LOLZLetter 267 | Finding Balance: Juggling Fitness, Work, and Life
With Aquene, an information manager and librarian
Welcome.
This week starts the Balancing Working and Training newsletter series. Selfishly, I started this a couple of years ago to learn ways to try and make running and working full time, actually work. Plus family! Plus other hobbies! I've enjoyed learning about people's careers and how they balance training and work because it's not easy!
This week I'm chatting with Aquene, an information manager and librarian in Ohio.
Where do you live? South Euclid, OH (a suburb of Cleveland)
What is your job? I'm an Information Manager & Librarian at a mid-sized law firm. In my case, that means I manage our library resources and client files.
What are your usual work hours? 9am-4:45pm
Do you have a demanding job? On your feet? Sitting all day? This job can have demanding moments, and there are always projects to work on. My desk can convert to a standing desk, but honestly, I don't use that feature as much as I should—mostly I'm sitting.
What benefits does your job have that not all jobs may have? If I pre-schedule it on my calendar or something comes up, I can move around my hours within the week (for example, I had to be home for a delivery Monday morning so I worked extra Tues-Fri to make up for it without using PTO). I can also WFH up to two days per month, though I wish that was more; that flexibility can be great for lunch workouts or long run days.
Are you training for something right now? I've been focusing my training on marathons for years, but right now, I'm switching it up and training for a 1-mile segment of a relay race at my alma mater. I've always been a slow and steady runner, so trying to get faster has been an interesting challenge. After that, I might repeat the Akron Marathon in the Fall because it's such a fun race (highly recommend for anyone who wants a road race with amazing local support but not overwhelming crowds!).
When do you like to work out? Are there sacrifices you make to do that? Less sleep? Less family time? I typically wake up at 5:30am on weekdays so I can get my workout done first thing. I've tried working out after work, but I hate how it makes it feel like my whole evening is just a workout and then a rush to eat and get ready for bed. When I work out in the morning, I can go into the day knowing that I've already checked that off my list, plus I do feel like I start the day with more energy that way. I try to get to bed by 9:30 so I'm not sacrificing on sleep since I know I need enough sleep to recover from my workouts and avoid being grumpy and slow all day. I almost always take my rest day on Sundays, since that way I really feel restful, as opposed to just waking up later on one weekday.
Right now, this workout schedule isn't hard, since I'm not really doing runs longer than 6 miles at the moment. When I'm training for a marathon, it definitely cuts into my social life and other non-work obligations since I generally need to do my long runs on Saturdays, and that means I won't want to stay out late on Friday or do anything else that requires much energy on Saturday.
How do you make time for other things like grocery shopping? Cleaning? Etc. This is a constant struggle! I try to take the lead on cleaning in our house since my wife works long hours in public accounting, but finding the time and motivation to do household chores and personal obligations is so tough. When I get home in the evening, I go straight to making dinner, and then after dinner, I just want to watch TV with my wife and our dogs, not go scrub floors/do dishes/mend the pile of torn clothes that I swear I'm going to get to. We ended up hiring someone to manage the yard and garden since my dreams of a backyard ecosystem way outpace the time I have to dedicate to it.
How do you make time for the other things with working out? Strength? Core? Stretching? I find that my legs start to rebel if I run too much or too often (runner's knee, sore hips), so that makes it easier to dedicate some workout time to strength. I'll normally run 3-4 days/week, and a couple of those are 3-4 mile runs that I'll follow with a strength session. On the other days, I'll do some combination of strength, pilates, and other cardio cross-training (usually elliptical or stationary bike). Apart from mileage plans for longer races, I tend to have a very loose weekly structure and kind of do what I feel like on any given day; I could definitely be more disciplined. Overall, I do my best to incorporate one good leg workout with weights, one arm workout with weights, and a few core sessions per week (which can be as short as 5 minutes at the end of a leg day or as long as an hour-long pilates video).
Is your family supportive of your working out? They're extremely supportive! My wife is incredibly supportive and positive, even when my training cuts into our ability to make plans or we go to a concert and I'm half-asleep by the end. She's traveled with me for races and always shows up with a homemade sign to cheer me on.
What tips do you have for someone trying to make time for working out and working? I know it's been said a million times, but for me, working out early in the morning really is key. Things can come up later that derail plans to workout at lunch or after work, but if you work a 9-to-5, then odds are 6am is pretty much always free. Also, don't feel like you have to train at the level of a professional athlete, or even the level of your favorite runfluencers; odds are they have more free time and/or flexibility than you do to dedicate to this, or they're prioritizing it higher than you're able to. If you're doing enough to stay fit and avoid injury, then that's plenty (early-20's me really needed to hear this lol)!
Thank you Aquene for your time. I loved what she said! It can be easy to feel as though those with flexible jobs are doing "way more" or running in the focus of their lives but there are so many other people that isn't the case.
What is Keeping Me Entertained?
Los Angeles Marathon Recap 3:26.36
NORTIV Nimbus Review: A decent workout shoe for $50?
Cross Country Skiing for Runners
TAVI is having a sale. I really like their leggings and you can use the code HOLLIE30 to take 30% off the sale prices. Did I use my own code for more leggings? Yes. LOL, plus it works for Vooray and 30% off anything full price.
Listen: Freetrail Podcast with Camille Herron. I was super curious about the further event and I personally felt like it wasn't hyped enough by Lululemon before the actual event because for the first several days I had no idea what was going on. So it was interesting to learn more.