Beth over at Shut Up and Run! did a great post today, giving us a glimpse (okay, more than a glimpse, there was poop talk) into her life and asking her readers to do the same. Since I know you spend most of your day wondering about me (don’t you???), I’m happy to provide you with more detail than you could possibly care to know.
3:53 am. Wake up and look at the clock. My alarm is set to go off at 4, so I have the choice to get up now or sleep just long enough for the alarm to scare the crap out of me in seven minutes. I choose to get up now. Like a zombie in search of brains, I head to the kitchen for coffee and turn on the computer on my way there. I check email, Facebook and blogs while I drink my coffee and eat breakfast. All too soon, I have to get ready for work.
4:55 am. Arrive at work for my 5 am – 10 am shift. I’m a fitness coach at a health club, which mostly involves listening to women bitch about how they can’t lose weight while they’re half-assing their way through a workout. Okay, that’s not entirely true. There are plenty of members who are serious about their health, which is the part of my job that I love, but there are also a lot of people who just want me to give them a magic pill that’ll make them “thin.” Ugh! I’m on my feet the whole time I’m at work because there literally isn’t a chair for me to sit in, even when I’m doing computer/paperwork stuff. One of these days I’m going to wear my pedometer to work and see how many thousands of steps I take in a five hour shift.
10:10 am. Eat a Clif bar in my car on the way home so I can hopefully have enough energy to get through today’s tempo run.
10:15 am. Stop at Walmart on my way home because my headphones crapped out on my last run. I’m so glad I remembered this before I got home.
10:50 am. I’ve gone to the bathroom, chatted briefly with The Hubs about his morning, changed my clothes, made a Nuun, and tested out the new headphones, so I am out the door for my 7-miler. The one mile warmup feels like I am going to die. My legs are like wooden planks and simply won’t turn over at anything that feels like a running pace. I turn a corner into the long part of my run and it’s a headwind. I briefly consider bagging the run, but then my Garmin beeps for the five miles at tempo pace (8:15) and suddenly I’m flying and everything in the world is just the way it’s supposed to be. Not only do I make my tempo goal pace, I finish the whole 7 miles with an 8:14 average pace, sweaty and happy.
Noon. Now it’s time to scramble through a shower, shovel down my lunch and have a quick conversation with The Hubs about his nutrition plan for this weekend’s Half Ironman. He is debating the idea of trying out something new. I know it’s just his race nerves talking, but still, I have no patience for this nonsense. In my really nice, gentle, supportive-wife voice I ask, “Are you effing kidding me?” He changes his mind and decides to go with products he has used with success in training.
1 pm. The Hubs heads off to work and I’m off to volunteer in Little Boy’s classroom. I adore Little Boy’s teacher and am glad to help out any way I can. Today’s task is clerical and brainless and I’m happy to be sitting down.
3 pm. Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Little Boy and I grab a snack and chat for a bit about his day. He was chosen to read a short passage about the Constitution at tomorrow’s school assembly and he is completely stoked about it. Little Boy has been in speech therapy for articulation issues since he was four years old and has made enormous progress this past six months. The news that his teacher recommended him for a public speaking gig brings tears to my eyes.
4 pm. Little Boy hunkers down to do his homework and I read blogs in the other room sit attentively beside him to supervise. Thank goodness there’s no math. We practice spelling for tomorrow’s test (piece of cake), memorize the fifty states in the order in which they became states (#18 and #19 are the –anas, Lousi and Indi), and correct a paragraph for capitalization and punctuation errors. *whew* I’m still smarter than my fifth grader, but only by a little.
4:30 pm. I vacuum the house (more or less, mostly less. But at least I got rid of the visible layer of dog hair on the carpet.) and start thinking about dinner. Strangely, staring into the pantry doesn’t magically produce a brilliant meal plan, so I whip out an old stand-by: grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Boring, I know, but at least it’s not frozen pizza (again).
5:10 pm. Big Boy arrives home from school after cross-country practice, starving and hot. I haven’t seen him since I kissed him goodnight last night, which is my very least favorite part of my early shift at work. We sit down to eat right away and I hear all (or at least some) about his day at school. Cross country practice is going really well, and he’s super excited that he’s able to keep up with the “fast kids.” He doesn’t appear to be nervous yet about this weekend’s meet and I’m glad for that.
5:25 pm. With dinner scarfed down, it’s time for Big Boy to get started on his homework. I clean up the kitchen a little and scamper to the computer to check email and Facebook like a teenage girl.
6:10 pm. In the car again, this time we’re headed to Karate lessons. I’m a bad mom and drop them off at the door, while I sit in the car and return calls from my mom and my sister. I catch the last 15 minutes of class, though, so I can tell them how great they looked tonight and actually mean it.
7:30 pm. Home for the night. It’s starting to get dark out and I’m fading fast. Big Boy finishes the last of his homework and picks out his outfit for tomorrow’s “Nerd Day” – it’s Spirit Week at his school. There is much laughter and silliness as he tries on a plaid shirt buttoned up to his neck, plaid shorts, knee socks, dress shoes and a pair of plastic glasses. Oh, my!
8 pm. Snacks are eaten, teeth are brushed and inspected, many kisses are given and finally Big Boy and Little Boy are off to bed for quiet reading time. It’s 8:33 right now and if I go to bed when I finish typing this post, I’ll get about seven hours of sleep before I have to get up and do it all again. Okay, not quite all of it – I only volunteer one day a week. Today was a really busy day, but it was still a good one.
How was your day??
Megan says
WOw! That seems like A LOT to do in one day. You narrated your day very nicely – i enjoyed reading it!
Laura says
Was it just me or was that quite the entertaining read? In all seriousness. On another topic – I can’t believe you get up so early!
Patrick Mahoney says
Pretty cool and interesting…cool read. perhaps I will give this a shot.
track coach and adorable wife says
Wowza, you really pack it in! I do wonder what others do sometimes so this was interesting! mine would be too boring to post! it is not at all that structured.
The Green Girl says
I love reading stuff like this. I find the mundane the most fascinating.
You sure pack a lot in a single day!
ajh says
I am still agog at the time you get up – every day pretty much I guess? wow! You have a great mix of work, time for you and family.
Middle Name Marie says
Moms are such busy creatures. I don’t know if I will ever be able to be one…
Anne says
Wow! That is an early wake up…I kept waiting for the “take a nap” part of your day to come up 🙂
ann says
I was totally waiting for the “nap” portion of your day. I was tired just reading that! You are one busy mom!
I’m a speech therapist and LOVE that your little one is doing some public speaking – congrats to him on all his hard work!
ShutUpandRun says
Great recap, thanks for playing along!! This line cracked me up, “mostly involves listening to women bitch about how they can’t lose weight while they’re half-assing their way through a workout.” I bet that really is true. What full day for you. I am just impressed you inspect your kids’ teeth after they brush. Wow. Fun to read about a day in the life of YOU!!
judy says
Wow I need to do this. I think it may give me some perspective about my time usage. Thanks for posting it was fun to read:)
Laurie says
Like Beth, I love the description of your time at work. I’ve been to a few of those classes, you’re not joking. 🙂 I love to get a glimpse into other people’s daily happenings, makes me not feel so sorry for myself. 😛 You are one busy mom!
Aimee (I Tri To Be Me) says
Great post! I liked reading about your day! It’s just amazing what gets packed into an entire day…wow!
Julie says
Reading about what goes on in your daily routine makes me feel better about mine! My life is freaking crazy:) This was a fun post! Women and moms are so busy but we make it look easy!