The Running Thread - 2018

[Capang]

ATTQOTD: I struggle. I work full time as a teacher and I run clubs and tutoring not to mention all the committees so the school year can be kind of rough. This year has stunk as far as running goes. Summers are super easy. Up early, run.

Bonus: Peas. Barf.

 

[flav]

ATTQOTD: Work is slightly flexible and DD are old enough that I can leave them home together for an hour or so.
If I wake up at 5AM and it is warm, I go running.
If there is an opening during lunch, I go running and my employer provides showers, a lot of my colleagues run.
If still haven’t succeeded, I change clothes at work then run from the train station to home. Dinner might be simpler or delayed, DH helps a lot!
And on weekends, we make everyone activities a priority, mine is running!
Also, as an extra, my youngest DD wants to run a 5k and I insist that she prepares for it so we run together after dinner on my off days.

Bonus: Liver and meatloaf.

 

[jmasgat]

ATTQOTD: Will have to answer for my pre-"retired" runner-self. I used to go to the gym at 5:30 in the morning to run before work. But by then my kids were teenagers and I didn't have to juggle that much. Before that, I wasn't all that in to fitness or running. And these days, I have all the time in the world.

Bonus Q: Pea soup. While there are many foods that I have discovered or re-discovered as an adult, this is one that I won't re-visit. I used to swirl it around the bowl and dump it back into the pot when my mom wasn't looking. The smell and taste....yuck!

 

[PCFriar80]

ATTQOTD: I just retired so I'm working on a new rebalancing plan. Family first, taking care of Mother and In-laws to make sure their needs are taken care of. Depending upon the day or week I always have a slice where I can get a run or other workout in. Sometimes the situation at hand in tending to family situations will enhance or degrade my workout. Nonetheless, at the end of the day something will get done.

ATTBQOTD: Lima beans! I got pretty creative though when I was served them. Three options; take them like a capsule with a glass of milk, the 'ol under the table slip to the dog, or hide the lima beans in the napkin trick!

 

[FFigawi]

QOTD: How do you balance running with work and/or family life?

I do most of my training in the morning, which doesn't have much impact on things. Training does limit how many nights we can go out for the whole night, but doing so and missing a workout here and there is okay.

Bonus QOTD: What is a food you were made to eat as a child that you refuse to eat now?

Box mac and cheese. My wife made me a "favorite childhood foods" dinner for my birthday last year (she emailed my mom for details) which included such culinary delights as Fritos & dip, box mac & cheese, Ore Ida tater tots, and frosted strawberry Pop Tarts. The Pop Tarts were terrible (maybe my real favorite of brown sugar cinnamon would've been better), but the mac & cheese was practically inedible. I felt ill for hours.

 

[Jules76126]

I always run after work. I typically have a pretty set schedule so I get home at the same time everyday. DH usually runs at the same time as me. It is pretty easy right now since we do not have kids or other obligations. We also will run on the weekend when visiting family. We just get up super early to get it done.

My parents never made me eat anything as a kid. I was super picky so they always just made things that I liked. I did hate potatoes as a kid and still hate them now.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Attoqtd: when I am actually good about training - I either fit it in before or afterwork. Work has a gym so I can get there at 4:30 if I’m motivated or I go to the gym after.

Bonus: Boiled Green Beans or Lima Beans. Gag!

 

[TheHamm]

QOTD: I have a few options. I can run in the morning but I need to be home by 6:20- this works when it is a bit warmer and more light out, maybe two more weeks before I can convince myself this is a good idea. I can run weekdays on my lunch hour, but I am strictly limited to an hour and I can not bring myself to do this in July and August because I am not thermally resilient. I have not come up with a way to get in weekend runs, other than signing up for an occasional race or waking up at 5:30am. There is so much to squeeze into a weekend, and I would rather watch my kids delight at a science exhibit, snow covered hill, splash pad, or visiting my grandparents than go for a run. Maybe this will change when they are older and want to sleep until noon and pretend I do not exist, but I need to squeeze in all the fun before that happens.

