Pressure

Pressure.  You have to learn to pace yourself.  Billy Joel

I am doing it again.  I am putting too much pressure on myself to do a certain amount of running each day.  I want to train for a half marathon in March, and I keep trying to ramp up the miles.  I feel like a failure if I do less than five miles at at a time, or fewer than 100 miles for the month.  So far for the month of September, I have missed five out of twelve days.  I am only up to 30 miles this month, and I have a few other days off already scheduled.  How do get back on track?

Part of the issue is lack of time.  Between my full time job and almost one hour commute each way, I am gone for eleven hours each day.  When I get home, its time to give the kids dinner, bath and then bed.  Also, since they are getting older and staying up later than before,  this also delays my going out.   Add to that household chores such as laundry, cooking dinner and making lunches, and the clock just keeps ticking away.  Last night, I finally went out around 7:15 and then we wound up eating dinner at 8:30.  It can make for a late night or a night where you feel there is no separation and you just keep going until you finally crash in bed only to wake up and start all over again a few hours later!

I took a step back and asked myself, which is more important: running or running a certain distance? I decided on running. I am going to start with a three mile route and if I feel good, I will continue on to do four.  Plus, now that the kids are back in school and one of my days off coincides with a school day, I will be able to get out there for a longer run each week.  The pressure is off, and I am back to just getting out there.

How are you handling the back to school schedules and your running?