So, with a young family (2 and 4 year old girls and a wife), it's definitely a challenge to find time to train. Not being independently wealthy kinda sucks too - that means a job. Fortunately, I don't have to travel for work very often. Maybe an average of 3 - 4 times a year. Though I will be traveling for work Thursday to Monday the weekend before the Bear Chase. Ugh. Vacations always seem to throw me for a loop too and throw me off schedule for weeks. Anyways, most likely I'm in the same situation as a lot of other people are; kids, a spouse, and a job.
How do I find time to train? Well, a lot of the time, it's when it's dark. Getting up at 4:00am really sucks, but everyone is sleeping so it works. Weekdays, that gives me about 2 hours before I have to be home and get ready to go to work and when the family is rising and shining. I did that a lot when I first started getting fit out on the mountain bike. This year, I can probably count on my extremities how many times I've done that. 9:00pm - not as sucky as 4:00am, but again - it's dark. The kids are in bed, but the wife is still up (night-owl) and isn't always so keen on me going out then. She likes me to spend alone time with her (which is a good thing) and she's nervous about my having a heart attack, injuring myself, and wild animals out on the trails when I'm pretty much alone out there. Now, here is the genius move... train at lunch time when I'm at work! I used to mountain bike with my buddy Chris at lunch time; now, it's running. We've got some nice trails right outside of my office doors in Greenwood Village. It's not Back Country stuff - but it's good. The Highline Canal Trail and an area that we call 'The Bone Yard' gets the majority of our attention. The only drawback really is the lack of showers and change rooms at the office. Lack of = non-existent. Bathroom stalls and wipe-downs is the only option other than the car (which Chris is a pro at!). It's not pretty but it works. I just do as much as I can to avoid afternoon meetings! Sometime getting from the 'change room' to outside and vice versa are challenging and slightly embarrassing, but 'meh' - whatever. I'm just happy I get to run.
That leaves weekends and long runs - that's the real challenge. My girls still nap (most of the time) but it's pretty dodgy getting out during those times - and it's not for long enough. One might not nap and be causing a ruckus and it's not fair for my wife to have to always deal with that, so I've pretty much abandoned those weekend daylight sessions. And sometimes a nap for myself is in order too - to the delight of my better half. That lead me to the path of taking Saturday's off and Sunday long runs - at 3am. The alarm goes off at 2:45. That only nets me about 4 hours of sleep, but it means I can get in a solid 4 hours before everyone is getting up for the day (they sleep-in on the weekend sometimes =) ). I also recently got the green light to stay out longer - until 9am - so that is a huge help, and why I was able to pull off my 26.2 this past Sunday! I think that the idea was that I could start at 5am and be back at 9am, so that I wasn't so tired all day, but... Thanks Baby!!! And, you might be asking, "Well, 3am sure is the middle of the night, but that's OK with her?" - Ya, I'm not 100% sure on that one either, but at least if I go down injured or something, the wait before someone finds me is a lot less since the trails are fairly busy once the sun comes up. What's funny is that just last night, she tells me that a doctor friend of hers that she works with, whom I was talking to just on Sunday, told her; "I'm worried about Disco - I don't think he's getting enough sleep..." Too funny.
Of course I couldn't do the dark training without my trusty Petzl Tikka XP 2 headlamp (sales pitch?) - which is great. I don't carry any other light source other than a backup pen-light, and of course spare batteries. There isn't a ton of technical/rocky terrain on my routes so I can get away with it, though sometimes the blackness, if there is no moon and/or no clouds, does slow me down a little bit. But, I've been on these trails so much, both biking and running, that I almost know them like the back of my hand. Usually roots, fist-sized and smaller rocks, and rain-ruts are the biggest hazards. The best nights though are when there is a full, or close to full moon, and some wispy cloud cover. You could almost go without any lamp. Almost.
The biggest thing I like about nighttime / dark runs; the solitude. It's just me, my thoughts (and sometime out-loud cursing of myself), and nature.
Having a treadmill and a bike trainer in the basement helps, but unless conditions outside are terrible, then outside is where I want to be - dark or not.
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