Confessions of a Comrade Cailin

Good woman, and for the record I only ran 38miles last weekend so I better watch out...;)

Okie Dokey. First thing to remember is that running is for fun, even if you are training for the Comrades. Sounds like you are getting into a vicious circle of running taking up a lot of time, not having time for other things, then getting stressed during your runs because you have so much to do.

If your training plan is taking up too much of your time, you might need to re-evaluate the schedule and try to come up with a compromise thats not too demanding on time. Look at your long and short runs, speed work etc and decide what benefit you are getting out of it and whether you could scale back on some of them. Are the LSRs too long? can you achieve a reasonable performance on race day by doing less? Review your goal and perhaps decide on a plan with less miles to suit the rest of life. Don't panic if you miss some day's running. If you catch up on all the other stuff, you'll have a better frame of mind heading out on the road. A few miles feeling good is better then a lot of miles with too many distracting thoughts running through your head (Junk Miles). Psychologically, if you spend too much time stressing and running, your mind will start making the association and you'll be less enthusiastic for the next run.

If you look at the spectrum of runners, from the full time 100+ a week athletes to people who get by on 20-30 miles a week, put them in the same race, they will probably all finish the race (injuries excluded) but what may be different is their performance during it and their condition after it, but they still get it done.

What you need to work out is where do you fit into the Spectrum of runners. If if makes more sense to trim back on the miles so that your work / life balance is better managed, you might just have to compromise the quality of the race and the possibility of walking like John Wayne for a little longer after it.

If running is getting in the way of the rest of your life, it might need to be adjusted otherwise it will get you down and you'll lose interest, so perhaps adapt it to things and catch up on all the other stuff and you'll be back to enjoying running and the only thought in your head will be what's the next song to be played on 'Shuffle Mode'

Unless you want to take the alternative solution and sell the kids, hit 'delete all' on the Answering machine and leave the house untidy and tell visitors that you have just been burgled

HTT - My tuppence worth for what it is worth.
In a years time or even ten years or when you are very old when you look back on 2011, you wont be remembering untidy houses, cleaners, domestic issues etc
What you will remember will be Comrades and Belfast 2011 (If you do it) etc and the experiences lived and gained in these events.
So dont let a bit of dust & untidyness & domestic issues stop you achieving what you want to do.
What some people (especially non-runners) might see as self-indulgent is often the runner preserving sanity.