Where Do You Find the Time

Whenever people ask me about the running I do, questions range from types of training I do? What do I eat? How long does a 100 mile race take? However, almost invariably, the question that is always asked is “Where do you find the time to train”? Surprisingly it is not hard to find the time. The hard part is to use the time wisely. Here are some thoughts on how to find the time to train for whatever goal you desire.

Simplicity is the absolute key to this whole issue. If life gets too complicated, we lose the ability to focus on our goals. Looking back on my past, the times when I was spread really thin with commitments, I accomplished very little in terms of becoming a better racer or a better person.
What does simplicity in life mean? My coach, Gordo Byrn, recommends figuring out what your top priorities in life are. This creates a sort of “time budget” for life. If you know what you want to achieve, you know where to put your energy and time. For me, my priorities in life right now are:

1 Be the absolute best father and husband that I can be.
2 Run a sub 24 hour time at the Angeles Crest 100 mile race this September.
3 Work just hard enough to pay our bills and put a little money away each month.

How do I find the time to train. Aside from sleeping eight hours a night, I put the other sixteen hours each day into those three priorities? I bet most of us would come up with lists of deeply personal and meaningful items. It is hard to believe anyone would put something like “I want to watch 15 hours of TV each week” or “I want to surf the internet for 10 hours each week”. Why then do so many people watch a couple of hours of TV every night or surf the internet for an hour or two each day? Sure a little of these things is a nice diversion. The key is that heavy doses of these types of things can easily undermine the time and energy that is available to achieve life priorities.

What are the top three or four priorities in your life? Make sure they are what you want to devote your time to. Put them on in a list on a piece of paper. Do your actions and time expenditures jive with your priorities? They might not right now, but mindfulness of your goals will align your actions with your priorities.

Learning by Observation

This is my first entry into the blog world. I have wanted to write for a few years but have procrastinated doing it. I find that writing is a great way to crystalize my own thoughts. It also serves as a vehicle to exam issues in my own life. The content of this blog will largely revolve around big run training, ultramarathoning, ironman triathalons, and self discovery.

Last week I had one of the biggest training weeks of my career. I ran a total of 106 miles mostly on trails in the mountains (and ate about 80 GUs). I am getting ready for the Angeles Crest 100 mile trail race in September from Wrightwood to Pasadena. I do the vast bulk of my training alone except for a weekly run with a good friend. I have a lot of time to think while running . Last week, I took the time to consider the benefits of parents leading an active lifestyle. In particular what benefits do my children get from my seemingly self absorbed ultraendurance lifestyle.
The big issue for me has always been achieving balance. Balance between family, running, and work. Thankfully, my job is one that allows me to work as much or as little as I want. My only limiter is earning enough for our family to live on. The balance between family and running has always been much more difficult. Zorayda, my wife is very supportive of my running. I cannot recall a time when she ever gave me anything less than her full support. She always makes it happen for me. Getting me out the door for a run, picking up the kids so I can get a bigger run in after work, whatever it takes she is always there. Though not as time consuming, I have always given her the space she needed to pursue her interest in yoga. Then comes the issue of the kids. We have two awesome kids, Matthew age seven, and Charlotte age four. We are also expecting a third child anyday now.

I have always had a difficult time achieving mental harmony between spending time with them and with running enough volume to race well. As they have grown, I have seen changes in my attitude. When they were younger, the rate of change in their development was so fast, I would really hate to go out for a even just one long run. Rational or not, it generated a lot of guilt on my part for what I was missing with them and made running seem like a selfish act. I think this is what led me to almost stop racing ultras altogether for a couple of years.

As they have grown, I have come to see my running as adding benefit to their lives. Sure it is time away from them, but now I am realizing there is a lot of positve that is rubbing off on them. They are both active kids with aspirations to run or bike big races one day (more Matt than Charlotte). Matt is already developing a love for big endurance rides on his bike and three mile runs. For Charlotte, she is always wanting to ride her bike with me or go for a shorter but real run in the neighborhood. They both have been exposed to a decent diet from my wife and I. Yes they eat some junk, but they know about and consume a proper diet with protein, water, fruits, veggies, and eggs (no soda). So for right now, I see these as the tangible benefits of maintaining an active lifestyle. As they grow, I hope they will find other values from endurance sport that can be applied to their lives. In the future I would like to see the following be examples of what Matt and Charlotte can learn from my pursuit of endurance sports.

1 Goal setting. Picking a goal no matter how hard or uncomprehensible it might seem and finding a way to achieve it. I think that commitment is a natural extension of this as well.
2 The value of hard work compounded by years. Doing the right things day in and day out will yield results over a lifetime. This is a concept that I lose sight of from time to time, but I think is so important to remember. Keep in mind, Rome was not built in a day.
3 Leading a life that is full of exploration and experience. It is so easy to throw our hands in the air and say “that would be a neat hobby but there is no time”. I hope my children will see that there are twenty four hours in a day, we need to sleep about eight of them and there is a lot of time leftover to seek out what life has in store for us.

So does an active lifestyle provide direct benefit to our children? The answer is an resounding YES! We can choose to lecture our kids on the concepts that relate to a healthy lifestyle, or we can teach them by example. Any thoughts on how to teach your children or children you know by example today?