I got up early this morning to run.
With no school lunches to pack and no need to get the kids out the door on time, I’ve been sleeping until right before I need to get my kids on their zoom classroom meetings.
But a few days ago I realized that my life would probably be better if I got up an hour or so earlier and got a workout in before the day started.
With no place to go it seems like I could work out at any time. But my mid-morning workout routine of running or biking after the kids have been dropped off at school no longer works well.
The kids need me accessible in the morning to help with finding links for zoom calls, or passwords for remote learning websites. I am also in charge of lunch every day for four people, even if it’s just heating up leftovers.
I could exercise in the afternoon, but it’s helpful if I am available during the day to gently mitigate sibling disputes before they get too loud while Greg is on a conference call, or encourage the kids to get some fresh air if they start racing around the house shrieking in delight playing some new game they’ve invented that is as noisy as it is destructive.
It feels like my time should be really flexible since we’re all at home, but I’ve finally realized that working out during the day is hard. Many days I get up and don’t bother to shower because I have ambitious plans to go for a run or a bike ride, and then I end up never having the right block of time to do it. Or it hangs over my head until 4:00 and when I finally get around to it I’m racing the clock to make sure I can shower before I need to start dinner.
I realized that if I started getting up earlier and exercising before the day starts, I would start the day showered and energized and know for sure that I could get my workout in without sacrificing daily tasks to do it. Now I can use mid-morning to clean up from breakfast, supervise remote learning and prepare lunch without worrying about why I haven’t found time for a run. I can spend afternoons getting to laundry and housework and cleaning up from lunch and prepping dinner without trying to make an hour and a half slot for a bike ride and shower.
It also means I’ll hopefully fall asleep earlier and easier, something that’s hard in times of stress.
I’ve done this one day so far, and we’ll see how strong I am when the alarm goes off tomorrow. But as counterintuitive as it is to set an alarm when there’s “nowhere to go”, I think working out before breakfast is the best solution for me right now.
And hopefully that means I’ll catch up on my running!
I hope you are finding ways to exercise safely during these times, because it’s a great de-stressor. With our routines altered, it may be a good time to re-evaluate your schedule and make sure it’s working for you.
Stay well!