BQOTD: 'Junk Pizza' which has every topping and you pick off the ones you do not like. Horrible! You cannot pick off the ooze of green pepper taste- it contaminates everything it touches.

Crackers: I believe there is an entire sleeve worth of saltines in my car in the form of crumbs. It is the only food the kids get in the car. We will eat all the crackers in our house. Even the disgusting spelt ones, you can still deliver a lot of cheese to the mouth with those robust slabs.

 

[ZellyB]

Great questions!

ATTQOTD: We do must of our running very early in the morning. It's about the only way we can be sure we do it. My kids are all teenagers and older, so that is luckily not something we have to worry about.

Bonus: There were things I hated as a kid - fish, spinach, peas. But little that I won't eat now - evolving tastes I guess. I love fish and spinach. I'm still not a fan of peas though.

 

[FredtheDuck]

ATTQOTD: I run in the mornings, before the rest of my house is awake. Sometimes, like today, they're up by the time I get home (I have an early rising toddler), but sometimes (like yesterday) I'm through a run and the house is still quiet. For this cycle, I switched my LR to Saturdays so that DH can get a long run in on Sunday. Saturday used to be my "sleep in" day, but now I'm up and running by whatever time I need to be to get my run in, cool down, shower, and head back out the door to have my kid to her gymnastics class on time. Tomorrow's run is 2ish hours, so I'll be up by 6:30. That's a whole extra hour and a half from today!

BQOTD:

Lima beans!

maybe my real favorite of brown sugar cinnamon would've been better

BQOTD: 'Junk Pizza' which has every topping and you pick off the ones you do not like. Horrible! You cannot pick off the ooze of green pepper taste- it contaminates everything it touches.

I have some food kindred spirits in you three. I was going to say pork chops with shake n' bake, but I don't actively dislike them, they're just not how we eat in my house. Then I saw @TheHamm's post on pizza. You're TOTALLY right. My parents would get pizza from Round Table with peppers and mushrooms and all kinds of stuff I didn't like and then tell me to pick it off. Now I'm free to get whatever dang pizza I want.

 

[Sanchez]

QOTD: How do you balance running with work and/or family life?

My average work week is 60-70 hours and for the most part unless workouts are completed early they do not get done. My boys are out of the house now so that provides some flexibility. As a senior partner at work I theoretically have flexibility but as a practical matter getting away is difficult. Getting up at 5 after working until 10 the prior evening can be difficult. Was able to leave the office at 5 yesterday and head to the track so extended daylight helps.

 

[KSellers88]

ATTQOTD: I either run on lunch with a group at work or I run immediately following work, which is why I love DST so much. My schedule has been impacted a little since we got our puppy, but since we do not have kids yet it is pretty easy for me to fit my runs into a schedule. On the weekends my husband goes to the gym while I do my longer runs, or he rides along beside me on his bicycle.

BQOTD: My parents never really made me eat anything I didn't want to as a kid. LOL. I've tried all kinds of different foods since meeting my husband, because I was basically raised eating chicken, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. Not many fruits and veggies and lots of carbs. I eat much better now than I did as a child.

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: I have it pretty easy. I work from home as a software developer, which I have been doing since 2000, basically my entire working career. We are a small company of 4-5 people and my boss allows us very flexible schedules for personal time, so basically I can run or go to the gym/Orangetheory/yoga whenever I feel like it unless I have some kind of meeting with a client on the schedule (which is very unusual, I'm not usually a conf call person). My SO and I don't have any human kids, so there's no children activities and obligations to plan around either. DOG activities though on the other hand! My dog has agility classes and trials that I plan around.

 

[roxymama]

QOTD: How do you balance running with work and/or family life?
ATTQOTD: It's super hard. Hubby does MTWF wake ups at 4am for his workout and is back home in time to shower either right before or after me. I get about 30 min of getting ready in the morning with my kiddo before I have to take her to daycare and commute to work by 8am (usually before.) Then I pick her up between 5:30and 6pm (poor thing is in daycare for so long everyday of the week.) I cook dinner and eat and play with her and give her bath, etc, while cleaning/laundry/etc and then I tuck her in at 8:30 to 9pm and THEN I go run. Usually at the gym. Weekends are easier because I can go anytime that fits in, but I do run both Sat and Sun whenever I can and try to go outdoors. This does mean having to say No to playing with my daughter some days and so I try to do it when she naps (but she's growing out of naps.) So in summary...I sacrifice me time more than anything so I just try to make running my me time. If that makes sense. It's very hard right now. But if something is important to me I try to find a way to do it.

