Make it a Family Outing
Out of the five, this is my favorite. There are just so many positives to this. I have convinced my family to go hiking with me, so not only am I getting “time on my feet”, I’m spending time with family and they are getting healthier too! My son is even willing to run with me from time to time, and when we were in Rome on holiday, we’d wake up and get a quick 5k in running by the Tiber River, passing the Castle Sant’Angelo, and the Vatican. I’ve had a lot of great experiences with my family doing activities like this that we will remember forever!
Lunch Run
This is another favorite of mine! Even if you sneak in a quick 5k or 3 miler at lunch, it really adds up. Some quick and dirty math: 48 weeks x 5 days x 3 miles = 720 miles in a year! That’s with 48 weeks instead of 52! I am fortunate and this is a possibility for me often enough and I realize that not everyone can do this. BUT, if this is a possibility for you, you are missing a great opportunity to get some quality runs in with ZERO impact to your family time!
Commute
Stay with me here, because I know a lot of people say I work 20 miles away, I can’t do this! Well; you commute to a lot more places then just work. I’ll give you an example, we had a busy weekend ahead and I knew that I was going to have to get tricky to get my runs in, so what did I do? I ran from our house to my daughter’s soccer game. It was simple; I left 30 minutes before my family, got about 4 miles in, met them at the game, and then drove home with them! Take a minute and think of all of the opportunities throughout the year you have to do this. You’re welcome.
Errands
Here is another little hack that I use. I try turning my honey do lists in to runs. This works best when the errands are small so that you can fit everything you need to do them in to a running or biking vest. Recently, I needed to return a hat and my wife needed me to pick up a scrip from the pharmacy, so I put on my vest and ran downtown to do the errands. I got about 5 miles in and my wife was happy because I picked up her scrip. Win-Win!
Wake-Up
Now we’re back to the hard cold reality of life. I am not a fan of this one, but it always works. Get your ass out of bed. That’s right, wake up before everyone else and go get your crap done! I do this on weekends, before work, and even on vacation. Yes, it kind of sucks, but there is also some good things as well. We were vacationing in Greece and I would get up everyday before my family and run 10k. I saw the sunrise and it was beautiful! Before I would go and wake them up for breakfast, I would have a wonderful cup of Greek coffee poolside all by myself with no other patrons. It was quiet and peaceful.
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Any hacks you’d like to add? Hit the comments section!
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