Achieving a healthy work-life balance is hard enough, especially when you throw in a commute either side of the working day, but add to that your running life and you can quickly end up in a pickle.

I work in an advertising agency in central London and that means there’s pretty much always a reason to be social and a reason to drink (we have a beer fridge in our office where it’s not frowned upon to crack open a Bulmers at 4pm…).  I used to love it but now I can’t remember the last time I went to a media party (that would be a party with a free bar…) or to the pub with colleagues on a Friday night.  They think I’m boring…or at the very least dedicated…but I definitely think I’m boring compared to my former self.

Of course that’s just work socialising, you’ve then got your own friends, family and a list of boring jobs like food shopping & cleaning to do.  The clock doesn’t stop ticking.

This weekend was a Bank Holiday.  After dutifully running my 18 miles on Saturday, followed by sensible post run R&R, I went to a festival on Clapham Common on Sunday.  A full day of standing, dancing and drinking caused some sort of weird back pain that left me barely able to walk at 11pm (it was a looooongg shuffle home).  It quickly passed but it freaked me out.  Was it the run?  18 miles is a long way but it’s not unusual to put my body through that.  Was it the dancing and drinking? Was it the combination of both? Can I not run and have fun?  Consequently I skipped my scheduled 5 miles yesterday but did spend some time walking around Notting Hill Carnival which was also exhausting.

Today I feel like this.  Not only that, but I’m back at work.

I like my job (most of the time…).  I love running. I love having fun.  Why can’t I just do it all?  Of course if I win the lottery I can take work out of the equation and life would be much more manageable…