Recently after a long run I found myself sitting at the dining room table with Martha. Having chats is one of the benefits of kids getting older (alongside other advantages such as them being house trained or their being able to fetch a quick beer from the fridge (wine corks remain an as-yet insurmountable challenge, however)).

"So, you run every day now, huh?" she wondered.

"Almost. Is that ok?"

"Well, it's better if you don't run now (in the evening). It's better if you run before we get up or after we go to bed otherwise we don't get to see you so much."

Sure, honey, you can have that pony.

But she had a valid point, not just for her but for my running in general. If I don't get out the door before the day starts, the chances of me running at all that day drops 50%. Life starts to happen and suddenly I'm pushing my run to the next day or the next day or the next day.

Take last week, where I'm pretty sure I battled a slight cold that was compounded by, well, life. I only got out there twice for a miserable total of seven miles. Part of it was my selfish wife who demanded she get to hit the road on Sunday, her only day off.

Imagine!

As a morning Muffel (German for grouch), I used to get nervous realizing that running blogs all had one thing in common – early mornings. But it also gave me an idea since I was also coming to terms with the early morning reality of Martha starting school – she has to catch the bus at seven. In my mind, I’m doing these early morning runs now to prepare for September when I’ll have to be up early anyway.

And Tuesday, frustrated by my performance last week, I jetted out of the house at seven and stopped by the track at Jahn Sportpark. Who was there? A friend who had just dropped his kid off for the bus to Martha’s Nelson Mandela school.

Maybe I’ll be able to combine chats with Martha and early morning runs. Synergies, you know.