Shifting Gears For Summer

My work is pretty much non-stop year round. Sometimes it lightens up in August and late December when many of my clients go on vacation, but often they cross off their to-do lists by sending the work my way. Still, I manage to switch gears in the summer in at least a few small ways.

• With my son out of school, I am no longer tied to his morning schedule. Although he has been driving himself to school, I like to be around to see him in the morning, even if he doesn’t really appreciate my cheerful greetings. Now that he is sleeping in, I am free to leave the house as early as I want to, although I haven’t really taken advantage of that yet.
• Since my son is out of school, he no longer has sports practice until 7:00 pm (or later). His school sports schedule fits pretty well with my work schedule, because I can leave the office at 6:30 (after the worst of traffic is over), be home before 7:00, and have dinner on the table by the time he’s showered. Now that he’s home, he likes to eat dinner earlier.

Ideally, I would put these two changes together and get in to work early and leave early, but it’s never that simple. I often need the last hour of my day to tie up loose ends, and traffic is so much worse before 6:30. Unless I can leave by 5:00 the added frustration is barely worth it.

• Summer weekends mean lacrosse tournaments. This is my son’s big year for college recruiting, so he is doing tournaments (which are basically showcases for college recruiters) almost every weekend. Literally. I think we have one weekend “off” in late July, but there is still one more tournament team he is trying out for . . . .
• Summer lacrosse tournaments means lots of down time (between games) away from home. That means less Facebook/Twitter/blogging time and more reading time. I’m probably going to go through withdrawal, but my iPhone battery just doesn’t last through a full day of Tweetdeck use. Plus, I have all those new running books to read.
• I hate running in hot weather, so I usually run less in the summer and/or do shorter runs on the treadmill. With my son’s lacrosse schedule, I think I will switch my routine from running Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday to running Monday/Wednesday/Friday. That pretty much means giving up my long runs, but my body needs a bit of a break anyway.

How does your schedule change in the summer?

Do you spend more time outside, or do you try to beat the heat in the air-conditioning?