I forgot to post last Friday, but I did w4d1 a second time, after a week passing since trying it the first time, and I did improve. Right now I'm just struggling to find the time! That part sucks. Fridays have been good, because I am on summer flex hours, I am able to go out first thing in the morning after the girls are ready for school (Dave does dropoff) and I usually leave before they do, but am back after they've gone. Then I can take a shower and start my day, and it's pretty great. Ideally, I'd end up being someone who could run in the morning, but that isn't happening for a while — for one, the baby tanks up in those hours, for two, it would mean totally changing our family rhythm, as right now I shower at night, and in the morning I get myself and the girls fed and dressed while Dave showers and gets ready. I leave before he comes downstairs (generally RIGHT before) and he takes them to daycare. If I were to try to run in the AM, I'd have to figure out how to get two showers in with enough hot water for both of us, plus start drying my hair, which is all precious minutes that I don't use right now. I do like starting my day with exercise, when I can (basically, at this point that's Friday and Sunday, if I'm lucky) but I don't know how that would work in reality.
After work is hard, too — I pick up the girls at 4:45 (in summer, 4:15 through the rest of the year) and Dave is home by 5:15, and we try to have dinner served at 6, and bedtime is 8. That window is where family time happens, or baths, or trash, or family walks, or whatever. Like tonight, after dinner I had to go to Hannaford, and on the way back I was thinking it was a gorgeous night and I should go run, but when I got back the kids were in the tub (Dave is the Bath Czar here) after getting (gloriously) dirty playing in the yard. And once Wil was clean, she was hungry and cranky and spent the next two hours wanting to be held and fed, so, yeah, the run didn't happen.
Obviously some of this stuff will improve with time, Wil will not always be so needy of my physical presence, at either end of the day, and Ing will be more independent as she gets bigger too, but rightnow? RIGHT NOW is hard for carving out time. And that's just thinking of MY time, not of Dave's wish to go on long bike rides in City Forest (as he's planned for Wednesday) which means I'm in charge, and even if we switched off every day so that we could each meet our fitness goals, that means we would basically never be together as a family of four. It's hard.
I contemplate things like maybe getting a cheap jogging stroller and taking Willa when I can, but that still leaves Ingrid to be minded, and she (obviously) cant be left alone. And I kind of LIKE the mental space going by myself gives me, and a stroller would impede on that, I think. And it still wouldn't buy me TIME.
So, folks, where do you find the time? How do you work it in? I know "make it a priority and you'll find the time" is one that I'll hear, and it's true that I'm prioritizing Willa's needs over my own right now, but after THAT, where can I find the actual time?
Distance: 2.18 miles
Average: 16:18 /mile
Fastest Pace: 10:25 /mile
Walk Pace: 15:05
Run Pace: 12:54
fitness 
2 Comments
I run into this same problem. Dan works Sun-Wed evenings, so running/biking is out for those nights. I can usually get one run in during the week while Cat & Eric are in the tub (Dan’s in charge of that when he’s home). I can usually fit one or two in on the weekend, but not always. It usually takes me multiple weeks to get through one C25K week. I’m still on week 7 (and started in April, i think), but have managed two actual-factual 5K’s. Those I dragged the family along to–Cat did the accompanying fun runs, and Dan hung out with the kiddos while I ran. I’m thinking about signing up for a Y membership this summer. One big reason for the appeal of the Y is the childcare–I’m fine with running/biking outside and don’t really want/need the gym, but the convenience of going somewhere where they’ll watch my kiddos so I can carve out the time to exercise is a big draw. I have tried taking Cat out with me twice. Once she ran along with me…sort of. We went to the school across the street from our house. We went around the track once before she got bored, then we ran around the school to the playground, where she played while I finished up, running laps around the playground. Another time I tried taking her out in a jogging stroller and that was awful. She’s way too heavy for that nonsense. Ah well. All that to say, no answers here, but good luck!
Ahh, so you know the dilemma, too! I've done the playground thing with Ingrid as well, and that actually isn't so bad, except I can't do it with Willa. I am planning on doing a 5k on my birthday. Not an event, just doing the road from one lake to another in my hometown that is conveniently 3.1 miles long. I won't run it, this I know, but I'm planning on doing whatever C25k workout is on deck that day, and then just doing the rest by ear. I'm confident I can cover 3.1 miles, and I figure it will give me a good baseline for when I do the Komen race in the fall.