I’m a Tough Mother Doing a Tough Mudder

Doesn’t this look fun? Credit: The 621st Contingency…, Flickr

So, as I hinted at last week and announced over on Fit Bottomed Girls, I’m training for a Tough Mudder. Yep, that’s the 10- to 12-mile race that’s filled with obstacles and water and mud and electric shocks. It’s totally been the kick in the pants I’ve needed to increase my workout intensity, even if I’m still working on the duration of the workouts because of gym daycare issues. But for the first time in a long time, I’m really feeling it again, I’m really excited about my workouts and making them a priority.

A lot of this is that the event comes at the right time. My kids are 3 and 19 months, and while it’s still challenging every day at these ages, life has gotten ever so slightly easier, and I’m able to focus a tiny bit more on myself. I’m able to get them into and out of the car a bit more easily — and seriously, sometimes getting to the car with both of them has seemed an obstacle nearly insurmountable and more trouble than it was worth at times. My youngest has been walking strong for a few months now, so I’m not carrying him in and out of the gym anymore; I’m able to put them down and have them walk next to me, and we only have to stop a few times on the way to grab mulch from the flower beds and throw it onto the sidewalk. It’s the little things, but it makes these tasks so much easier.

The thing about doing an event that you’re totally scared of is that even if you’ve only got 15 minutes to work out, you’ll make those minutes count. I know that every painful assisted pull-up I do and every set of 10 push-ups is giving me more of the strength I need to complete the course. I also sweet-talked my husband into doing it with me, so he’s also had to really train for this. He hasn’t always been the type to make working out a priority, and it’s been great to see him taking it so seriously. There is just something about 10 miles that really makes you take it seriously. But he’s my partner in so much more than the race — he’s my partner in training. No, we don’t work out together, but we’ve made it a team effort to cover for each other so we can get our workouts in. No feeling guilty for hitting the gym, no giving the other person a hard time for skipping out on bathtime. The restructuring of the work load and seeing just a tiny bit less of each other has been totally necessary for us to make fitness a true priority again.

The best part of all of this is that our race comes the week of our 8th anniversary. So I have a feeling that the night after the race, provided we can both walk, we will be having one heck of a celebration!

How do you and your partner juggle workouts and kids? —Erin