Cheating

So I am struggling with balance.  Help me out, guys!

While running 12miles this morning, I thought about how running affects my life.  But not just my life, but everyone who is involved with me.  Example 1: my boyfriend and I were chilling on Friday night when he hands me a beer.  I tell him about my run in the morning, which means I go to bed super early so we don't get to hang out and watch the movie he wants me to watch.  (If you know me, I have terrible taste in movies.  I can quote Mean Girls and I love Legally Blond.  Date someone who has a taste for well made movies and you'll see how easy it is to chose a movie on Friday nights.)  I was thinking about how my run interupts my dating life.  I run on SATURDAYS so Saturday we can hang out, stay up late and eat whatever.  I think about how we eat dinner together and how he has to wait for ME to get home from the gym.

Then, I think about my friends.  How I can't go out for happy hour or dinner during training.  Or my poor friends who actually work out with me.  They go along with my long workouts.

I think about my job and my schedule with that.  I come in early so I can leave right away to go work out.  I say "No" to people/meetings when I have a run.  I mean, obviously if it is important, my run can wait.

Then, I think about myself and how if I have a TERRIBLE day, I skip my run and go home and drink wine while lamenting to my boyfriend.  Then, I feel guilty about skipping my work out.

Now, training now is INTENSE.  My 1/2 marathon is in less than 4 weeks.  Only two more long runs to go (one 8 and one 12 before taper!)  Then, I won't focus on RUNNING as much,  See, drinking/staying up late affects me way worse with running than say spin or swim.  I sound like a lush, but I am in my 20's, so I like to have a good time.  And I live in Wisconsin, for crying out loud, which Milwaukee is the #1 drunkest city in the US.  The only thing to do here is meet people for drinks.  And I went to a dry college. Enough said.

Alright so...my question is: how to balance?  How to balance work, play and sweat. Work is obviously set 8-4, but teachers know we dont work 8-4. We take work home.  We come in early. We stay late. I sleep until 6:15.  I do not do mornings well.  I LOVE working out in the afternoons.  I feel so much better running off the stress of the day.

Anyways, I am not actually cheating on my boyfriend.  I feel I am cheating him out of quality time with me.  I know he doesn't mind it all the time, but I'm sure he does sometimes.  By the way, he bought me this super cute giraffe necklace the other day. :)

Oh, and sometimes I cheat on my runs.  Meaning I stop early or don't go quite as far.  It's all about listening to your body and doing what feels right...right?!