When do you train?

[meganew]

I love reading the training tuesday posts because they give me some motivation to up my workouts, but I’m struggling on finding time to fit it all in. If you’re doing multiple types of workouts or longer runs mid-week, what time of day do you do it?

My schedule for now: I have to be at work at 7:30 (teacher), which means to drop my daughter off I have to leave the house no later than 7- and even then I’m 5 minutes late. So morning workouts happen at 5:30, but I can only fit in 3-3.5 miles before I have to hop in the shower and get myself ready. H takes care of her so I don’t worry about that, he also gets our son up and off to school after I’ve gone. I’m done with work at 3:30, typically leave at 4 and pick her up, home by 4:45. Sometimes we have ballet or swim, in the spring we’ll have T-ball- so if I workout at night it’s usually after they’re in bed, and by then I’m pretty tired. Weekends are my long runs and (now that I joined the gym) a body pump class.

So- a typical week can look like this:
M- 3 mile morning run
T- 30 minutes on the bike
W- rest
Th- 3 mile morning run
F- rest or night yoga
Sat- long run (right now maybe 7 miles)
Sun- body pump

It’s fine for now, but I have some half marathons coming up and I applied for the full NYC marathon and my friend wants me to do some spartan race with him- so I need to up it soon. Just looking to get some inspiration from your schedules!

[Wines Not Whines]

I usually workout early in the morning and sometimes at lunch, but I don’t have to be at work as early as you do. Do you have any flexibility right after work or in the evenings?

[meganew]

Jan 31, 2019 19:40:19 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

I usually workout early in the morning and sometimes at lunch, but I don’t have to be at work as early as you do. Do you have any flexibility right after work or in the evenings?

My H works from home and already has my son from 3:00 (2:15 on Wednesday’s) until I get home while he’s still technically working- so I will sometimes run at school as soon as it’s dismissal, but still only get 3 miles in because I have to get home to take over for him/help with dinner/whatever.

When it’s warmer I might be able to get my kids out on their bikes/jogging stroller more. I think I’m realizing I need to wake up earlier. Lol.

[meganew]

Do split runs help anything? Like, if I did 3 in the morning and 3 right after school- is it pointless to break up a longer mid-week run like that?

[luckystar2]

I’m an evening workout person. I despise getting up early so it’s always just worked better for me. When my daughter was younger I’d either workout when dh was putting her to bed if it was his night or after I put her to bed when it was my night. Once she was older she has her own activities and I can leave her alone some so it has freed me up a lot. But I’ve done many a long run at night. I actually prefer long evening runs to weekend morning ones. But this is what has worked for me, my family and my schedule. Sometimes it’s rough to head out for a 10 mile run at 7 or 8 at night, but if I want to train and do a race then it just needs to get done.

[oswin]

Well, I cheat and workout at 8:30am usually, which means I work 10-5. My job is flexible and I work remotely (aka from home). I either go to CrossFit or run at that time. One idea for you - it'll depend on what activities you're at, but you can run while they play sports, etc. Like where DD goes to gymnastics, it's totally allowed for parents to leave and come back in an hour, so in theory I could run 4-5 miles then. I know little about training for longer races, but from what I've heard the most important things are total mileage and long runs. So I'm guessing 2 short runs would actually help, even if it's not ideal.

[gt7301b]

I do drop off and my husband is a teacher so the only early morning workouts for me are in the summer.  (Sometimes during marathon training I wake up and get a run in before he leaves.)  I do most of my workouts at lunch and on the weekends.  I used to do my mid-week long runs on my tc days and just make up the hours before the end of the day.  Right now I have reduced my mileage to ~ 25 miles a week.

I'll also answer for my husband who is also a teacher.  He does most of his workouts right after school gets out. He is done at 2:30 and our son doesn't have to be picked up until between 5:30-6:00.  Unless there are meetings after school he leaves immediately so he can get a workout in. (He will grade papers at home, but he rarely does additional work at school)  We switch off long run days and usually I get Sat and he gets Sun.

If I was in your shoes I would pay for a babysitter at least once a week so that you didn't have to worry about getting home to relieve your husband.  Can you workout during ballet or swim?  My son takes swim at the rec center and in the next level classes I could get a few minutes of cardio in while he was in class.

