Playing Cards

In about six weeks I'll be running in a Ragnar Relay. It's an overnight race, 200+ miles split between a team of twelve people. I'm excited to run something new and to have a team of people to enjoy it with.

The part that's killing me is consistently training. In the past when I've trained for a race I've been able to balance the hard workouts with recovery days. It usually went something like this:

Sunday: off
Monday: long run
Tuesday: short run or pool
Wednesday: speed or hills
Thursday: short run or pool
Friday: off
Saturday: any workout

The Ragnar website has workouts and training plans posted so it should be easy to just look and see what to run each day. But working around the schedules of a baby, toddler, and husband in school has made it a bit more complicated.

What I've been doing is looking at an entire week to the four or five workouts I need to get in. Then one day at a time, I see what works with our schedule that day. Like I'm just playing a game of cards and throwing down whatever card I can play.

This means that there isn't always a balance with working hard and recovering. Last week ended up like this:

Monday: easy run with jogger
Tuesday: sick kids, no running
Wednesday: easy run with jogger
Thursday: hill workout (by myself, yeah!)
Friday/Saturday: 3 runs in 24 hours (8 miles, with kids & alone)

I'm hoping nothing gets injured. :) I'm also amazed at the moms I hear about who run marathons and with more kids than I have. How do they do it? Get up way too early and run? Hire a babysitter so they can work out? Not for me.

I am glad to have something to work on, a goal or a project, I guess. Even though training can be a pain I know I'll be happy when we cross that finish line.