Starting My New (Old) Routine

It's back to school time! While parents around the United States are singing the "Hallelujah Chorus," I'm buying a phone jail for my classroom so that I don't have to compete with "Fortnite" in the classroom.

Hey, Teacher: Did you REALLY think I was gonna read that short story?

Part of my back-to-school routine is switching up my regular running times and routes. During the summer, I am able to run whenever I get up in the morning, and my distances can vary between 5 miles and 10 miles, depending on how I feel that day. Now that I'm back to school, I have to get in all my miles before 5:30 AM. This makes my marathon training a little more challenging but still doable. I just have to adjust my wake up time to 4:20 AM. Here is my typical school year running routine:

Monday: yoga and possibly 1-2 miles of walking to warm up. Possible 2.5-3 miles of brisk walking in the evening during kids' Taekwon Do classes.

Tuesday: 4-5 miles on roads. Possible 2.5-3 miles of brisk walking in the evening during kids' Taekwon Do classes.

Wednesday: 4-6 miles on roads (6 if I get out of the house early enough and I do intervals or a tempo run)

Thursday: 4 miles on roads; 5 trail miles with Crooked River Trail Runners in the evening

Friday: Strength training and possibly 1-2 miles of walking to warm up

Saturday: 4-6 miles on Sand Run after housecleaning. If I'm too exhausted, 4-6 miles of alternating running and walking on the treadmill while watching Parks and Rec.

Saturday Evening: Do something to potentially mess up your long run the next morning.

Marta and I get our boogie on at the Silent Disco at PorchRokr Festival

Sunday: Long run leading up to 20 miles.

This Sunday I ran 16 miles on the Towpath with Marta, Pam, Steve, and Kelly. I was worried that I would struggle through this run because it's been about 3 weeks since I've run more than 10 miles, but I really enjoyed it!

Kelly, Me, Pam, Marta

Routines are really important to me because they give me something to hold onto when my schedule gets crazy (and it will). It's reassuring to me to know that I can still be confident when I run that Blue Line for the Akron Marathon because I will be prepared.

How do you deal with your work schedule and your running? Do you have to change it up during the year?

However/whenever you run, I hope you run happy, Peeps!

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