[labbie]

No kiddos here but I have to work out early morning or it just doesn't happen. I don't have to be at work until 830 though so that's helps a bit. My long runs are on weekends, but when I am training and have a longish midweek run, I have to get up at an ungodly hour because I'm a slower runner. I've gotten up at 330 before and it's not fun.

[taratru]

I go in the mornings and DH (also a teacher) goes after school. I also try to get things in during my plan period if I need to. If I were you, I'd be planning to get up earlier when your runs get longer during the week, and also thinking about how to streamline your getting ready. If you get up at 5 and can get ready in 30 minutes, that's 90 minutes to work out. It only sucks for a little while.

[sadlebred]

Can you do after care for your son a couple of days/week (assuming that is an option), a sitter, or maybe exchange "play dates" with another family once/week to give yourself extra time for a long run during the week?

I ride after work 3 days/week with my long rides on the weekends.

[wawa]

I run before work, bike trainer after the kids are in bed. I prefer first thing in the morning and will wake up as early as 4 routinely, but I draw a hard line there because 4 AM is early int he morning but 3 AM is still the middle of the night in my head. I've woken up earlier than that, but it has to be for a special reason. (like, race day. 20 miler. etc)

[campermom]

We have a lot in common! I also work in education and have an early start. Except today I start later. Anyway I do all morning drop offs (3 kids but all at one daycare/morning care) and supposed to leave the house by 7.

We split pickup days so that we can both get Work outs in. We have 2 pickups (school and daycare). We have pretty consistent schedules with afterschool activities.

The ideal training schedule works like this, but I have been pretty bad about avoiding my treadmill since October. I’m back on now that my 50k is over (I was just protecting my shins, I tell myself!) and now my goal is to work on speedwork.

Mon: I should get up early and workout on treadmill. If I’m on it by 5, I won’t be late. I pick up kids and drop off my daughter at religious ed. I bring the others back and work on dinner, lunches etc. H went to the gym right after work and picks her up when it’s over. Occasionally I will take DS to a optional fencing lesson but don’t have to leave till 7:15.

Tues: I go to the gym to lift right after work, H picks everyone up from school and daycare and gets things started at home. I get back by 6. I shower and stuff at the gym bc it’s peaceful and they have a steamrooma and sauna!

Wed: Get up early on treadmill. H goes to the gym after work, I do all the pickups. We eat dinner then I take DS to fencing at 6:30.

Thurs: We split pickups. I get the big kids and H gets the little one. We all come home at the same time. I leave to run with a group at 6. Usually I save my dinner till after the run though.

Friday: Usually we split pickups and I might take a run outside after work if I skipped the treadmill earlier. Or I just skip it all together. Sometimes DS goes to an optional open bout but H takes him at 7:30.

Sat: morning gym to lift usually. All the kids go to the kids club. DS has a fencing lesson for most of the morning or afternoon.

Sun: if H isn’t working I do a trail run or long run first thing in the am.

This will all change when DD does spring soccer, but basically I will take her and run anywhere from 3-5 miles around the park while she practices.

[campermom]

Jan 31, 2019 23:56:22 GMT -5 wawa said:

I run before work, bike trainer after the kids are in bed. I prefer first thing in the morning and will wake up as early as 4 routinely, but I draw a hard line there because 4 AM is early int he morning but 3 AM is still the middle of the night in my head. I've woken up earlier than that, but it has to be for a special reason. (like, race day. 20 miler. etc)

Do you alternate these? Like one day get up early and the other day stay up to bike? Or does training get to a point where you have to do both on the same day?

[wambam]

When I was last training for something, my schedule looked something like this.

M: AM - yoga, PM - weights
T: PM - run
W: AM - yoga, PM - run
Th: AM - weights, PM - run
F: AM - yoga, PM - run
Sa: long run
Su: rest

[wawa]

Feb 1, 2019 7:17:21 GMT -5 campermom said:

Jan 31, 2019 23:56:22 GMT -5 wawa said:

I run before work, bike trainer after the kids are in bed. I prefer first thing in the morning and will wake up as early as 4 routinely, but I draw a hard line there because 4 AM is early int he morning but 3 AM is still the middle of the night in my head. I've woken up earlier than that, but it has to be for a special reason. (like, race day. 20 miler. etc)

Do you alternate these? Like one day get up early and the other day stay up to bike? Or does training get to a point where you have to do both on the same day?

