Day in the Life: how I fit in both running and CrossFit

Today’s post shows a very typical day in the life with running and CrossFit, and how I fit them both in around a full-time job and blogging part-time. 

My Day Begins

5:05 AM alarms goes off. Hit snooze until 5:15 usually. 😉

• My wake-up time varies depending on how far I’m running, who I’m running with and where. I’ll do an example of an hour long run for this day, leaving from the country club parking lot, which is where I meet a lot of friends for a run (it’s flat-ish from there!). I rarely run from home since it’s so hilly and it’s hard to get in a lot of mileage in the area since I don’t feel safe running solo in the dark in some areas. If I wake up late, I’ll run on the treadmill at my apartment to save time.

5:15 drink 1 glass of water, drink 1 cup of coffee, eat 1/2 banana + peanut butter, make bed, put on running clothes, tell Maizey she is pretty and to keep sleeping. Read my daily devotional – I like to think about it as a I run. If the dishwasher is clean, I’ll empty it if I have time.

5:45 leave for run

6:00-7:05 Run. Afterwards, I get coffee from the club to drink on the way home (my favorite part of the run! 🙂 ) and eat a small snack in the car (usually a banana or some other fruit for a quick dose of carbs post-run).

Before Work, After Running

7:15 get home, take 1 L-Glutamine tablet

7:15 – 7:25 shower

7:30 – 7:45 Make & eat breakfast while my hair starts to air dry, check blog emails while I eat and respond to anything urgent. Clean up breakfast. (Lately, I’ve been eating avocado toast with eggs or oatmeal breakfast cakes.)

7:45 – 8:00 blow dry hair + put on makeup. I don’t usually dry my hair all the way but let it finish air drying while I walk Maizey unless it’s freezing out. My daily make-up routine is super simple so it takes only about 5 minutes. I use tinted foundation, cream blush (Hibiscus), mascara, eyebrow pencil, and lip balm (Twig is my favorite, daily natural color or I’ll use Rose for a little more pop).

8:00 – 8:20 take Maizey out. I’ll usually listen to a podcast or if she’s in a particularly slow walking mood, I’ll edit photos on my phone for later blog posts or Instagram posts while she sniffs in one spot for 5 minutes…or just randomly lays down in the parking lot to sunbathe.

8:25 leave for work. I’m lucky that I live super close to work and I’m usually at my desk within 10 minutes of leaving home, or a little longer if I stop for coffee. Sometimes I get in about 15 minutes later if I ran longer (or slept in a little oops). If it’s a short run day or a rest day, I’ll get into the office earlier.

Work Day

8:35ish Start my work day. Generally my mornings are free of meetings, so I use this time to clean out my inbox and hammer out work. Most days I have back to back meetings in the afternoons (anywhere from 3-5 hours of non-stop conference calls — seriously) so my mornings are precious for actually getting the work done that I meet about all afternoon. I work with multiple ad agencies and multiple internal partners to plan social campaigns for a large national company, so it’s just part of the job to meet meet meet.

11:30ish…Lunch. sometimes I take lunch early, depending on my meeting schedule. Other times I can’t get lunch until 1 or 2 (so I always have snacks with me). Other times, I end up eating at my desk during meetings (which I HATE). I function so much better if I’m able to take a break from my desk, even for 30 minutes. And since I live so close to home, I usually run home to eat and take Maizey out. I often eat leftovers or make a salad (like this one I ate on Wednesday). If time allows, I’ll do some dinner prep or stick something in the crockpot.

1:00 – 5:00 – meetings/working. If I have a break in meetings, I’ll try to get outside for a little sunshine and a 15 minute walk.

5:00-5:30ish Wrap-up and prioritize the next day’s work. This is my favorite time of the day because I find it SO stress-relieving and it helps me manage my workload. I start a new to-do list for the next day, listing out EVERYTHING I need to do, transferring items from the current day that I didn’t get to, and then I go through my inbox to list out items that require action from me. Then, I highlight and number the top 3 things I HAVE to get done the next day. When I come in the next morning, I know exactly where to start and focus my efforts. (This is also how I manage my personal to-do’s, which is what you see below. My work is confidential so I can’t show you that!)

