

The Good Life Lived Well

To the athletic dads

Happy father’s day to all the dad’s who still hold that athletic dream in their heart.

The one’s who care a bit too much about the score sometimes, but only because of their passion.

The one’s who still set PR’s and demand a physical challenge to bring out their best selves.

It’s hard road for dad’s, we shoulder a lot of responsibility and we wouldn’t want it any other way. The training is our space for ourselves, where we can remember deep inside what we’re made of.

You must always take that space to keep working on yourself, to keep having fun and striving, to keep grinding away at greatness. It’s what fills us up to then pour back out into our families, as much as we can give.

Thank you to our families who give us the space to ourselves in the gym, on the road, in the woods, to push. We appreciate it more than you can know.

How I lived it this past weekend

Father’s day is a chance for me to go a bit longer out on the trails. A thank you of sorts from the family.

But I’m not interested in ‘escaping’ away from the family so I balanced out the fact I’d be gone almost half the day with maxxing out family time the rest of the weekend.

Sunday morning was set for a long drive out to Wisconsin to the run the Ice Age Trail, about twice the drive I normally make for a weekend long run.

So Saturday we did something both our kids have been clamoring for ever since we moved to Chicago in January, head down to the children’s museum at Navy Pier.

It was a great day of watching them play, being asked to join enthusiastically, and taking a real Chicago adventure as a family.

Then Sunday morning I woke up at 345am to leave my house by 430am so I would ONLY miss the morning on Sunday. I planned to run for 3 hours, plus 3 hours of driving, plus an hours of warm up and cool down at the trail head. A little less sleep for me is an easy trade so I can make it back home to spend the rest of the day with the family.

We had a great time relaxing in the backyard sunshine and taking a walk to the neighborhood playground before heading out to a father’s day dinner surprise.

This is the perfect example of how giving dad a bit of space to do something he loves but also helps him grow as a man ends up benefitting the entire family when dad is aimed true through his heart. Despite being a bit wrecked from this massive effort, I had all the energy for my kids, to give my wife a bit of space, and to be present throughout the entire weekend.

This is the good life through athletics.

I’m lucky to be able to live it.

Happy Training Team