Fitting It All In–Guest Post |

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Michelle was one of my roommates for Healthy Living Summit and I could not be any happier to have met her. She has a smart wit and is wicked smart.

She loves running and my inspiration to fit it in. Read her guest post and you’ll see why.

This fall I began graduate school. Little did I know that I’d have no time for the next two years! Now you may think I’m exaggerating, but let me give you a little insight on how I live a typical day. After waking up at seven I eat breakfast, check my e-mail, and then hop on my bike to get into my office. On any given week day I have a morning class followed by project work and an afternoon class or lab. After that? Back to the office to continue working, of course! If I’m home by eleven o’clock then it is a good, slightly less stressful day.

In the past two months that I’ve been here I’ve learned how to weld, given 6 presentations, created some radical art projects, and lost weeks of sleep. I won’t deny that this is an absolutely amazing opportunity, but there is one thing in my life that I’ve really neglected. Exercise. Running in particular, since I am training for a marathon and all…

My marathon is less than three weeks away and I can honestly say that I haven’t adequately trained. There are those odd mornings that I have an hour off to run four or five miles or that long Saturday morning when I am able to fit in a long run, but I’ve cut down my training from five days a week to three at most.

So what is a girl to do? Well I’ve found that I need to keep my eye on the prize. I guarantee you that I will be running that marathon, in fact I will PR (since my last marathon was a bit dreadful). These past few weekends I warned all of my classmates that I’ll be spending four hours of my Saturday running, not working on projects. They seemed to understand my need for something other than work, I’m sure they all feel the same way these days. And I did it, 19 miles (even though I was shooting for 20). It was slower than I would have liked, but the fact that I could complete it without hitchhiking home is what really matters.

I shouldn’t complain. I’m truly living in paradise and having the time of my life.

Yes, I could run more. It also wouldn’t hurt if I had the time to get out of my office and meet new people. What I’ve found is that I really need to change my frame of reference. I need to stop worrying about fitting everything in and try to consider the amazing opportunities that I’m having on a daily basis. I get to work with some of the most brilliant minds in the design field and that surely trumps some of the other activities I could be participating it. My running isn’t improving in the process, but it also hasn’t lost its place in my life. Running and exercise will always be extremely important, I just need to remember that seizing every opportunity I have here may be even more important at this moment.

Send Michelle some support in completing her training.