Deer Parents of LetsRun, how do you get your runs in while juggling a family?

During the newborn stage, until a regular sleep pattern was established, I just ran when I could and accepted the fact that that season of life wasn’t going to be an optimal training period. Once the kids were in a regular pattern with sleeping I scheduled my runs around their sleeping. I was also content with the fact that my training only allowed me to be a competitive age group winning hobby jogger in local 5Ks. The time for focusing on me and me alone, in terms of running and racing, was in high school and college.

It was a little tougher when my kids were toddlers, but now they are 11 and 14. During the summer they sleep until 10AM, so I have plenty of time to run.

Days which they do have to get up early for sports or volunteering, my wife usually takes on the parental duties, but she stays at home while I work. I make dinner and drive the kids where they need to go in the evenings. Team effort makes it pretty manageable.

I can also get in 6-7 miles on my lunch break during late fall to early spring.

I didn’t like the jogging stroller, but I used it when necessary back in the day.

I always ran in the morning while my family was sleeping and/or just rising.

I would get up at 4:45 and be out the door by 5:05 and I was able to get in 6-8 miles before leaving for school (I taught) at 7:00.

I'm very lucky in that I live at the bottom of a 200 meter hill and could do hill repeats of various distances and it's 409 meters around my block- I would actually do some short speed workouts.

This didn't detract from time with my family- as on non-school days if we planned something.

Have 3 kids. A lot of what has been said here is good. I would boil it down as follows:

-Accepting less sleep is key. You can pretty much always get up early enough (if willing) to run before your kids wake. Mine are early risers and I still manage it. Go to bed early.
-Consistency is key. You have a million excuses not to run that didn’t exist pre-kids. Don’t give in and get your run in. Don’t think or procrastinate, just do it. Getting out the door or on the treadmill is 90% of the battle.
-Buy a treadmill and running stroller. Allows me to run when my wife is gone and kids are sleeping or even when they’re not sleeping. Only caveat is that 2-3 kids changes the stroller game. I used to do 8 milers with my oldest when we only had one. Was great as long as we had snacks and hit the park at the end.
-Run during work hours. Skip your lunch, go in 45 minutes later, leave a little early. No one really notices as long as you produce.

Which stories are you referring to? Jack and The Beanstalk? Cinderella?

Great stuff. For me, not being laid up on the couch is key. When I was running without a family, I never realized how much "running" spilled over into the rest of my day. If I was exhausted because I ran too hard, or had to ice my ankle, or stretch a long time, this was all "time away" from my dad duties. Being inconsistent by drawing out "your time" can definitely breed resentment from your spouse. Don't underestimate the toll of that! The best MO is to walk in the door from running and be ready to go. Sometimes my wife will ask me if I ran that morning, or even "have you been running this week?" and this is just about perfect.

This may sound oppressive, but here are the serious upsides that I've found:

1. If I don't have to talk about running, defend my running, squeeze it in, etc., I'm much more likely to keep it going. And I can share it as a high point with my family.

2. The "don't get laid up on the couch or have to ice anything" mentality makes you much more consistent. It keeps you running within yourself, and keeps you healthy.

Just about the same story for me. Then I got to run with my kids when they were old enough, and they became decent high school and college runners. They now have kids old enough to run and I recently got to do a 5 miler with my son and grandson. Running continues to provide a wonderful connection to my kids and grand kids. Racing locally and being competitive in my age group remains as much fun as ever.

I’d echo a lot of what the others said..

1. early mornings runs.

2. Running strollers

3. consistency.

my husband and both trained for the Chicago marathon a few years back when we had kids 8mth, 2, and 4.. it was challenging but doable. Date nights became Saturday morning long runs and our sitter would be at our house by 7AM and we’d be running out the door for our long runs together/breakfast.

This.

Mission is accomplished when you get put in a solid week of running and the wife doesn't even realize you've been gone X amount of hours.

The part about jumping directly into duties is key. If you take an hour after your run to sit around and recover then your 60min run just turned into a 120min run.

She is not over-bearing at all. There are times when I am meeting a buddy for a run that may require me to leave before the older kid is in bed. She totally supports that. I CHOOSE to run when my kids are asleep because I like being with them.

Doe!

Be prepared if your baby/child is in daycare. There are times when they'll be bringing home the plague every other week. Not only does it sweep through the household, but it tends to dramatically impact everyone's sleep schedule. Understand that there will be times when your training will be impacted by factors outside of your control.

Divorce

5AM

Which means being disciplined enough to go to sleep at 9PM. It’s not for everyone.

I only kept running long enough to show my kids how to do it. After that, I concentrated on giving them the advantages I never had while growing up. Now my kid who decided to run is much faster than I ever could have been.

Let's say you run about 10 minute mile pace. Can your spouse not watch the kids for 30 minutes for you to run 3 miles? Or can you not delay picking up for daycare for 30 minutes after work? Or can you not have a treadmill and force your kids to hangout in the room with your treadmill for a half hour? You can run over 20 miles per week by just dedicating 30 minutes to running per day. That's not a lot, and most people don't run 20 miles per week. Barely bump that up to 40 minutes and slightly longer one day over the weekend and you're talking 30+ miles per week. Run a little faster and you're at 40 miles per week.

Give your wife equal (or greater) time to do whatever she wants, and be proactive about it. If it takes you 65 minutes to run and take a shower, etc., then go to her and say, "Hi. Go have 65 minutes to do whatever you want." Then handle everything that needs to be done around the house during that time. Find a chore to do during that time. Don't wait for her to say "I need a break", or "where's my free time".

Also be flexible. Don't give the impression that running is higher priority.

Not sure. It sounds complicated doe.