The Felxibility of Being Flexible

Working full time, taking care of children, and making sure things around the house are done can really cut into your workout time.  Sometimes you need to be flexible in your schedule.

Last night was one of those nights.  After I got home from work, it was time to get the kids ready for bed.  This involves preparing dinner, giving a bath, reading a book and brushing teeth.   Those of you with kids know this is not as simple as it sounds. 

Next, I had to take care of the cats.  Feed them and change the litter.  Finally, the last items that needed to be completed were in the kitchen, lunches for tomorrow being made and the dishes cleaned.  Also, I had some bananas that were as ripe as they could get before I would have to throw them out.  This meant preparing some banana bread. 

It was after 7:00pm, by the time I was finished.  I was still feeling like I wanted to go running, but I have gone the past few nights and I wanted to spend some quality time with my wife  We have a new baby in the house, so there are times when she is very tired and gets ready for bed early.  If I go out too late, I will not see here until the morning.  I decided to forget about the run that night and attempt to go out in the morning before work.  This would be mean waking up at 4:00am.  (Yes there is a 4:00am).

Being the wonderful considerate husband I am, I decided to announce I would set my alarm for 4:00 and if I decided not to go, I would just go back to sleep.  If you could have seen the look on my wife’s face.  It had a look of you cannot be serious.  If she is awakened by my alarm at 4:00 and I decided not to go out after her being up part of the night nursing the baby, she would be upset.  That would not work.  

We decided on a great compromise.  I would keep the alarm set for my normal wake up at 5:00 and if she was up at 4:00 from nursing the baby, she would wake me.  So this morning at 4:00am, my wife woke me up. I got up changed and ate my banana bread for a pre-run snack.  Then I was off for a 3 mile run.  I decided to do my loop a few times since this was the first time out at that hour in over a year.  

I got home just in time for my alarm to go off to remind me it was time to get up and get ready for work.