How can I be a responsible adult and still run high mileage?

It might be for a little while. You might be able to get doubles in on the weekends. But, when your kids get older, they require less supervision and it's easier to sneak out for a 30-45 minutes in the evening.

Up your am mileage? go out a 5:30 am and do 12-13 miles?

If she is to the jog stroller do that at night for 3-4 miles?

Go tot he track with the family and play a game with the kids on the rest.

How old are they?

What are your running goals?

Big secret.

Run at lunchtime.

That's how I handled it.

Ran a short morning run and a medium lunch time run. I could get in 10-12 miles a day if I wanted to.

It's known as the 2/3rds rule. In college it is girls/school/running. You cannot maintain all three and not expect one to suffer. In the adult life you replace school with work, and girls can stay the same, or in your case be replaced by a family. Sorry to say, but one of them has to suffer. Make the right choice!

Disagree with the 2/3rds rule...

If you know how to balance yourself and know what will make you good in all three departments of your life and what is just fluff you can pull it off with minimal stress.

Here is an example for my senior spring semester:

Running: Great senior track experience (AA, conf champ, conference meet record, multiple PRs. D3 mind you but still)

Girls: That Spring started what has been the most rewarding relationship in my life, and still is.

School 18 hours 3.33 GPA, completing two majors and a minor and having to do both capstone projects, and scoring an excellent internship.

Of the three, academia was my weakest link that spring, but it still wasn't too bad.

Fast forward 15 months later...

I have to agree with the above posters in regards to weekends and lunch runs. If you want to maximize your time with your Girlfriend/Wife or friends, you have to know how to play your cards.

Lunch Runs are great. If you can wake up and be sure to get in 8-12 in the mornings and another 4-5 at lunch, you'll be golden. You can come home right after work and relax and spend time with those you care about. Weekends are great for long runs and doubles.

If you need to do a workout one weeknight a week, it makes it much easier if every other run is done at times you wouldn't get to see people anyways so it makes it seem like less of a time consumer.

Keep Running!

kicker wrote:

Big secret.

Run at lunchtime.

That's how I handled it.

Ran a short morning run and a medium lunch time run. I could get in 10-12 miles a day if I wanted to.

No shower at my office, but I am going to try to figure this one out...

One other issue is that we do a lot of business lunches and part of my job is being a face man. I am often asked to attend BD meetings with the sales team. I work in Advertising and seem to be the only creative guy the sales team is confident enough to put in front of an unsigned client. Blessing/Curse.

I know I can up the morning runs if I need to, but I guess it seems hard to do in the long run. I can do that for a race or something, but I just enjoy the feeling of running high mileage. It makes me feel good and the easiest way to continually log high mileage is to double.

With kids and work, it is just too damn hard to wake up every morning at 5am and log 15 miles. I am not being a p*ssy, I am just being honest.

My goals are to feel good and race well. My PR days are behind me. I have no major running goals other than being on the trails. It is selfish, I know. That is why it is suffering, b/c I place a higher priority on my family.

That said, I am hoping to find an extra hour in the day. I appreciate all of the help.

If your only goal is to feel good and race well I fail to see how you can't do that only running 8-10 miles a day in the morning.

[quote]Patches wrote:

Disagree with the 2/3rds rule...

If you know how to balance yourself and know what will make you good in all three departments of your life and what is just fluff you can pull it off with minimal stress. /quote]

I don't mean to be a jerk, but I think to be truly excellent at three things is really hard.

Most jobs reward people for time put in. So if you are spending a lot of time on running, and on family, then you fail on the job front - there is only so much fluff to be cut.

Time is the killer here, not quality. No matter how efficient or talented, work takes time, fitness takes time, family takes time.

I fully agree with the 2 out of 3 rule.

In reality, one should only be able to be awesome at one thing at a time, but most people's idea of "awesome" is relaxed enough that one can usually be pretty good at two things at once.

With all due respect to you - and much respect is warranted - you have not clue how hard it gets once a family is in the mix. If you are a good dad, you really need to be present. You will find that 5am on a Wednesday morning, you might be needed to watch your 3 year-old daughter who decided she wants to get up and watch Noggin.

Most of us family men balanced a pretty intense schedule in college as well. IMHO, 2/3 is bullshit until you have a family. You have so much time in college, training was so easy back then (in retrospect, obviosuly).

haha YO wrote:

If your only goal is to feel good and race well I fail to see how you can't do that only running 8-10 miles a day in the morning.

Because he likes running 100mpw.

Can't you understand that? No? doesn't surprise me, especially since you hate the one-legged wrestler from ASU. How mean are you?

The time we spend with people and the relationships we develop is more memorable than anything else.

When you have a family you have to give up things you like. Sorry, that's life.

I was speaking more generally to those who don't have as many obligations such as kids, but rather were trying to balance relationships, running, and work. There have been many threads about that in the past and I was saying that it can be done to balance 3 things. At the end of the day it comes down to what you want. I've skipped runs to spend time with those I love and not felt guilty about it even in my most intense training.

I won't argue that adding kids to the dynamic bring it up a level. It's more like adding a 4th dimension, and in reality it would have to be come the 3/4ths rule. (Kids, Relationship, Work, Running)

Granted yes, children are a different monster. I grew up taking care of three younger sibling and know how much of a chore that can be when I didn't have other responsibilities in my life besides being a kid. It definitely is a time consumer.

Knowing not everything can be planned perfectly in life, I think by the time I have kids, I'd be more willing to hang 'em up and be content running 40-50 miles a week for fun as opposed to putting in the 80-110 I have been lately. Again, that would be back to the 3/4ths rules where running would have to suffer.

More power to those who can do it, and find time.

Keep Running!

Here is a wife's perspective: I am an avid runner and have always somehow gotten in my runs, first with a baby jogger, then with a double baby jogger, and eventually with the double and the oldest peddling along on her bike. I also would run extremely early before the kids were awake and my husband hadn't left for work. My husband is a cyclist. He puts his work before family most of the time and then trains on his bike 4 to 5 days a week. But here is the thing.....a lot of his training takes up all day (weekends) or into the evening hours during spring and summer. I juggle the four kids and all of their activities by myself. I didn't mind for a long time but I have to admit it really bothers me now. He has missed out on so much of the kids and their activities. The kids don't even expect him to be there a lot of the time. Soooo....be careful in your choices now. Family is so much more important than a few more miles. We have grown apart as a couple and I am struggling not to resent him. Plus he isn't as close to his kids as he could be had he taken more of an active role in their lives. Don't mess up your relationship with your family just because you want to run a few more miles.

why can't you take the stroller with you on your second run and give your wife a break? Or convince your wife to change to an afternoon run and run with her and the kids?

I hereby refute the so-called 2/3 rule by invoking the example of Haile Gebrselassie.

Why do some people act like having children is the end of the world? Run for an hour when you wake up. Run for an hour after work. Your wife can't handle them alone for 1 hour in the PM without it creating major stress in the marriage? Jeez.

I think in one of George Sheehan's books, if I remember correctly, he said a person has time to do three things, and that's about it. In this case it would be running, family, and work.

As a mom of two I run 90-95 miles a week. I get up everyday before 5 and get my run in before my husband leaves for work. Yes, it is exhausting but it is what it is. I rarely double but when I do it's with the kids at the track playing soccer on the infield. You do not have to do doubles if you are doing 90 miles, no hard fast rule about that.