I’ve had more bad half and full marathons than good ones. By a lot.

 So I believe that makes me particularly and ridiculously qualified to talk about the things that can go wrong. In another post, I’ll go over the things that can go wrong in the race itself, but today, I want to talk about 5 things that can derail your training and how to overcome them!

Children Children are, in my opinion, the NUMBER ONE DE-RAILER of half and full marathon training plans. Don’t have children? Skip to number 2. But for the rest of you, it can seem nearly impossible to find time for your mileage when your kids schedules resemble that of (insert example of the busiest person in the world here) and/or they are very little and thus extremely dependent on you for things like going to the bathroom and eating. (Side note: the day mine could all pour cereal and milk into a bowl on their own I swear I hear angels singing. It was beautiful.)

These are mine. Aren’t they cute?

But you need the time for yourself, so what can you do? For me, in my busiest days of parenting, there were a few option. I could get up earlier, I could go to bed later, or I could delegate better. The third is most likely the healthiest since sleep is vital to your training and your sanity. Look around and see who in your tribe might be able to lend a hand, where you could carpool, which gym has the best childcare, which neighbor could you finally take up on that offer to “help you out if you ever need anything.” The truth is, we often have more support than we realize, we just need to ask for it.

Work – Ah, yes, the lovely day jobs. In my life, my work has always seemed to have some kind of radar that goes off when I’m training for something and literally all hell will break loose. It’s not a matter of if this will happen, it WILL HAPPEN so when it does, and all the sudden you’re working a 60 hour week when you were only planning on 40, you have to flex. That training plan that was 5 days may only be 2 and you have to be OK with that. And if it’s really bad, talk to your boss. If you have a great employer, they may actually love that you are taking such great care of yourself and help you brainstorm ways to cut back on the schedule to allow for your workouts (and your life!) to have more balance.

Spouses – (and their work schedules) As a wife of an airline pilot, this is always a struggle. I adore my husband and his job (after all, it does quite a bit toward keeping the lights on around here and he loves it) but his travel schedule means that I am a single mom a good 60% of the time (don’t even get me started on those of you that are actually single parents – you are heroes and I don’t know how you do it – seriously).

The key here is to be sure that your spouse, traveling or not, is on board with your training schedule. It won’t go well for either of you if he’s not. And if he doesn’t understand how demanding it can be, have him (or her, sorry not meaning to be sexist here!) read this and then have them email me and I’ll fill them in. Or Scott will. Seriously, you have to be in this together.

This is my great, supportive husband after a race. Love that guy. He gets it.

Sickness – This is my biggest fear when I’m training for a race (not true, tearing or ripping some body part is my biggest fear but this is close). The odds are actually pretty good that at some point in an 18 week training cycle, you’re gonna get sick. A stomach bug, a cold, the flu, something. I’ve had a few times where I haven’t, but the majority of us deal with this at some point. First of all, your health is more important that one race. Let me say that again. YOUR OVERALL HEALTH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ONE RACE.  If it’s something serious, stay down for as long as you and your doctor deem wise. If it’s a cold? Stop being such a baby and run already. Rule of thumb for me? I don’t run if I have a fever or a bad cough. If it’s just a head cold, I get out there. It actually seems to help get all the yucky stuff flowing and makes me feel better. And if you have the flu, forget it. Don’t run. You can actually miss up to 2 weeks in a training schedule and still catch up, although you may have to forego a time goal for another race. Take care of you.

Motivation – I saved this one for last because I actually think it’s the most challenging. All the stars can be aligned, your kids can be well cared for, your spouse can be home and crazy supportive, and you can be healthy as the proverbial horse, but if your mojo is off, it can seem impossible to get out the door. So, as my friends Dimity and Sarah at the Another Mother Runner podcast say all the time, DON’T THINK, JUST RUN. Our brains are sometimes not our friends, so I’ll even play tricks with myself like pretending the world is depending on me to get to a certain point in my run that day to press a button or there will be some huge explosion and all will be lost. I wish I was kidding. It’s ridiculous – some days there’s a whole John Grisham thing going on and my cover is that I’m a runner in marathon training (but I’m actually a spy). You laugh now, but trust me, when world peace is up to you getting your mileage done, you go running;).