The Running Thread - 2019

ATTQOTD: I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I just couldn't do it when I had small kids. I totally fell off the exercise habit and gained about 40 pounds and became pretty depressed. Running is like therapy for me, I need it or I go a little nuts. DH worked long hours and I was home for a few years feeling like I couldn't take a break from the kids to work out, and then when I did start working again I had a long commute and just didn't have the discipline to fit it in. Eventually my kids got older as they tend to do, and I prioritized getting a schedule together so I could run again. I'm hoping to never get in that kind of position again, where there just is no time to fit in at least something.
 
QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?

Like some others here have said, I'm at a point where it's easier to do. My youngest child runs with me (albeit slowly), and the older two are off at college for most of the year. My wife runs as well. I'm at a spot with my job and my finances where running isn't an issue with either.

The biggest thing I end up sacrificing for running is sleep - the alarm goes off at least half an hour early on any weekday that I'm running, and early races aren't just a thing in Orlando.
 
ATTQOTD: Especially in summer, I usually run early in the mornings, so it never affected time with the family. I schedule my longer runs on weekends while my daughters are in dance rehearsals or when they have other activities. One daughter is in college now and the other is in high school, so unless they need something, carving out time for running is no issue. I work from home and get emails at all hours, so running is actually a good excuse to walk away from the computer in the evening.
 
ATTQOTD: hahahahaha I'm failing miserably at this. My marriage has fallen apart so I'm in complete crisis mode and totally focused on my daughter. I've gotten a few runs in here and there but nothing consistent, although that should change in the next two weeks with the end of the school year. Since she is running the 5k in Nov I will be focused on getting her ready for that.

In my old, normal, life I was able to wake up between 3:30-4:30 and get out for a run during the week. That left my weekends mostly open and it felt great heading into work after a good run. I'm trying to figure out how to create that balance again.
 


QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?

This is the hardest part about running. My kids are 3 and 4 (almost 5), and I want to spend as much time as possible with them when they're awake and/or not at school/daycare. So that means running often takes a backseat.

Right now, on days that I work from home, I get them to daycare/school and start my run after - usually running from 8-9 a.m. before the rest of my team has made it online for work.

If I'm in the office, my choices are to get up early and run (usually doesn't happen), run at lunch (what I do most of the time unless I have a meeting over lunch), or run at home/after bedtime.

For long runs, I go on Sunday mornings when my in-laws come over to play with the kids, so with them plus DH, the kids usually don't miss me.
 
I am lucky enough to work from home full time. I am usually up around 5 for medium distance runs and can be done and working by 7:30 or so. For my long runs, I have been know to get up at 4 or 4:30am. Leaves me plenty of time to get other things done during the week and on weekends.
 
QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?
ATTQOTD: Right now, my only issue to deal with is financial. Unfortunately, my pay just isn't keeping pace with how much expenses are increasing, so the race budget has taken a major hit. Outside of that, it's easy to balance running and life: my only child is 17 and reasonably self-sufficient, and I have adequate time to fit in the time demands of distance running. But I only started running longer distances when my son was able to stay home alone. As a single parent of a baby/toddler/kid under 10, I ran regularly, but only a mile or two at a time, on my treadmill or with my son in a jogging stroller.
 


This weekend we're going to be upgrading our forum software to the latest version, Xenforo 2. The boards will be unavailable starting on Saturday at 3 pm eastern. We anticipate they will be back online Saturday night if there are no technical issues with the transfer. Once the forums are back online, the design team will be working on them, so they may not look like "our forums" right away. While we are upgrading the software, this new version does have some major differences - mainly that it is designed with a priority on mobile devices. There are also many new features with this version of Xenforo, including expanded emojii options, enhanced editing features and better integration with social media among them.

While we don't expect any major downtime, with any migration to a new platform, things can happen - so we ask for your patience and understanding as we undergo this enhancement.
 
ATTQOTD: It’s about to get harder for me until the end of July. My younger son’s last day of preschool is tomorrow. I usually ran in the mornings if the other two aren’t tracked out. I am guessing it’s gonna be lots of treadmill for the time being. Fortunately all three will be in school all day at the end of July so I am thinking it should make things a lot easier.
 
This weekend we're going to be upgrading our forum software to the latest version, Xenforo 2. The boards will be unavailable starting on Saturday at 3 pm eastern. We anticipate they will be back online Saturday night if there are no technical issues with the transfer. Once the forums are back online, the design team will be working on them, so they may not look like "our forums" right away. While we are upgrading the software, this new version does have some major differences - mainly that it is designed with a priority on mobile devices. There are also many new features with this version of Xenforo, including expanded emojii options, enhanced editing features and better integration with social media among them.

While we don't expect any major downtime, with any migration to a new platform, things can happen - so we ask for your patience and understanding as we undergo this enhancement.

Best wishes. Good luck. I've survived a system changeover at a financial institution and it was Not Pretty for many days (and it was worse for the IT folks).
 
ATTQOTD: Right now it's pretty good. DH and I both work from home and have fairly flexible schedules. And, our kids are 11 and 13 so they're self sufficient. The heat of central FL is causing us problems now though. DS needing to be at school at 7:30, DD needing to be at the bus stop by 8:40, and DH having a standing 9:30 meeting means we can't get the run in before all this, and the heat is just too intense by the time he's done. We will occasionally run separate, but since I'm the one driving our training he likes to just follow along. Also, this is a really good time for us to chat about what we've got going on in the week like various appointments, kids after school schedules, and work/vacation travel. This is the last week of school though, and we can leave the kids by themselves to go for a run since we stay in the neighborhood for all our training runs. Next year DS will be in middle school and on the same bus as DD, so early runs will be the norm when it's hot (most of the time).

