The week's just started

I work, more or less, a traditional work week -- Monday-Friday, with Saturday and Sunday as off.   Because I work at an international company and have "global" in my title, I usually end up working some on the weekend (in the Middle East, the weekend is Friday and Saturday; and Monday morning in the Pacific Rim is Sunday afternoon my time).  And of course, sometimes there's just too much to do, and the weekend is catch-up.

But still, Monday to Friday, for the most part.  Monday's the hardest day, but it's a push through to Wednesday -- "hump day" -- before coasting down to Friday.  On Friday, I may have a bunch of things to get done, and quickly, but the weekend's right around the corner.

The neat thing is, my running's following much the same schedule. Only different.

My running schedule is currently something like this:

M: easy day (pool-running)
T: Intervals on the track or hills
W: easy to moderate run, usually with friends
Th: easy day (pool-running)
F: Tempo on the track
S: easy day (pool-running)
Su: Long progression run.

But, I find myself actually thinking of Friday as the start of each running "work week", and Tuesdays as the conclusion.  I think this is because tempos are by far the hardest workout for me (even more so mentally than physically).  When starting each tempo, my mindset is very similar to how I feel when I sit down to work my way through emails on Monday morning.  And when I finish?  Whew!  Got the first one out of the way, and now I can coast through the week.

The Sunday long run is very much like hump day for me.  Yes, it's long, and can be a slog. But nowhere near as tough as my Monday -- the tempo.  And at the end of the "day" it's over, and the rest of my running work week is downhill from there.

Tuesday intervals/hills are my second hardest day (long runs are generally the easiest workout for me), but they're fun, and there's the satisfaction of finishing another good week.   It's very much like closing out a bunch of work issues on Friday morning.

And then I get to run easy with friends on Wednesday -- it's my running social Saturday night.  This is followed by my Thursday pool-running day, which is the equivalent of a Sunday recharging for the work week (and that tempo).

So with a Friday tempo out of the way, I'm looking forward to the rest of the running work week (and the weekend beyond).

Pretty neat.  What's even nicer is that my running schedule balances out my work schedule, in that my real life workweek is ramping down just as the running week begins, and that the "humpday" for the one falls on the weekend of the other.  Brings a new meaning to work-life balance, I guess.   And while I guess you could see it as meaning that you're never too far from Monday, it also means that you get a weekend twice a week.

Anyone else think of their running week in this way?  It works pretty well, I think.