Scheduling Your Workouts

Now that I'm officially training for my first half marathon I've had to become more diligent about my workouts, while still carefully balancing all of the other areas of my life.  Over the past several months I didn't have a specific training plan.  I would simply run or cross train 3-4 days a week and try to increase my distance each week.

My first obstacle was to identify which training plan I would follow.  There are so many incredible plans and resources out there.  Through reading several different blogs, I came across Another Mother Runner, which has a great blog and a couple books.  I recently read 'Train Like a Mother' which is a great book of resources, encouragement and an occasionally funny story about a mom on the run.  There's something about relating to other moms on this same journey that is so encouraging and motivating to know that this IS possible.  As I read the book, I came across their half marathon training plan and it seems like a reasonable plan to follow and the fact that it was created by a couple moms, helps reassure me that I should be able to follow it while balancing all of the other areas of my life.   

Although this new passion of mine is important, it's definitely not more important than my relationship with God, my husband and my precious children.  Therefore, as I develop my training schedule, I have to keep in mind that it needs to have the ability to be flexible.

Over the weekend I input every single workout between now and my half marathon on June 22, 2013 into my digital calendar.  My hope is that this will help keep me on schedule and also help rearrange my schedule when necessary.

I've adjusted my schedule to include a long run on Saturdays, but there are some Saturday's that this won't work due to other family obligations.  For example, next Saturday my dear husband and his buddies are going to the mountains to snowmobile and therefore I'll need to be at home with our babies.  By having everything on my digital calendar it makes it so easy to click and drag workouts around to adjust for our schedule.  There's definitely a level of accountability to yourself (and your family) by putting your workouts on a calendar!  

A little pre-planning and support from your loved one's will go a long ways!  I would love to hear how you balance your daily obligations!

Blessings,

Krystal