Day 43: Improving My Marathon/Life Balance (Update #1)

So far, balancing marathon training this time with the rest of life is going well. I wrote a few weeks ago that one of the reasons I chose the Galloway program is that I hoped the spacing of weekend long runs would allow a more flexibility with other activities, since I don’t have double digit long runs every weekend.

So far I’m finding that to be the case. Yesterday I ran a bit over eight-and-a-half miles, including four mile repeats under 8:05. This was an excellent challenge and by no means easy. But eight-and-a-half miles is hardly a long run, nor is it what I was doing by this point last year. Yesterday I was able to handle the rest of my day, including a two-hour Zoom meeting that I led part of and dinner and a play with my mom, without excessive fatigue or strain. The night before, Friday night, my wife and I went to see some friends in a play. And today we went out to the movies.

In other words, I had a fairly active weekend, and my running schedule didn’t take away from enjoying myself at other times. This is a win! It means that the strategy of doing activities on lighter running weekends is working. And I plan to continue it, starting with taking it easy next weekend, when I am going seventeen miles!