I've found myself in a little predicament in balancing running and my family life. In the past month I haven't missed a single scheduled run, and have been regularly hitting in the mid 30 km's each week*. I've been getting excited about feeling like I can actually start pushing my endurance limits again. Last Saturday I hit a new distance high for India of 14 km. I'm still nowhere near the mid 60 km weeks I was logging in the States, but I'll get there. This all sounds great, but, unfortunately, the ever increasing amount of time spent on the trails leads to an ever decreasing amount of time spent at home. I'm faced with the challenge that runners everywhere face, how to compromise with the ones you love to make time for the activity that you love.
I run early in the mornings, so it's not so much the amount of time that I'm gone. Basically the only thing that I'm missing out on at home is sleep. I think the major issue, is that I generally run on both Saturday and Sunday, so there never gets to be a lazy wake-up-in-bed-together kind of morning with my wife. I've thoroughly enjoyed mornings in the past of waking up to the brightness in the room, rather than a blaring alarm clock, and rolled around half awake, perhaps pillow-talking with my wife, or not, until we hear the distant squawking of our son in the other room. One of us would then go and grab him to bring him into our wonderful Sunday morning lounge made up of blankets and pillows. We all just get to be a family together, and it's great. As gratifying as running is, the mornings together aren't the same if I go and run for two hours, then eat something because I'm starving by the end of a long run, then shower, then try to climb back in bed. At that point our minds are in two entirely different universes.
I've always exercised 5 days per week with 2 rest days, both of which were on weekdays, but now I'm contemplating moving to 6 days per week and having that one rest day be a really good one on the weekend. The biggest obstacle I foresee is that the weekends are my only chance at big distance running, but I think I can get around that by adding another day to run during the week. This will allow me to keep my volume up, hit one long distance day, and still get to dedicate one day to just being a dad and a husband.
I'll give 6 days per week a try, and see how it works out. The only way to know how my body and mind will respond is to give it a go. I think it actually sounds kind of nice approaching my rest period with the same 'quality vs. quantity' mentality often used for training days. I know that my wife will be happy that we'll get at least one day on the weekend that is all ours, but I'm also excited to have one day that I don't need to wake up to the alarm clock, and to experience more of the blissful mornings we used to before I started running all the time. I know that balancing time between the things I love will be an ongoing struggle for, well forever, but the simple fact remains that both of these are things that I love. I'll always find a way to make it work, both for my family and myself, but it may require a little trial and error.
*When I said, "...hitting the mid 30 km's each week" I was referring to my total distance adding in the kilometers of rowing also.
Traning Summary for Last Week:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6.32 km; 34:42; avg. pace 5:29/km
Wednesday: Rowing 4.0 km; 19:20; avg. pace 4:50/km
Thursday: Rowing 4.0 km; 18:56; avg. pace 4:44/km
Friday: 6.36 km; 34:14; avg. pace 5:23/km
Saturday: 14.02 km; 1:18:58; avg. pace 5:38/km
Sunday: Off
Total Distance: 26.7 km
Total Time: 2:27:54
Average Pace: 5:32/km
Happy Running!
I run early in the mornings, so it's not so much the amount of time that I'm gone. Basically the only thing that I'm missing out on at home is sleep. I think the major issue, is that I generally run on both Saturday and Sunday, so there never gets to be a lazy wake-up-in-bed-together kind of morning with my wife. I've thoroughly enjoyed mornings in the past of waking up to the brightness in the room, rather than a blaring alarm clock, and rolled around half awake, perhaps pillow-talking with my wife, or not, until we hear the distant squawking of our son in the other room. One of us would then go and grab him to bring him into our wonderful Sunday morning lounge made up of blankets and pillows. We all just get to be a family together, and it's great. As gratifying as running is, the mornings together aren't the same if I go and run for two hours, then eat something because I'm starving by the end of a long run, then shower, then try to climb back in bed. At that point our minds are in two entirely different universes.
I've always exercised 5 days per week with 2 rest days, both of which were on weekdays, but now I'm contemplating moving to 6 days per week and having that one rest day be a really good one on the weekend. The biggest obstacle I foresee is that the weekends are my only chance at big distance running, but I think I can get around that by adding another day to run during the week. This will allow me to keep my volume up, hit one long distance day, and still get to dedicate one day to just being a dad and a husband.
I'll give 6 days per week a try, and see how it works out. The only way to know how my body and mind will respond is to give it a go. I think it actually sounds kind of nice approaching my rest period with the same 'quality vs. quantity' mentality often used for training days. I know that my wife will be happy that we'll get at least one day on the weekend that is all ours, but I'm also excited to have one day that I don't need to wake up to the alarm clock, and to experience more of the blissful mornings we used to before I started running all the time. I know that balancing time between the things I love will be an ongoing struggle for, well forever, but the simple fact remains that both of these are things that I love. I'll always find a way to make it work, both for my family and myself, but it may require a little trial and error.
*When I said, "...hitting the mid 30 km's each week" I was referring to my total distance adding in the kilometers of rowing also.
Traning Summary for Last Week:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6.32 km; 34:42; avg. pace 5:29/km
Wednesday: Rowing 4.0 km; 19:20; avg. pace 4:50/km
Thursday: Rowing 4.0 km; 18:56; avg. pace 4:44/km
Friday: 6.36 km; 34:14; avg. pace 5:23/km
Saturday: 14.02 km; 1:18:58; avg. pace 5:38/km
Sunday: Off
Total Distance: 26.7 km
Total Time: 2:27:54
Average Pace: 5:32/km
Happy Running!
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