Right now it alternates (kinda) but it's going to get to a point soon where I do both. I'm supposed to swim on Tuesday mornings (but have been skipping it since I missed sign up for the current session of my class) and Tuesday night is a bike night. Wednesday is my run morning right now, and at the moment it's strength in the evening, but will soon also be trainer time. Saturdays are also two a days ususally but at more reasonable hours.

If I were training for a tri I'd have more of those since I'd need to fit in more than one short run per week. But none of those till July.

[osulori]

I'm an early worker outer too, so on work days I'm starting between 5-545am depending on when my first patient is. My husband currently gets our kid out the door and to the sitter in the mornings (he goes in later than I do) so that helps. It can be really hard when I'm in the thick of training though

[JRo]

I have to be out the door at 6:50, so my schedule is similar to yours in that regard. I work out in the morning (mostly). That means getting up between 4:00 and 4:30 depending on what I'm doing. It seems absurdly early, but once I adjusted my sleep schedule appropriately, I got used to it. My kids are in bed by 7:30, and I try to be down by 8:30. I have to be finished working out by 5:30 so I can get ready and get my kids ready.

[jade]

I used to be an afternoon worker outer, running with my group at 5:45 on T/Th evenings. DH did pickup on those days and I got dinner going when I got home. A few years ago I switched to mornings and I like it much better.

Now I get up at 5:45/6 to run solo before work. I try to be done by 7/7:15, which does limit how many miles I can fit in. DS has to be at school by 8, but DH and I alternate who takes him. When training season starts I meet the group at 6:30 and we are done by 7:30/8 which means I get to work between 8:45 and 9 those days. Which is fine, because work doesn't care when I come in as long as there are no meetings I am missing. In the winter I also do a strength class with my group at 5:30 after work, T/Th.

Weekends are mostly a no-go in the winter with DH gone all the time to snowboard. When he is home I run longer on Sat/Sun mornings, starting around 7 or 8. During marathon training I started at 6am but the earliest I went was 5:30.

Next training cycle I want to increase my weekly mileage, so get up earlier, but will have a new baby in the mix so I expect it to be a shitshow for awhile before we figure out our new routine.

[hurricanedrunk]

I do my workouts right after I get home from work - usually starting around 5:40 and the class I take also starts at 5:30. I've never gotten into a routine in the am but I have to be at work at 7:00am so with the longer runs during marathon training means a 4:00 am wake up, no thank you. I've been okay with shorter runs in the 4-6 mile range in the am but anything over that is a huge challenge. I don't have kids but this seems to be the time frame most people can work in. Also I always adjust training schedules so I have workouts on Sat/Sun to maximize daylight & free time.

[lilypad1126]

I mostly do morning workouts. I start work at 8:15am, and if I have to go to the gym to run on the treadmill (like now b/c winter) I’m up at 4:50am. I can get 4-5 miles in before I have to head home to get ready for work. It’s a drag, but we don’t have room for a treadmill at home.

At least once a week I do an evening workout, and I’ll do my longer mid-week run this night. I try to get minimum 6-7 miles in during my evening workout since I have a little more time. I’m still home and ready for dinner by 6:45. Then, I’m in bed by 9:30 usually.

I run both weekend days, usually 1 looooong run and 1 shorter run. Which means one day I feel like is totally devoted to running, especially during marathon training. I adjust all my training schedules so that Monday is my rest day. And oh man, it’s like a vacation every Monday that I don’t have to fit running in.

I don’t have kids and I feel like my life revolves around fitting in my workouts. I don’t know how you ladies with kids keep it all together. It’s impressive. I struggle all the time to feel like I’m giving enough time to any one area of my life.

It’s somewhat ironic that before I starting running these long distances, I wasn’t even sure I liked running and at times I actively hated it. Now that I do like running, I hate that I just don’t have enough time to devote to it.

