There’s this old saying; “Life is what happens when you make other plans.” And boy howdy is that ever true.
If you’ve been reading here a while, you know that I like to make plans and schedules. Doing so helps me stay on top of everything I need and want to do. I’m a busy person, with a lot going on, and I rely on my plans and schedules to keep myself on track.
But I’ve also come to learn over the last 7 years or so that the best laid plans of mice and mamas often do not come to fruition.
Take my exercise plan for the summer – running and karate practice 3 days a week; karate classes and water aerobics classes 2 days a week; hard core morning workouts followed by light afternoon workouts; plenty of outdoor time with the girls, to include yard work and gardening. Yep, I’ve got a schedule all right.
Of course, I haven’t managed to follow it yet.
To some extent, I have done the things I planned to do. I’ve been pretty good about making it to karate classes. I have no choice there, since I have that test coming up in August. Water aerobics, I make it there at least once a week and last week I actually made it to both early morning classes! But the light afternoon workouts, the running and practice sessions, and most of the gardening have not been happening. And honestly, I’m not surprised, nor am I going to beat myself up over it.
As much as I plan, I also know that I never truly know how well a schedule is going to work until I try it. When I made my schedule, I had not realized that I would be caterpillar farming with the kids, or that I’d be spending quite so much time traveling to and from play dates. The plan had been to have the kids’ friends come over hear to play while I worked in the yard, but those other families have their own schedules to deal with, and more often than not they will suggest a meeting at this museum or that park. The travel to and from these places eats into my schedule like nobody’s business, but my kids need their playtime with their friends, so I cut stuff I had planned to give them what they need.
Then there’s all the appointments we’ve had to juggle. Car repairs, doctor appointments, vet appointments, hair appointments. I swear, at least one day every week since school let out, I’ve had to be somewhere for some appointment, and some days I’ve had to be three places at once! That really kills a day.
As for the early running, switching to the Vibram shoes has slowed me down. Don’t get me wrong, I love those shoes! Running in them has eliminated most of the knee and hip pain I’d been experiencing previously. However, my calf muscles and Achilles tendons are still getting used to this new way of running, so I’ve had to take more days off between runs than I had planned.
Plus there’s the fact that I had not counted on being so damned worn out by all the chasing after the kids and by the combined karate/water aerobics classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When I’m that tired, it’s kind of hard to get up early in the morning and go for a run.
So what do I do? What I’ve always done. Stick to the schedule when I can, and always be on the lookout for opportunities to exercise when I can’t. If the kids go swimming, I can bounce around in the pool with them, using the Pixie as a sort of wriggling, giggling water aerobics weight/partner while Princess swims in circles around us. If it’s late in the afternoon and too hot to go outside, I can pop in Wii Sports Resort and work up a sweat sword fighting with one of the girls. Or I can set up Just Dance and we can all shake our groove thang.
And some days, I just need to take time off to rest. I’ve found the running is easier if I allow two days between runs. My calves are recovering faster after each run, so long as I allow them time to recover.
So I had this exercise plan for the summer, and it’s sort of been blown out of the water. It’s okay, I’ll deal. And if you’re having similar problems, think about ways you can deal too. Because remember, flexibility is always a key component of any workout plan.
Yeah, I know, bad pun, but still very true.
