On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Balancing running and... life and stuff

Two days off in a row so far. Kind of beating myself up about it. Tomorrow... will be a better day. I have big plans for running AND spinning - although spin class did give me the most unbelievably massive bruise the other day. I almost took a photo of it but it's in a rather sensitive area (okay, the top of my thigh).

The number one excuse I hear from my friends as to why they don't run is always the classic: "I don't have the time for something like that!" I know, I can say. Being slow as molasses (cold molasses, not the runny heated up kind), my runs always take a while.

But what do you do when things really do get tough? In addition to working full time at a job that can often demand more than my full time (ah, New York...), I also volunteer with an organization that puts me on call several nights a month for an overnight shift. Sometimes (rarely) I don't get called in. Other times I can be there literally all night. It's hard to pick myself up after these shifts. How do doctors or others with erratic schedules do it?

Also, to follow up, the North Face running club question answered itself: they meet at 6:30 on Wednesdays. I absolutely positively cannot get out of work prior to 6:15 on Wednesdays, so the only way I could make it would be if I supermanned in a cab on the way there, changing my clothes faster than the speed of light. Sad.

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