The Balance: Running and Life

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PeeG Jul 2015 11:03am, 23 Jul 2015 87 posts	0 PeeG Lately I have been thinking more and more about the balance. The balance between work and life, running and life, the balance between life and everything. I like everything I do to be perfect, but in doing so can spend more time thinking about the best way rather than just getting out and doing it even if not so perfect. This is most evident in trying to fit everything into life. Through this, I thought I would start a thread to see what everyone else does to strike a balance to get training in despite other pressing commitments or a want to just have some down time. Taking in my situation for example, this week I have had a couple of nights were I have had to pick the girlfriend's kids up from school as she has been on a late shift which has meant an earlier finish from work then not being able to run or whatever as the girlfriend is not back until 10.30pm. This then causes me to go to bed later as it is the limited time I have with her then which then meant that my night at home last night (we don't live together) was seen as a chance to have a bit of down time particularly after I missed the club's track session due to a later finish in work and also bad traffic on commute home. I found when doing more training for the Manchester Marathon this year I had one good week of training followed by a bad week due to feeling the need to recover and rest due to life commitments. I feel that surely I can free up more time by being better in obtaining the balance and tried to bring in little rules like no internet after 10pm to try and improve it and wondered if others have their own rules or methods to help get that balance right.
Fitz Jul 2015 11:38am, 23 Jul 2015 1,250 posts	0 Fitz Good thread. I found the best way to fit in midweek runs was to do them very early, i.e. 0500 for a run of up to 8 miles. Then there was still time to shower, eat, commute and be at work on time! parkrun is a good way of getting some training miles / pace and still be "with the family" as its very inclusive and less-committed family runners and children can be part of it. In mara training, long run Sunday is long run Sunday and you need an understanding family. I sometimes got round it by running home from work (anything from 13-20 miles depending on route chosen) if there was too much going on at the weekend. Something usually has to give: I gave up golf when I started biking because they occupied the same space on a Sunday morning. I nearly had to give up the biking when I started running, for similar reasons. I've never joined a running club because work commitments meant I stood very little chance of getting to midweek meets at 1900-1930. And because I'm with Groucho Marx when it comes to clubs in general.
Wriggling Snake Jul 2015 11:45am, 23 Jul 2015 9,940 posts	0 Wriggling Snake I have 2 things I do. Club on Tuesday. Long Run Saturday/Sunday, Saturday can be a parkrun. We try to work out at least a week ahead what we'll be doing on any given weekend. CLub run is just about sacrosanct. I've tried, early runs, lunchtime and evening over the past few years. Early works if you can get up at 5.00, I can but I could not sustain it after about 18 months, so in the end it is lunchtimes. If you get the 2 most important things done, your hard run/ club run and long run for the week, the rest is doable.
Fleece and Dust Jul 2015 11:45am, 23 Jul 2015 22,442 posts	0 Fleece and Dust Arranging your whole social life round running helps, I used to go for coffee or lunch with friends and now I go running with friends instead. It seems odd to sit down and talk to people nowadays. When my kids were younger and I couldn't leave them by themselves for very long I'd do 1 mile loops and check up on them every 10 minutes. Or take them to the park and run intervals round the park. Some people run-commute all or part of their commute to work, or run at lunchtime.
Southcoastpete Jul 2015 11:56am, 23 Jul 2015 5,152 posts	0 Southcoastpete Balance is the key PeeG. Life does get in the way of my running, but I kind of have to expect that. Unfortunatley, we are not elite runners, whose job is basically running .So we need to work to pay mortgages etc. My work place moved last year, so I now have a longer commute. This takes up more of my day, so I struggle to get out for a run, as there's less time and I am more tired anyway. I just do what I can and try not to beat myself up about it.
chunkywizard Jul 2015 11:57am, 23 Jul 2015 760 posts	0 chunkywizard Agree with above. Also I have started to cycle to most of my runs (where they do not start from my house) as extra exercise, ie parkrun, club run, races etc. It doesn't take much more than the car really (if your not going much more than 10K!)
PeeG Jul 2015 12:04pm, 23 Jul 2015 88 posts	0 PeeG Some great replies. I joined a club which I love being involved with, but unfortunately miss a lot of the club runs. I coach two U11s football teams who play on a Saturday morning which rules out parkrun for me also. Long Run Sunday's worked during marathon training, but outside of that other things slip in. On the socialising front I found that I used to go for bike rides to catch up with my mates sometimes, but fell out of a habit of doing that and when marathon training running needs to take priority for me. I do think 5am runs would be ideal, but I hate getting up in the morning ;-).
DeeGee Jul 2015 12:37pm, 23 Jul 2015 16,633 posts	0 DeeGee It is tough. I'm certainly nowhere near balancing everything. Expectations of me are also higher than I feel they ought to be, too. I do complicate matters by going away often to race. My life is made a little easier by my living five miles from where I work. My priority lies with my son, and I've had to bin some events recently as I got the balance wrong. What I'm doing now, when everything goes to plan, is running to work three times a week. So, this means that I miss getting the boy ready for school two or three times, but I make sure I do it the rest of the week. I do one club run on a Tuesday which means I miss bath time on that day, but I make sure I do it the rest of the time I'm home. I do an evening run on Thursday after the boy is in bed, and my wife very kindly leaves the washing up for me on a Thursday evening so it's usually the last thing I do before bed - normally the missus also very kindly prepares a whole meal from scratch using many pans on a Thursday too! We alway go to visit his Granny on a Sunday for lunchtime, so I get up early enough on a Sunday to make sure that I can run there in time to get a shower and get changed and the wife entertains him for a couple of hours and then drives there. Some afternoons I do some housework or shopping or maintenance or whatever, the rest of the time at the weekend I spend doing stuff with him. I'm very lucky in that my wife only works part-time so she's agreed to do much of the domestic stuff. I often give her time to herself by taking the boy away on adventures for whole days at a time, and in return I can go away for the occasional weekend to run many many times round a lake in Buckinghamshire. Sometimes the boy spends the weekend complaining, but it is a matter of balance. The missus has now taken to running a bit in her spare time so we're maybe going to parkrun now as a family as well. I've got a super team of RDs behind me at parkrun, so I only HAVE to attend that once every 6 weeks.
DeeGee Jul 2015 12:38pm, 23 Jul 2015 16,634 posts	0 DeeGee If anything does need to slide for me, then it's running rather than family time. So long as I get out a couple of times a week.
Nelly Jul 2015 12:49pm, 23 Jul 2015 2,598 posts	0 Nelly PG - I don't know why you don't just run 2/3 times a week at lunchtime? It hardly impacts on family/running/life/work balance, and if you were consistent with it would give you a solid weekly mileage to build you other sessions around as and when other factors allow.