Having a wife that isn’t currently working is a great thing for a runner (leaving out obvious economic pitfalls that is). It means that no matter the time of day or day of week, I can head out for 30 minutes or 3 hours. We don’t have to determine who’s going to miss work for a doctor’s appointment or worry about who’s getting two boyz ready before work. I’m blessed with a wife that accepts and puts up with her husband who is obsessed with running. One of the main reasons I started this website was to talk to somebody…anybody about running. As much as my wife will put up with my collection of shoes, foul running gear and “running vacations,” she absolutely doesn’t want to talk about it.

A couple of months ago, a birthday party was planned for my wife’s sister and became a mini family reunion with a bunch of her family getting together. At the time I was all for it. She rarely gets to see her sisters and taking care of this family 24/7…she deserves every chance to get away that she can. That meant that this weekend was a boyz weekend. Where manners can be loosened and there’s a probably a little more freedom than when mom’s around…except for the running dad.

The boyz are seven and nine. While some may think that they can take care of themselves for at least 30 minutes, the ferocity of their fighting and consistency for mischief make this a leap of faith I’m not willing to take.

This means that a 3-mile easy run and a 8-mile long run will need to be scheduled. With a very stressful work schedule that consumes many hours, I’ve long been accustomed to being fluid with my training schedule. With any easy week scheduled for next week, I’ve decided to swap weeks and will make up the missed runs this week, next week.

We all have our schedules and kinks that get thrown into them. Remember though, you need to be fluid in your training. Just because you missed a run, the sun will rise again and there will be a chance to run another day. As long as you stay focused on the prize at the end, you’ll be fine.

RMFR

They’ll tell you that it’s good for your health. You’ll drop weight, your blood pressure will improve and you will once again be able to climb a set of stairs without stopping to catch your breath.  The one thing they don’t tell you when you start running is how it can improve your mental health and overall state-of-mind.

It never fails after a crappy day/week, you can always rely on a nice long run to release the stress and pressure of life into the air – never to be seen again. There’s something about 2 hours on the road that allows you to let go of all those pent up worries, hang-ups and issues. I liken the experience to when your mother put you in a corner to “think about what you did” or counting to 10 before speaking after getting mad. Personally, I like to visualize the top of my head opening up like a lid on a trash can with my issues catching the wind and leaving them in the dust. If something is really bothersome, I make sure to make the run hurt a little more than usual. When you come back spent and hurting, there’s not a whole lot more that matters anymore.