The One About Priorities and My Weekend Race Plan

Sometimes it’s so hard to fit into the day just everything that we may want to accomplish; I know I feel that way many, many days. I also tend to have high expectations of myself and my days so that may lead to some of it as well but mostly I feel like there is always some part of my life that is going to suffer, the question is which part? This is where it’s good for you to sit down and evaluate just what exactly is important to you and what it is that you would like to accomplish for the day/week/month/year.  I do this usually on a weekly basis as I plan out my workout time and the time that Alex and I spend together.

For me, people always come first, always. The relationships that I have with my family and friends are of high importance to me and I realize that if it weren’t for their love and support I couldn’t do any of the things that I set out to do. When it comes to my workouts or running or extracurricular things or even work at times those will all take a back seat to any person that I care about should that need arise. My mom, my sisters, my dad, Alex, they have all supported me in many ways and out of respect I try to give them the first priority of my time and energy. But they also understand that things like running and working out are important to me and rarely, if ever do they demand those things be taken away from me.

Work is also a priority to me (it should be noted here that I’m not really listing these priorities in order of importance to me) and I do like my job therefore I put time and energy into doing my job well. Most of the time my job is pretty straight forward and it almost never demands time away from me other than my normal work hours. But there are times when I have had to stay late due to things out of my immediate control and that’s ok, it’s not often so I can adjust. But that sometimes also means that I don’t get to that class I had wanted to take at the gym or my run gets cut a little short, or it doesn’t happen because Alex and I have dinner plans. But at the end of the day it’s all ok because I can either make up workouts or skip them and just move on.

Church and my church activities are also a priority for Alex and I. We give of our time on Sundays and Wednesdays to serve and grow together in God’s word and that’s a non-negotiable for both of us.

Working out and running is clearly a huge priority for me, it’s something that makes me a better person and my health and wellbeing is important to me for now and for my future. My workouts take a big chunk of time out of my weeks but it’s sometime that besides my relationships and my church time is of utmost importance and therefore it gets a high priority in my schedule. This hasn’t always been the case and it’s sometime I’ve had to work at to make it a priority but now that I have it’s easy to stick with the routine I’ve established. Most of the time this means that I pack a bag of workout clothes at least 3 days a week. I also have to be flexible as to where I work out; on Tuesdays I go to the gym by the train station immediately after work. On Wednesdays I change at the church and run around there before Bible study. On Thursday I either go back to the gym by the train station or the one closer to my house or even back to the church to run. Sometimes keeping it all straight is hard but it’s worth it to have a plan and know ahead of time what you want to do.

All of that being said, sometimes things fall to the wayside, such as blogging. I don’t always have enough time to get blog posts up and ready and honestly sometimes I don’t have anything to say, so I don’t. I haven’t been to a movie in a really long time and I rarely watch TV. I haven’t been shopping (other than Target) or to the mall in I don’t know how long. I rarely go out to eat anymore and socializing with friends is something that I find important but don’t often do. None of these things are truly bad things, and I realize they are choices that I have made but my point is this: you have to decide for yourself what your priorities are and then implement plans to make sure they happen. For me that is things like packing a bag of workout clothes and making sure I pack a lunch and snacks. It means forgoing things like becoming hooked on certain TV shows and it means giving up time to go spend my money at stores. I’ve also found that it’s important to communicate to those around you just why you are doing what you are doing and be sure and state your priorities. This is both helpful in having accountability and support.

I’m actually sitting here realizing that today is Valentine’s Day (don’t judge, I KNOW it’s today but I am really not one to go crazy over a holiday full of candy and hearts) and most of you will probably post joyful, lighthearted, happy, lovey-dovey posts and here I sit talking about priorities… But I guess it was brought to mind because I realized today that since it’s Valentine’s Day I won’t be able to go to yoga like I had planned (I mean I could, but I’d rather go and eat the yummy dinner that Alex is making me tonight) but that’s ok, certain things are more important.

Anyways, enough of the serious stuff and lets talk about some race plans for this weekend! On Sunday I will be running Austin for the second time and I’m super excited. 

This was one of my top 3 races last year (in case you are curious, Columbus was my favorite and Tulsa was my second favorite) and I absolutely love the course, the city and just the race itself. It’s so well done and despite peoples warnings of hills I found it to be quite a great, albeit a challenging course. 

As much as I would like to go all out and see what I’m capable of this weekend, and as much as I really want to beat my time from last year this race will be a relaxed race for me. I’m meeting and running with Tyly from One Mile At A Time and so we plan to have a great time. She really wants a 2:30, which I am totally up for but I’m going to let her dictate our race plan since she told me she hasn’t been training like she would like to. Either way I’m there to help push and motivate when needed and honestly I’m just there to enjoy meeting a blog friend in real life! So for the first time in a long time I am just toeing the line for pure fun and excitement, no time goal and no worrying about pace!

I am really looking forward to a weekend away, I love Austin and I’m so excited to see my sister and brother-in-law and their new house and then we get to celebrate our middle sister’s birthday which is Saturday! I think it’s going to be a really fun weekend and I cannot wait.

What are your priorities and how do you decide and manage them?

Are you racing this weekend? Or do you have any super fun awesome weekend plans?