Having an outlet to protect your sanity

Kim being a supporter rather than runner

In the past I've made mention to the fact that Mitch is not a well kid and has spent a lot of time in Constantiaberg Hospital to the point where his visits have become the norm rather than exception. This can put quite a bit of emotional stress onto both your self and relationship with your partner unless you have an outlet of sorts.

Luckily for both Kim and I we are both athletically minded and sport has been a constant in our relationship. When one is stressed the other will often say "why don't you go for a run to get your head right?" It always works. So with Mitchells situation the natural fallback was always going to be exercise.

Probably the best thing we did to start with was buy a running jogger (I'll be posting a review on ours over at www.nutripaeds.co.za in the next few weeks) as soon as Kim was able to run/walk. This has meant that not only can we have family time after work that is also a nice relaxing walk it also meant that from the moment Mitch was six weeks old we were able to take part in weekly Park Runs held around Cape Town.

Unfortunately during one of these Park Runs Kim stood on a stone and got a small fracture in her heel. It was a period of twelve weeks of her being in an air boot that rammed home to us the value of needing this release as suddenly the stress levels at home rose slightly and small frustrations that never phased us suddenly became bigger issues.

Since Kims recovery she has decided to take on the Comrades Marathon this year, a nice little 89Km run run from Durban to Pietermaritzberg. While this has some small time management issues it does do two things nicely.

1. Gives Kim an outlet and stress release while also giving her a mental break or rather something else to focus on
2. Gives Mitch and I three to four hours of quality father-son time at weekends which I cherish especially as he gets older.

 From my side things are easier than they could have been. A few years ago Kim training for Comrades would have meant that I would have had to sacrifice my own endurance event plans. However since having knee surgery in mid 2013 I have canned all endurance dreams and focused on building a strong functional body at an awesome place called Roark Gyms (www.roarkgyms.com). This means that we can both plan our weeks around non-conflicting sports in a way that suits our own goals.

The benefits of all of this? Well for a start we are both a lot less stressed and have natural breaks away from having to be "on" with Mitch. As a result our relationship is probably stronger than ever as we have an outlet other than each other to take our frustrations on, this is a biggy! Finally and more long term Mitch would have known from pretty much the day he was born that mum and dad exercise and look after their bodies. Never underestimate the power of example from such a young age and I really do believe that by setting an example from now we are increasing his chances of making good lifestyle choices later.

Of course we prefer exercise. Other friends outlets range from computer clubs to their church groups to art clubs. It really doesn't matter what it is but I am 100% convinced that you do need an outlet of sorts.

Now if you don't mind I'm off the the gym.....