Finding balance in life is hard. Finding balance in life while running is harder. I'm immensely fortunate that I'm not throwing a job in the mix. I stay at home with our youngest and act as a chauffeur/cook/alarm clock/drill sergeant/cheer leader/craft leader/dictionary/swear word monitor/playmate/housekeeper. But in reality, you can take housekeeper off the list, because I'll admit I'm the worst housekeeper. Ugh.
I'm sitting at basketball practice for my oldest, after arguing with him to get dressed to come, and he's completely not interested. All I can think is 'this is 75 minutes long. I could be getting a great run right now....' but my 'mommy' mode is in gear. Not 'runner' mode. I know that he won't remember this practice. This day. But I'm hoping, that in the future, as we laugh about what a horrendous basketball player he was, he will remember that Mom or Dad was always present for him.
It's hard though. There's always a race I want to run, or some training I'd like to squeeze in, or practice to watch, homework to monitor, dinner to cook, tears to wipe, or scolding to be done. How do you do it?
While training for my last 50 mile race, I had to 'sacrifice' a couple of weeks of long runs when my husband went out of town for a few boys trips and a trip back east for his grandmother's 90th birthday (no way he can miss something so awesome!). I don't have a triple stroller, and to tell you the truth, as big as the boys are, I don't think I would want to push them for 20+ miles. Solution? Middle of the night treadmill runs. H.O.L.Y. C.O.W. Talk about mind numbing.
But I'm not the only one making sacrifices for running. My husband plays basketball on Saturdays. He has played with the same group of guys for 13 years. During high mileage weeks, I often have a long run on both Saturday AND Sunday. So he misses out on basketball to stay home with the little crazies while I head to the mountains to enjoy the best of nature. We try to work in alternate Saturdays so any one person isn't missing their work/life balance time.
The most recent bargain is that he gets every Saturday until the training really starts piling on the mega miles. Which is perfect, because it should get us right to the start of college football. Maybe I can convince him he's not really sacrificing? What kind of bargaining do you do to train for your races?
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