I always go a bit stir crazy during Chicago winters. Nothing magical about that, everyone deals with some cabin fever here…it’s hard to get outside, hard to get a workout, the house gets stale, the kids go crazy, everyone gets sick.
So we cope. We find things to do, we try to get outside as much as the weather will allow, and most importantly, we get ready for next season!
My first year I just tried to stay in shape. Last year I tried to stay in shape and I spent a LOT of time planning our season. This year I am staying in shape, planning our season, AND trying to work ahead on anything I can so I have less to do when the weather is nice…but that’s a topic for another day. Let’s talk planning today!
For many years I have used a large paper calendar hanging in our kitchen to keep everyone organized. I would love to do this electronically, but for now, the low tech solution, along with the huge visual anchor in the heart of our home is still the most efficient way to keep everything humming along smoothly. It is color coded…Pink for Her Highness, Light Blue for the Boy, Dark Blue for Babydaddy, Dark Green for Family, Light Green for other folks (babysitters/dog walkers/etc.) and Red for changes (sorry, can’t help that…it’s from my Navy days of running a flight schedule on a white board). Oh, I almost forgot…I am Orange!
Here is a pic, the paper calendar is on top…
Above the paper calendar is two sets of pens. I love sharpies for writing on the paper calendar.
So far I haven’t shared anything particularly earth shattering here, but the really handy tool is hanging below the paper calendar. It is a laminated 2012 calendar. The other set of pens on the right are dry erase pens in the same colors as my sharpies.
When I first started trying to plan races, I would look at my paper calendar, but it didn’t give me a global sense of how training and racing would intersect with other important events in our family life…
It also was difficult to understand how all of the races we wanted to do would impact our training for (then HIM Racine) other races, and how things like a week of night shifts or a family vacation would fall in a training cycle…
Now you can see in the close up how we have some races pencilled in…you can also see some other stuff in there…the orange is the earliest date I might be able to start back swim training…the pink is my daughter’s last day of school…the black is the training anticipated based on Don Fink’s 30 week Ironman plan…
I love having everything laid out because it becomes very apparent when I have scheduled myself into some sort of trainwreck. The dry erase also makes it easy to ‘spitball’ race ideas…what might work in a certain weekend, etc…the stuff on top of the June is just races I am contemplating or might try to fit in if I am healthy by then.
I cannot emphasize enough how useful these two calendars together have been…it’s a cheap, low tech solution to organizing and scheduling 4 busy lives made busier by Mommy and Daddy’s insistence on not giving up our selfish pursuits. Although it can be complex, having everything laid out for everyone to see goes a long way toward keeping everyone sane and happy.
I often read stories about how family members become resentful of Mommy or Daddy pursuing endurance sports, and it always seems to be the result of a lack of communication and a lack of ownership for everyone in the family. It’s not all puppie dogs and rainbows at my house, but at least everyone gets a piece of the calendar and it’s never a surprise to anyone else…