I sit here a little frustrated with myself. I ran a total of four times and did one 25 mile bike ride over the past two and a half weeks. Part of the reason is that I had been feeling some pain in my knee. It started about a month ago after one of my speed workouts. It would hurt while running but the second I stopped, it went away. Yesterday was the first time in weeks that I felt great after a run and I was pain free during the run.
The past two weeks have been pretty crazy. I let my schedule get in the way and I didn't make time for my workouts. Work has been pretty crazy and the list of things that needed to be done at home has been never-ending. I have been trying to paint some of the rooms in our house after the kids go to bed, which has caused a shift in my sleep schedule. Needless to say, I have woken up very late several times in the past couple weeks.
As frustrated as I get when I don't work out, I always put my home life first. My job comes second. I don't want to neglect the things that are most important in my life. My family comes before everything else. The weekends have always been a time for me to do my long runs but now that my wife and I have different work schedules, I can't do my long runs on the weekends. I carve time out in my schedule to get one in during the week. There are times when I arrange for someone to watch the kids if it's something that I can't do during the week. I try to keep this to a minimum though. Having four kids, It puts a lot on our family. There are definitely times when my wife and I want to go out to dinner by ourselves and would rather use our family for those instances.
As you may recall, I have stated in previous posts that I am running a 10k this month with the goal of finishing in under 50 minutes. I am signed up for a race next weekend. I'm not 100% sure on how it's going to go considering how the past two weeks have gone. The goal remains the same. I feel strong and ready to run. My knee doesn't bother me. I'm going to put a few more easy training runs between now and then. I have no doubt that I can run the full 10k, the question is whether or not I'm going to able to do it in under 50 min. If I don't, I'll just have to try again. I do plan on running a couple more races this fall just for fun. I plan on running the Turkey Trot in Charlotte again this year on Thanksgiving. I found that to be a really fun race. Then I plan on running a half marathon in December.
I've been running for the past three years and I really enjoy running. I love the way I feel afterwards. I love the alone time during the run. The thing is that I still have to make myself do it sometimes. I have to make time for it while not neglecting any other parts of my life. Finding that balance is difficult and I'm constantly having to adjust my schedule here and there but it's all worth it in the end.