I love my running non-runner husband

Today even SuperAthlete J bowed down before the weather. It's Wednesday, interval day. Our routine is to meet at the track at our kids' school at 7:00 pm. SAJ called me at 10:00 this morning and said the forecast was predicting a 90% chance of rain and high winds for the evening. I looked out the window: the sky was blue and lovely and the breezes were gentle. SAJ said she was heading to the track right then to get the intervals over with before the ugly weather descended. She wanted to know if I'd join her.

I couldn't because I'd just eaten a big fat breakfast and knew I'd double over if I tried to sprint around the track. Plus I had an actual paid project that needed to be complete by the end of the day. No worries, I said to SAJ, I can always do my intervals on the treadmill at the gym if the weather is too crappy tonight.

As the day progressed, the skies got more and more gloomy. Gusty winds made my creaky old house groan in protest throughout the afternoon. As darkness fell, the rain started. I started mentally preparing myself for solo intervals on the treadmill.

And then my charming husband came home, fresh from an intense jiu jitsu class. We'd talked earlier in the day about doing intervals -- and I'd told him that I could do them at the gym if the weather was awful or he was too tired.

Before he even got fully inside, I half jokingly said, "How about it?" and struck the universal pose for running. Husband M looked confused. I tried again, more specifically, "Are you ready for intervals?"

Husband M sighed and looked toward the floor. "OK," he said, totally blowing my mind.

"It's not too ugly out there?" I asked.

"It's not that bad," he answered. So off we went to change clothes -- and a mere 15 minutes later, we were on the track. The rain was falling steadily and the wind was blowing but all in all, it didn't feel too bad, although my chattering teeth might have begged to differ.

As always, we started off with four warmup laps. I was immediately reminded that I'm still getting over a cold when my top teeth throbbed with every footstrike thanks to inflamed sinuses. It was fairly painful but I didn't want to stop because I'd dragged Husband M out with me and everything ... I decided to reassess after a lap. Thankfully, the throbbing eased off.

And then the wind kicked in. On the home stretch of our second lap, it blew so hard that I literally felt like I was running in place. The rain felt like needles on my face. But Husband M was plugging along beside me, so I kept going. Plus, two of our usual interval partners had showed up and were making their way around the track -- if they were doing it, I thought, so could I.

After our warmup laps, we did our intervals: 8 sets of a sprint lap followed by a recovery lap. I will tell you right now that these were not my best sprint laps. I was cold, I was tired, the wind was literally howling and the rain was coming down sideways. But every time I looked up, I could see my own sweet Husband M -- who would not choose to run of his own accord in even the very best of circumstances -- making his way around the wet and windy track because I asked if he would come with me, and he loves me, so he did.

There's nothing like the feeling of getting something like that under my belt and being able to go back home to a warm, cozy house and something yummy for dinner, right alongside the man I love most. I am so lucky.