Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

I hate making decisions.

For someone who has no problem telling other people precisely what they should do with their own lives, I like to keep my options open. I like back-up plans, fail-safes, and readily-accessible alternatives. If I don't feel like running, I want an elliptical machine on standby. If the elliptical is no fun, I'll jump on a stationary bike. Sometimes I want to swim laps, so I keep a membership for the local pool stocked with pre-paid visits. Or, I can work out at home with the equipment my husband and I have collected over the years. I keep a Pilates routine written on a sheet of paper in my purse in case I find myself with 30 minutes to kill, and stash exercise clothes and shoes in my car and office so I am never caught unprepared.

So it is not hard to figure out why I find myself in the quandry I am in these days: so much training to do, and so little time. I want to improve my distance running so I can complete a 10k this summer, so I need time on the treadmill at lunch. And I'm eyeing a triathlon this fall, so I'll need some pool time when it warms up in a couple of months. Then of course, there is my course training so I'll be hauling my hurdles to the park on weekends and doing my sprint workout two mornings a week. And then there is just the "stayin' alive" workout I do each morning to stay in shape and get my gym fix. I feel like Paris Hilton in a Louis Vuitton store.

But Paris Hilton has unlimited credit. I have exactly 24 hours a day, during which I also have to work a full-time job and, oh yeah, I have a husband and a kid, too. Luckily I don't have many friends so that helps a little. :)

One day while sitting in a waiting room I pulled an old receipt out of my purse and tried to map out a little schedule for myself. If I got to the gym at 4:00 am instead of 4:45 I could do a quick run before my other cardio and weights, and leave time for Pilates at lunch. If I could get away with putting my child to bed in his school clothes for the next day and fed him his breakfast in the car to cut down on the morning rat race, I could get to the office early and leave time for a swim after work. If I woke up early on the weekends I could head to the park for my course training and be back before you can say, "television is not a babysitter." Or, I could start playing the lottery so I could quit my job and just workout all the time.

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to pull that off. Something had to give. But what?

I've rolled it around in my head over and over and can't decide. I love each of my workouts for different reasons, and don't want to give any of them up. I just have to find that balance between finding time for each of them without pissing off the rest of my life. Any ideas?

Until I figure it out, I'm enjoying the training time I do get. Because really, the whole point of it all is that working out, getting stronger, and becoming better at something than I was yesterday is fun. When it stops being fun, I'm guessing I'll stop stressing over finding time to do more of it.

Like that will ever happen. :)