I have a whole system with my to-do lists that I’ve used since I was a teenager. I think I picked it up with my Franklin Covey planner days!

5:30-6:00+ Leave work. When I leave just depends on the day and deadlines and if I’m doing CrossFit that night. If I’m buried in work, I’ll leave the office so I can come let Maizey out and then often log back in to wrap up work from home.

CrossFit

6:00 Get home, change into workout clothes and take Maizey potty. 

6:15 Head to CrossFit, usually picking up Tommy on the way.

6:30-7:30 CrossFit, drink a protein shake afterwards (currently this protein)

similar top, similar leggings, shoes, similar bra

After CrossFit, Dinner

7:45 Leave CrossFit, come home and start dinner. We’re working to try to leave the gym faster so we can eat dinner earlier.

7:50 – 8:30 Make & eat dinner. We usually don’t eat until 8:15-8:30, which I HATE. I have such a hard time falling asleep on a full stomach, but it’s just the reality of my schedule right now. (Tommy can tell you how much I hate eating late. I complain about it a LOT. Sorry love!) We always play Jeopardy while we eat. 🙂

8:45 – 9:00 Tommy cleans up the dishes (love him!). I check my blackberry generally while he cleans. I work with a lot of people on the West Coast so I typically check my blackberry once at night, just to make sure nothing has imploded. (And yes, I still have a blackberry – I hate it but it keeps me from compulsively checking work email since it’s such a pain to use. I could update to an iPhone but the blackberry keeps my bad habits at bay!) We try to have 15 minutes after cleaning up dinner to snuggle Maizey on the couch and just chat since we have such limited time together.

9:00 Tommy heads home and I take Maizey potty. 

Wind Down

9:15 – 10:00 prep coffee for the next morning, wash my face, check blog emails, respond to comments on Instagram, finish up a blog post if one is scheduled for the next day, fold laundry, and pick up my apartment.

10:00 Get in bed…but usually it’s 10:15-10:30. I read for 20 minutes (currently this) and try to have lights out by 10:30! Lately, it’s been 11. Working on this!

What else?

So, what you’ll notice is perhaps a lack of things:

• I RARELY watch TV other than having the Today show on during breakfast and the news on while I prep dinner. Sometimes I’ll catch up on a show if I’m on the elliptical or if I’m doing mindless blog clean-up tasks on the weekend.
• Tommy and I only have 1-2 hours together each day, which can be really hard. We try to have one dedicated date night a week where we can focus on each other and have a little more time together, and it’s something I look forward to all week.
• On my rest days or short-run days, I use the extra time in the mornings to work on the blog (prewrite posts, respond to emails) and take a little more time with my quiet time.
• If I’m not doing CrossFit at night, I use that time to work on blog stuff (catch up on emails, pre-write posts, edit photos) and take Maizey on a longer walk. Sometimes I’ll do RomWod or return phone calls (all my family is 2 hours behind me so it can be hard to find time to chat).
• I feel like I’m constantly working. Any free moment — even riding in the elevator — I’m working on something on my phone. I hate this and try not to, but I use any free time I can to catch up.
• I don’t sleep enough on longer run days. I’m trying to hard to get in bed earlier and on days I have a shorter run, I’ll sleep in a little. And I sleep in a little later (7 AM or so) on the weekends.
• On the weekends, I usually spent about 10 hours working on the blog. And, I try to relax a little bit more than I do during the week. 🙂

So when people ask how I “do it all”, my honest answer is, “I’m always working on something.” I often feel burned out. I feel like I never fully relax. It’s something I’m working on…but it’s really hard since there is so much I want to do and so much I enjoy doing, but there is only so much time in the day. But I bet that’s something we all struggle with in some form or fashion!

Let me know what questions you have!