My friends ask me how I balance it all. With a full- and a part-time job plus a husband and two small children, how do I find the time to train?
At the same time, I’ve been asking myself whether the Run Plan has provided me with the right balance when it comes to training. I’m trying to find the middle ground between training carefully so I don’t get injured and training hard enough that I feel confident about running 26.2 miles next month.
The answer to the first question — how I find the time to train — is a lot of planning.
I’ve had a lot of success by combining workouts with my daily life, which eliminates extra driving and builds more time into my day.
For example, this summer when I was playing on our company softball team, I would often count the games as my drills since playing involved a lot of sprinting and squatting. And since I would already be at the park and dressed to work out, I would try get to the games about 40 minutes early to fit in a short run.
Also, in the mornings, as I pack the children for school and day care, I also pack my workout gear so I can go run at a nearby park straight after work. When I teach yoga on Monday nights, I often stay and take an additional class right after mine. As long as I’m there, it’s easy to knock out a workout immediately after my class. Doubling up is so much easier than trying to find the motivation to work out once I’m at home on the sofa with my family.
But even with all of this thinking ahead and advance planning, I’ve still missed runs. I’ve had to just accept it as part of the process. A training plan is just that, a plan. Life will sometimes trump training, and that’s OK. If you’re a slave to your training plan and try to make up missed runs or squeeze in a few extra workouts, you’re likely to get injured or burned out.
As for the second question I’ve been asking myself lately — am I really ready to run a marathon? — only time will tell. I have seen my speed increase since I first started training with a heart-rate monitor, but I’m still not as fast as I was before undertaking this training. The farthest I’ve run so far is 13 miles, and if I stick to the plan, I won’t go more than 16 miles or so before marathon day. This doesn’t sit well with me.
So, since this is my first marathon, I’m planning on going out for 20 miles soon, even though Run Plan author Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. (Dr.) Mark Cucuzzella, doesn’t recommend it. He cautions that doing this can do more harm than good to your body by wearing yourself out and risking injury. But after considering this, I have decided that, for me, the benefit of boosting my confidence outweighs the risks.
So I’m working on the balance, but maybe the best time to ask if I managed to find it is on Monday, Oct. 27, the day after the Marine Corps Marathon.