[al320]

Im out of the house by 7 also. Whem i was actually motivated to work out regulalry i was up 415-430 to either swim or get in a decent length run. And then something when i got home too. When i wfh i can potentially work out at lunch, but it really depends on my schedule for the day

[chw57]

I'm also a teacher, and my husband works long hours. I get up at 4:30 most days so I can get 60-90 minutes in (swimming/trainer/treadmill or sometimes outside runs) before the kids get up. I can't use my prep period or lunch for workouts because I just have too much work to do (I try to take minimal work home). It's been an adjustment, and it SUCKS when the kids have rough nights, but if it doesn't happen at ridiculously early hours, it doesn't happen.

Often my mid-week long runs during marathon training were 7 in the morning and 3 at night, and it worked out fine as long as I got a solid long run on the weekends.

[jane6672]

There's no reason you can't break it up and do 3 before work and 3 after (if that works for you). It's not the same as doing 6 all at once, but it's still mileage (all mileage is good mileage when you're building a base).

[SallyJ]

We've found that splitting days works better for us. So I typically have kid duties Sun/Tue/Th and my DH has M/W/F. We alternate Sat. This means that on the night we have duty we manage homework, dinner, and bedtime. This allows the other partner to take care of workouts, have downtime, or plan social nights out. We've done this since the kids were babies and now at 10 & 11, it still works well. Having both of us split various chores every day made us both exhausted and unable to do anything for ourselves.

[itsme]

I'm out of the house by 6am (soon to be 5:30) so I much prefer to workout right after work. I do pick up and drop off and do long runs on weekends.

[meganew]

Feb 1, 2019 13:21:30 GMT -5 chw57 said:

I'm also a teacher, and my husband works long hours. I get up at 4:30 most days so I can get 60-90 minutes in (swimming/trainer/treadmill or sometimes outside runs) before the kids get up. I can't use my prep period or lunch for workouts because I just have too much work to do (I try to take minimal work home). It's been an adjustment, and it SUCKS when the kids have rough nights, but if it doesn't happen at ridiculously early hours, it doesn't happen.

Often my mid-week long runs during marathon training were 7 in the morning and 3 at night, and it worked out fine as long as I got a solid long run on the weekends.

I think I’m going to have to do this. I need to change my routine at night around to going to bed earlier, but I think this plus maybe one night of after bed or after school work outs might be what works.

[meganew]

Thank you guys!! I love reading about how you guys fit it all in.

[emilyj]

I’m pretty much an afternoon/early evening workout person. I don’t do early mornings. My workout schedule really changes week to week, with the exception of pool times, since I can’t really make them open the pool to suit me. Otherwise, I build workouts in where they make sense around what I have going on each week.

[breezy8407]

I am not training for anything, but I workout almost every day. I am beyond lucky that I can workout over lunch most days. On days I can't go at lunch or after work, I suck it up and get up early for a 5:30am class at the gym. H gets the kids dressed and fed. I live close enough that I can be back home by 6:45, get ready, and bring the kids to their before school care. H is a teacher, so although my work start time is flexible, his isn't, so that is what drives most of our morning routine.

[clseale]

Jan 31, 2019 19:52:12 GMT -5 meganew said:

Jan 31, 2019 19:40:19 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

I usually workout early in the morning and sometimes at lunch, but I don’t have to be at work as early as you do. Do you have any flexibility right after work or in the evenings?

My H works from home and already has my son from 3:00 (2:15 on Wednesday’s) until I get home while he’s still technically working- so I will sometimes run at school as soon as it’s dismissal, but still only get 3 miles in because I have to get home to take over for him/help with dinner/whatever.

When it’s warmer I might be able to get my kids out on their bikes/jogging stroller more. I think I’m realizing I need to wake up earlier. Lol.

This was pre-kid (only because since she has been here, I haven’t trained for anything at this level), but when DH and I had 8-10 mile mid-week runs on our schedule, we would be up at 4:00 to get it in before work. Sometimes if the weather was nice we would do it after work, but sadly the after work flexibility (or even waking up at 4 AM together lol) is long gone.