MCM Monday #7: On Being a Running Working Stiff

This will probably be my last semi-coherent Marine Corps update as I'm going back to work tomorrow. Translation = I'll be wasting all of my energies doing actual work to earn money as opposed to sitting on my ass watching Yo Gabba Gabba with Charlotte to earn money. Accordingly, I won't be able to writez good sentances 'cuz my brainwaves will be ded.

Please cherish what remains of my mediocre wit today.

Week 7 Recap
Monday: 6 mi @ 10:00 (stroller)
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 5 mi @ 9:50 (stroller)
Thursday: 3 mi @ 9:38 (stroller)
Friday: off
Saturday: Crim 10-mile race!
Sunday: off/hungover

Week 7 Notes
After a lackluster week's worth of stroller runs, I hit the jackpot during Saturday's Crim 10-miler. However, that recap will be posted later this week because I'm too lazy to write two posts in one day. You should come back to read it because it'll be full of rainbows and happy kittens and I'll talk about how I drank far too much beer in celebration.

This week was also a cut-back week that I had to modify due to the race. My quads are still pissed at me for running hard on Saturday, so I'm going to take it easy once I get outside for a run today.

Week 7 Marathon Musing: Back to School
The best way to ring in another school year:

So as you read approximately 200 words ago, I have to start working again this week. Mostly, that makes me angryballs because I was just starting to get into a good stay-at-home-mom groove: not washing my hair for days, wearing ill-fitting cotton shorts all day, and memorizing the daytime talk show schedule.

Now I have to roll my old bones out of bed when the streetlights are still on from the previous night, take a real shower, pack a lunch to be eaten at 10:15 am, and get our spawn ready for daycare. It's hard work, this work thing. How do normal people do it all year long? Everyone should have summer vacation.

On the other hand, I am receptive to having a routine again, even if that routine means not being able to pee at my leisure or check Facebook 1,457 times in a day. Structure is good for my soul, and what's good for my soul is ultimately good for my family because it makes me less of a basketcase.

Yet on a third, alien-ish hand, returning to work means shaking up my run schedule. Whereas I was completing runs in cooler, early morning temps after a leisurely breakfast, I now have to either

do them in the earlier early morning while people are still stumbling home drunk from the bar (aka, like getting up at 4 am to run; that's crazy)
do them in the afternoon right when school lets out

Since earlier early morning runs are more excruciating than watching Whitney, instead, my plan includes doing two easy weekday runs with the stroller after snagging Charlotte from daycare. As for speed/tempo work, I'll do that on my school's track one day a week before I pick her up so that I can fit in some quality training sans stroller.

If I can manage to continue marathon training while working and momming like some of you do without hesitation, I might explode with happiness. And then I'll retire from marathoning. Maybe.

Moms and non-moms, when do you fit your training in? Early morning with the drunk bar crowd? Mid-afternoon lunch runs? Late night speed sessions after the kids finally pass out?

One more. Any teacher-parents out there who manage to fit it all in?