Budgeting: DH doesn't complain about race fees too much because he's very into exercise. The biggest expense is Princess for me because my friend and I make it a girls weekend. This includes all three races, nice dinners each night, some shopping on 5k day, and massages/spa day after the 10k and half. Yes, that weekend gets pricey. We stay at the Dolphin for the spa and it's a Marriott. So, we can usually get a night or two on points. And, tables in wonderland or annual pass discounts help on food. That is one weekend that I will not give up. :)
We live about 45min (depending on I4!) from Disney, so we're local-ish. I do like staying on property for Disney race weekends (taking the buses). But, I'm seriously rethinking that for the future for races other than Princess. There are some really nice hotels close to Disney at a fraction of the price. Especially when you take Marriott and Hilton rewards into account.
For running clothes/shoes I watch for sales. I can get UA tank tops at Dick's for under $10 when they have a good sale. And, they had BOGO Balega socks a while back. Shoes I don't always get on sale since they change the models so much. And, I don't always get my size in the old model before they're sold out.
I'd love an updated Garmin watch. But my Forerunner 220 still works, so I can't really justify it. For now. :)
 
ATTQOTD: I have it pretty easy. Recently retired, no kids, natural early riser (6AM even with no alarm) and morning runner.

Finances are not an issue. Now that I'm on (probably) permanent Disney hiatus, race fees are not an problem. Local 5K/10K/HM, maybe an overnight trip. I'm not a gear hound. Shoes every 3 months and shirts/shorts/socks when they wear out (like every year or possibly decade).

OK, it's not just 'pretty easy', it's perfect.

The biggest issue for us is the lack of spontaneity. I know DW would like to wake up and say 'lets go to the Botanical Garden this morning!' Me: "Uhh, it's tempo day." I need to come up with a plan to fix that.
 
ATTQOTD: I give a lot of credit to those of you getting your runs in with very young kids. That didn't happen when my 3 kids were young - I was in survival mode every day and there wasn't time to take a shower, let alone exercise. Now that my kids are older, it's so much easier, hence why I didn't start distance running until 4 years ago. They are all old enough to stay home alone if I need to get a run in when DH isn't around. Mostly though, most of my runs are done before my family even gets out of bed, weekdays and weekends (teenagers). :-)
 
QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?
ATTQOTD: I agree with everyone that having children older and out of the house makes a huge difference. I have one in college and the other graduated and living on her own in a different city. But the biggest impact for my work/life balance was when my wife got a job in the same city I work in (Hartford) and we eliminated a 3 hour 100 mile round trip commute by moving to less than 4 miles away. I am usually able block off time during the week at lunch or at the end of the day to run and shower at work but if not, with my short commute, I will run when I get home.
 
ATTQOTD I have an only child who is 14, so fairly self sufficient, and the never ending support of my beautiful wife. Everything we have to do no matter how big or small goes on the calendar and I adjust from there. For weekend long runs I’ll give up some sleep to get everything done. So far all my races have been in Disney, so an extra trip is an easy sell.
 
QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?

ATTQOTD: I am currently trying to get this back in balance after training for my 50 miler earlier this month. My wife's first words (right after "congratulations") when I got home was .... "so, you're done with this insanity for a while, right?".
So, for now I'm keeping my long runs on the weekends in the 6-10 mi. range (at least until I find another race to train for....shhh don't tell), no more 12 hours of running on Saturday & Sunday for a bit.
I try to get in at least two midweek runs of about 4-5 miles each before work. While my 2+ hour commute to NYC each way does eat up a chunk of my day I am fortunate to work in a building right on the corner of Central Park with a gym and shower so I can run and get cleaned up at some point during the morning.
Thankfully my wife does like to run as well so we can run some of the shorter races and train a bit together.
 
ATTQOTD: For me, running is critical to balancing family/relationships. I'm 45 with a 2 year old, and also have about 75 pounds to lose. Running improves my health (physical and mental), which makes it easier to keep up with the little one. Also, a little time away from family now hopefully equals many more years with the family in the future. Schedule wise, I've tried going at night, but there is zero energy left in the tank after the task of putting a toddler to bed. I've started getting up at 5am and getting a run in before work. Trying to take advantage of warmer weather and an earlier sunrise to help build those habits. Weekend runs are either early morning or during my son's nap time.
 
ATTQOTD: It’s a struggle sometimes and we don’t have kids. My husband and I both get to work at 6. Luckily I only go in the office 3 days a week and telework the other 2. I can usually get a run in during my lunch, but in the summer it’s tricky- we get a lot of storms and I don’t want to get soaked, or it’s disgustingly hot and I have somewhere to be after work. After work I am either taking or teaching a Pure Barre class or classes, so a lot of times I’m not home until 7-8 PM. Then I eat dinner and go to bed. My telework days are a lot easier to fit in a run before 6 AM, during lunch, or immediately after finishing up for the day. Occasionally I will take my “hourly smoke break” and do a mile per hour during the day. Those are fun workouts. Weekends are good for long runs, but I do have to plan it out and request to be off from teaching. Our dog has been sick a lot so I’ve skipped a lot of workouts due to his health and having to go to the vet during my free time.
 
QOTD: How do you balance running and real life (job, family, relationships, financial, and other things)?

My DH and I don't have kids, and we don't really have a social life. We don't have family around where we live now, so we don't have many obligations in that way. That all makes it much easier to balance what we do: work, tennis (both of us), running (me), biking (him), travel (both of us). I don't know how folks who have more obligations manage to do it.
 

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