One of the biggest problems I have when it comes to staying healthy and training for endurance/Spartan/road races, is time. Being a father of three and a wife that works at night, time is something that can come and go at any moment. Baby’s throwing up, the oldest is having a basic meltdown because his DS is taken away, the middle child just wants you to cuddle with her and read a book. Whatever it might be, time is the only thing that you cannot count on being available to you. So, what do we do? We find time, we magically make time, or we give up something else to create time for our running or working out. Today, I’d like to share my methods of “time.”
Yes, there are twenty four hours in a day, but let’s really break that down. Before we even start talking about day to day life we have to incorporate sleep time into the equation. If you are like me 5-7 hours of sleep is perfectly fine and is something I can deal with on a daily basis. Sleep doesn’t generally come easy for me, it takes a lot to ease my mind and really calm the thoughts that don’t stop talking. When it does eventually happen, 5 out of the 7 days in a week I am woken up abruptly by a “sleeping child.” My youngest usually wants to come into bed and cuddle because she is cold, my oldest always has bad dreams…life happens I get that and I’ve dealt with functioning with 5 hours of sleep. So, take out 5 hours of sleep, 19 hours in a day.
Next, is work. I woke a job from 8:15-3:40. Take into consideration that I get up for work at 5am and spend my time from 6:30-7:30 getting read and going to work. Eight hours of a day during the week I am at work molding the youth of tomorrow and loving every second of it. That is 9 hours in total between working and going to work. In a time period of 24 hours I spend 18 hours of work related business, 7hrs of sleep, this leaves me with 6 hours in a day that I could find time to work on health related exercises.
With six hours you would think I am able to get in a good workout, but that’s just not the case. As soon as I get home it’s time to do homework and make dinner. Some nights it is easy…pancakes for dinner are a godsend. Some nights I am able to get the kids together and take them to the basement and run or workout.
This past weekend is a perfect example. The stars aligned and I was able to take everyone to the basement to watch a movie and I do an hour long run in my heartrate zone. One hour in zone 2/3 was a nice way to ease myself back into running at a steady pace. My kids were wonderful, often checking on me as I was running and running with me on the floor next to me.
On the topic of running. You gotta find what works for you. I continue to find running easier and easier as the kids get older. Put on a movie…you’re dad, no one’s gonna mind. I’ve been on the kick of running for my heart rate and working on endurance. Using your heart rate zones you can really get the most out of your body come race day, it’s like prepping the engine slowly before you take off in the morning. All of the parts have to be warmed up for what’s about to happen for it to really work properly. Zone running/training helps your body feel the impact at a slower pace and really feel the time as well. When I run for an hour at zone 2/3 it’s a very slow and methodical pace, its super boring, but I know it will pay dividends in the end. I mean, no one really trains at their race pace every single time, your body would be totally shot! Check out the link below, enter in your stats, and you give it a shot. I am currently training to run my next 50k, so slow and steady is the best way to really get the most bang for your buck.
http://www.fitdigits.com/personalized-heart-rate-zones.html
See, to me, it’s not always about getting in a great workout that really taxes you, it’s always about the amount of time I am going to be afforded from my kids. I love them, I really do, they just need more of my time some days then I feel I can give. Find workouts that are going to work for the time you have, heart rate running really works for me, as a runner, maybe try HIIT training for working
out and lifting, just find what works around the time you have.
While you're here...check out some of the other drop downs in the menu. I talk about Heart rate training i this blog, check out my Monday's list for things I use during those long boring runs. Christmas shopping done easy!