I am not Superman. How do you fit it all in?

How do you have your cake and eat it to? Okay the answer to that is run a ton and you'll never think twice about that piece of cake.  But really how do fit in family time, running, cross training, working, school, volunteering, making sure the dog goes out and everyone is feed?

These are questions that I have been asking a lot lately as I find time to be Supermom, CEO of the family, train for a marathon, work and go to school.  I am lucky as my project management skills of scheduling everything has helped.  If it is not on the schedule it will not be done.  I have this down to when the dishes are done and have even scheduled bath night for my little guy.  But "life" still seems to get in the way.

Last week I had a trainer session before getting my son from school.  Not knowing that traffic was going to be a nightmare I had no idea how little time I had to run from the gym to the school.  When I got there the guilt trip started as he proceeded to inform me he was the last one there with another girl.

I had just read an article on in Runners World Magazine about how a structured schedule keeps you happy and healthy.  I knew I had to continue to work out with the trainer and I needed to ensure that pick up at school wasn't a guilt trip for me and a therapy session years from now for my son.  As the wife of a football coach, I knew my husband was out, so I enlisted my dad for his first ever carpool lane experience.  Like project management you have to delegate to others so that you can stay on track.  I know that this won't work for everyone.  My next options were changing the session to lunch time or making my husband leave football practice for a few minutes.  I was determined to get in this training session.

As it is starting to get cooler, multi-tasking to get the workout in always helps.  There is nothing like running next to my son's bicycle or having him do planks with me.  Of course at 4 he thinks planks are fun.  The Mayo Clinic gives advice on how to fit in exercise when you can't make it to the gym.  Anytime you can watch TV while moving will help you in the long run.  I also find that recording my thoughts on my iPhone while running also helps.  Yes, it sounds funny when you play it back but you don't miss things on the to do list and dictating that paper while running makes it a better paper with clear thoughts.

If all else fails wake up at 4:30 on a Saturday for an 8 mile run before everyone is up for the day.  You get the run in, everyone else sleeps and you still have time for family day.  Just remember that sleep is over rated.  That's another blog post for another day.

Now get out there and schedule your run.