Taking opportunities

and making opportunities...

In the last few weeks, since I have been back at work, I have found that life has been incredibly busy - prepping classes, doing stuff for the house build, getting small people to all of their places, beginning my next uni paper, co-ordinating cricket things*... These are all things that I enjoy doing, they are all very satisfying, but they all take a lot of time!

Having started again, again, with a burst of motivation, I have been wanting to keep things going, but to fit things in around all that stuff seemed almost impossible. Then I thought to myself that actually, the small people are not so small any more, they do not need me to be there all of the time, and things like sports practices are pretty boring really...

A few weeks ago I decided to test my theory. The blue small person had three weeks of football trials of a Wednesday afternoon, for just over an hour, surely I could fit a sneaky 5km in there? So I put my gear in the car in the morning and when we got to the football club and he got into his gear, I got into mine as well, and went off for a trot. I did question my sanity, as it was around 30 degrees, and I did walk the last k, but it felt good, and it worked. The blue small person didn't care that I wasn't there to watch him, either. And I did it the following week too. 

By the third week, on the Wednesday I was knackered and feeling a bit unwell, so I postponed with myself. On Thursdays the pink small person has cricket practice. It's not so local as most of our activities so, seeing as there was nothing else that I could be doing at the same time, and there is time in between to get changed at home, I decided to see what I could manage at a different venue. I don't know the area that well, so I just set off. I enjoyed the exploring just as much as the run, especially when I came around a corner and had a view all the way down the harbour to the city! 

I've also been sneaking a quick couple of kms in of a Monday evening. At the start of the week I am (generally) not so tired, so although we don't get home from the the pink small person's dancing until quarter to six, I figure that seeing as the husband doesn't get home from work till 7, I have a window then too, that I can exploit a bit. That run is generally a small one because I'm really not ready for the stairs or the hills around home, but it fits neatly into that slot and I just feel like I am keeping things ticking over.

And then this morning, I decided to be a bad mother. I have been very virtuous about watching all of the pink small person's cricket games, scoring some of them even, but even a twenty-twenty game takes three hours... As it was such a lovely morning, and I hadn't managed anything since my fitness class on Tuesday, I decided that seeing where she was playing was relatively flat, I would go and have an explore there too. I had no idea where I was going, as the game was in a part of the city I hardly ever go to and not on the main roads, but I set off in a likely direction to see what I could see. And again, I found another amazing view, had a casual trot around some nice suburbs, and even got back in time to see the pink small person bat (which she did very well). She didn't mind that I hadn't been there (although she was a bit grumpy that I then fell asleep on the sideline and didn't see her team get their second win of the season, oops) and I now feel that I can do all the stuff that has to be done of a weekend without resenting it.

Fitting more small bits of activity in around all the other things rather than trying for one or two longer runs when there just is too much to be doing seems to be working for me, for several reasons:

• I don't feel pressured if I don't get out there. I know there are other small bits of time that I can steal later on down the week if I need to.

• I am more consistent in just getting out there; and because I don't have to look for a bigger piece of time, I actually feel that I am doing more overall.

• I am building my fitness; if I know it is a shorter run, I can push it a bit quicker, but if I don't have to worry about it, I can just trot along and see how far I get. I think when I do the same run or series of runs in the same area, and I get to know them all really well, I don't really push myself, but changing things up a bit and not knowing my course challenges me.

I am still waiting to get to the point where life might slow down a bit. I'm hoping that it might even happen soon, although I am definitely not holding my breath on that one. 

In the meantime, I feel that I am making the time I have work for me, because I am still getting all of the things done that need to be done*, but not at the expense of the things I want to do. The things that I am doing for me.

*You will notice (more than once) that I don't mention housework or anything like that; no-one can do everything, so I just don't.

#fitnessgoals #healthgoals #healthandfitness #chaos? #opportunities