Running and Time Management

It's been almost 2 months since I last posted here - yikes! I do feel really bad about that, but life has been a little crazy as I try to adjust to being busier with volunteer work and social stuff and taking on new projects.

You'll also note that I've rebranded and renamed the blog. Now that I like running and am setting all these goals for myself, I don't really identify with the "anti-runner" like I used to.

But the important thing is - I HAVE been running still! Don't worry everyone, I did not give up! Quite the opposite: I ran my first "real" 5K on Sunday, October 13th in my hometown of Cedar Rapids, IA. It was a beautiful, chilly day and I stunned myself by running it in 29:38!! I know that that doesn't sound like a competitive time to any other runner out there, but this is huge for me for my first ever timed 5K! I am lucky to get 2.5 miles in 25 minutes on my normal runs, so to finish a 5K in under 30 minutes was incredible!

I've been keeping up with my running since then, but today I want to talk about a big problem I'm having with training and time management. The problem? Well...it's hard. This fall, as I've joined new organizations and taken on more volunteer work, I've had weeks that are so busy I'm lucky if I can squeeze a run in during the work week (I run in the evenings). Last week I only ran ONCE in seven days (I was not pleased with myself!) because I had something going on every evening except Friday and by then I was too burned out.

This is starting to frustrate me. On the one hand, being busy and doing things in the community is important to me. It was a goal of mine to meet new people and become involved in the community instead of sitting at home and staying in my shell, and I've really worked hard and put myself out there to make that happen. But now that it is happening, I'm starting to see that it's no picnic. But the thing is, being this busy means sacrificing running time. And while my social life is important, running is ALSO important to me. And as I get closer to my half in May, it's going to be less acceptable to skip runs during the week. I want to be more focused on my training, but in order to do that I'd have to give up some of my activities, and that's hard for me. So, many weeks I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place.

So, I'm trying to kick into problem-solver mode to see how I can reconcile these two things that compete for my time and energy. I could cut back on some of my extra curriculars. But the thing is, I already don't do much more than the essentials: meetings, important events, book club every so often. It's just busy right now and hopefully it will die down a bit after the holidays and I can focus more on training in the early months of 2014.

Another option is for me to do my running at a different time, aka, in the morning. This is possible and I often consider it, but it's problematic for a number of reasons. One: I can't get up early. I just can't. I've tried to make myself get up earlier so many times and I can never stick with it. Two: I don't want to give up evening running, because I like it. After a long day of sitting at work, I look forward to that "release" I get from running. It's theraputic and refreshing. Three: The inverse to Reason 2 - I don't like exercising before work. I don't know why, I just don't. When I run or workout, I like to reward myself by knowing that once I get through it, I have free time. Working out before I have to go to work all day just makes the workout feel like a chore instead of something that adds to my day. I just don't like having a great workout only to have to follow it up by sitting at work for 9 hours. Yeah, maybe I haven't given it enough of a chance, but even if I did, that leads into reason Four: it would make my days (and thus, weeks), longer and more tiring. Some weeks I can barely get through as it is, but having a morning workout would mean a run and possibly an event/late meeting all in the same day and just thinking about that makes me exhausted.

So anyway, that's where I'm at. I'll continue to problem-solve about my time management and try, while I'm at it, to be better at updating my blog too. Happy Friday!