This March is a marathon, and it’s only just begun.
I’m trying hard to pace myself. To stay hydrated. To keep my head in the game. I’m trying hard not to think too far ahead, to stay focused on the mile I’m running.
I’ve run a marathon before. It was an intense experience to be sure, but the really hard part was the training. For weeks and weeks I put in so many miles. Alone, in the cold, sometimes in the rain, with only my carefully curated playlist, I logged hundreds of miles. The training was the hard part. The marathon was a mind game more than a test of strength or stamina.
I’m pretty good at those mind games. I’m pretty good at keeping going. I swam competitively for many years. I was never very good or very fast, but I logged the laps just like everyone else did. Back and forth with nothing but my thoughts and the black line below to keep me company. Swimming was a mind game too. That’s where I learned to play the mind-numbingly boring but muscle burning hard just keep going kind of mind game you need to play to finish any kind of long event. I used what I learned swimming to ride centuries on my road bike and then later to run a marathon. I hope I’m still as good at it as I remember.
But I can’t actually work out. I’m not sure how long it will be until I’m allowed to. The healing is not going well, so I don’t think I’ll be allowed back on the elliptical any time soon. I miss my workouts something fierce. I miss feeling good when I get off. I miss the endorphin rush of making my heart race.
It’s not a good time to not have my weekly opportunities to destress.
I don’t miss trying to find the time though. That would be hard right now, and I try to remind myself of that.
My husband leaves for SXSW on Tuesday morning. The rest of the week I have to get both kids ready and out of the house by 7:30am. If I think about it too much it makes me panic. This is the first time I’ve had to manage school mornings without my husband AND without my in-laws to help.
It doesn’t help that my son is exceedingly difficult these days. Oh my god has 4 been hard. So so so hard. I honestly don’t know if I can make him get ready in time. We’ll all have to wake up by 6am to even attempt it.
One mile at a time.
For what it’s worth, I’d be in a total panic mode too with the mornings, and my kids are 9 and 3. I know you can do it but it IS super tough. You’re super tough.
I’m so sorry about the healing & training. Not been able to work out sucks so bad. I love running and have had a leg injury now for months, I do run occasionally and go my team sport training. I know I shouldn’t and it has slowed the healing but…yeah. Is there any sport you’re allowed to do? Swimming?
Probably in retrospect the not training period will feel like a short time but I know how much it sucks in the now.
I can’t actually swim anymore because I totally destroyed my shoulders (especially) one years ago and now just messing around in the water makes it hurt for days. It makes me sad because there are so many times when swimming is the one thing people can do. 🙁
I hope your leg is better soon!
I’m so jealous of people whose kids sleep later! Our struggle in the morning is to force the kids to stay in bed until 6am (because they would get up EARLIER!). I’ve always had to get the kids ready and out the door by 7:45 myself, so here are my biggest tips:
1) CHORE CHART. They love the thing, and it motivates them to cruise through their morning routines. Pjs in hamper, get dressed, make bed, clean up room, brush hair & teeth, eat breakfast, dishes in dishwasher, pack snacks in backpacks, put on shoes. IF they do all of that, they get the iPad until its time to walk out the door. It’s just a dry erase board I created, and they love it. They can easily do all of that in under an hour with the chore chart motivation (they each have their own colored dry erase marker to mark off on the chart).
2) Clothes. This goes in waves, but my 4yo is super particular about this clothes, so now we try to pick out the outfit the night before and lay it out. Then there’s no debate or argument about it in the morning.
You’ve got this, mama!
My son wakes up plenty early a lot of the time, but that never seems to be the case when I NEED him to wake up early. He also doesn’t fall asleep until after 10 and has been having these night terrors that keep him up and exhaust him and then he wants to sleep later the next morning. Also the the time change will complicate things…
I will try the chart, but my kids are so difficult in the morning and when we do give them screen time in the mornings they lose their shit when they have to stop. They also can’t seem to be motivated by a reward later in the day. It’s hard. Mornings are rough for our family. I hope they get better some day.
We found setting out the week’s outfits worked so fussy outfit child could swap them when a single outfit got rejected. I hope your mornings are manageable this week especially.
DLS time will make getting out the door on time harder. Good wishes for this week, this month and FIngers crossed your healing improves. I hear healing is harder with Diabetes…. are you certain……
I don’t think I have diabetes. I think I have worse prolapse than my doctor understood and that it has complicated my healing immensely. It’s frustrating because I mentioned it multiple times but she disregarded me repeatedly. I’m very frustrated.
I’m so sorry the healing isn’t going well. It must be very disappointing. Good luck.
Not being able to work out makes things so much harder! I broke 2 toes about 7 weeks ago and was limited in what I could do. Not being able to work out was harder than not being able to walk, or give my daughter a bath, or so many other things. It made me so cranky. I hope the time off at least helps your prolapse issue.