I had a wonderful, if brief, chat with the Concordians last night. I called just because I was missing my people, and wound up talking to both H and—I thought it was past her bedtime—Sweet B. She’s got an active summer coming, including two separate weeks down here with us to go to Pony Camp. Bliss (for us, at least).

H told me they’d gone out together for a little run earlier. This is new. Joint bike rides and walks have been common for a long time, but runs, no, though B has participated in a couple of kids’ triathlons that have required short efforts. Now almost 8, she managed a gentle mile with her mom, with a couple of short walking breaks tossed in. This reminded me very much of my early runs with H. I wrote about it a few years back:

[I have great] memories of running with our daughter when she was very young … I’d cant slightly to the right to take her little hand (a technique instituted after an unfortunate trip and fall), and away we’d go for perhaps half a mile, when she’d say, “Can we take a rest now?” and we’d walk along together chatting about one thing or another, until I’d say, “How about if we pick it up again when we get to that next telephone pole?” She’d say, “How about the one after that?” And, of course, the one after that it was.

It turns out that B wants to run in a 5K in August, and she’d like me to run with her. There aren’t many things I’d like better, so I have  a real incentive to Take. It. Easy. when I hit the roads again, which I hope will be next week. Another post from a while ago:

My old training diaries … are peppered with occasional days marked simply, VS². This was my common notation during recovery from an illness or a minor injury … and it meant Very Short and Very Slow. 

These days, I think VS² would be too far, too fast. VVS² would probably be better.