BONUS: @rteetz read my mind...fishsticks...BLECH

 

[Barca33Runner]

ATTQOTD:

I have a rather long commute into the middle of nowhere where I work. I’d like to have the time to do more productive things, but I live alone with my dog so I don’t have the usual busyness of people my age. I have no excuse not to be able to fit in basically any type of training plan.

Bonus: I eat a lot of stuff now that I refused to eat as a kid. I had an iron will, so my parents learned early on that I would wait them out or wasn’t joking when I said something would make me throw up. To this day I can’t even entertain the idea of eating peas or Lima beans without gagging. So I guess those are the things my parents would have liked to force me into eating that I wouldn’t eat now.

As for something I loved as a child that I don’t eat now, it’s A1 sauce. I could eat that on anything when I was a kid (literally, you don’t want to know the things on which I put A1). Now? I’d probably still like it, I just don’t use it. The things that it’s made for are better without it and the other stuff I put it on should never have existed in the first place.

 

[Nole95]

I'm pretty lucky. I work from home full time, so my hours are pretty flexible. I get up early, get my runs done and get on with my day.
This also allows me to do my long run on Fridays. I can then enjoy my weekend without worrying about a long run on a Saturday or Sunday.

 

[Dis5150]

ATTQOTD: I run right after work during the week and first thing in the morning on Saturdays. My kids are grown and on their own. DH started working where I work so he either rides his bike with me while I run after work or plays leap frog in the truck with me if he doesn't feel like riding his bike. He parks in the shade and keeps an eye on me so I can run other places besides just on the property at work now, which is great as I was getting so bored with that, lol! He also rides his bike or plays leap frog with me on my long runs on Saturdays. If he doesn't ride his bike he takes our beagle and she gets to go for walks until I catch up to them, then she rides with her head out the window to the next spot. She loves long run Saturdays. My mom also lives with us so she does most of the cooking, cleaning and laundry since she is home alone most days. I am blessed.

Bonus: Canned green beans and peas, gag! I also took them as capsules with my drink, lol. Our dog also did not like them and my parent's figured out the napkin trick early on. She still makes them (see above) but I don't eat them.

pizza from Round Table

OMG I miss Round Table pepperoni pizza! They aren't out here so last night for my birthday dinner we had Pizza Hut which is not the same!

 

[AFwifelife]

ATTQOTD: I’m a SAHM so I don’t have to worry about a work schedule but I do also have a 4.5 year old and 3 year old who aren’t going to school so scheduling can get tricky. The Y has been a lifesaver for having a place to go while I plod out some mileage on a treadmill. Next year they will be in school (my 3 year old part time) so I should have some more opportunities to get some outside runs in but I’m already stressing the really long runs near the end of marathon training. I can’t always guarantee that my husband will be home on the weekends so hopefully I can find someone to sit at my house for those if he isn’t home.

Bonus: pierogies. Ughhh so gross and I eat pretty much everything.

 

[camaker]

QOTD: How do you balance running with work and/or family life?

Bonus QOTD: What is a food you were made to eat as a child that you refuse to eat now?

ATTQOTD: I am fortunate that my running career started after both my daughters have left the nest and my wife's job, until recently, has entailed a lot of late nights. That has left me free to come home and run in the evenings before dinner. Sometimes I have to shuffle things around a bit if my job keeps me late or if a bad day necessitates a dinner out, but I've got a pretty favorable work/life balance, in general.

BQOTD: Collard greens, beets, any number of other cooked vegetables. Yuck!

 

[Jules76126]

BQOTD: 'Junk Pizza' which has every topping and you pick off the ones you do not like. Horrible! You cannot pick off the ooze of green pepper taste- it contaminates everything it touches.

Totally agree! I hate green peppers