Saturday with CNN's John King: I exercise in the morning because I have multiple sclerosis

The CNN anchor returns to Ireland this month, hoping this visit will bring him closer to his Connemara roots

Exercise has proven to be a great way for me to stay in the best place – if I have adrenaline in my system, I handle things better.

An anchor and CNN’s award-winning Chief US Correspondent, John King has spent four decades covering American politics. No stranger to Ireland — he’s visited numerous times, including on trips with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush — he returns this month for events in Dublin and Galway, hoping this visit will bring him closer to his Connemara roots.

06.00

Sometimes, I’m up at 6am, and sometimes I get the luxury of being able to sleep in. I’m an early riser, so if I lie in till 9 o’clock, that’s a big sleep. It really depends on what sports season we’re in because I have a 14-year-old son. He plays baseball in the summer and the fall, and games tend to be on Saturdays.

Unfortunately, I’m a caffeine addict, so the first thing I do is go downstairs and turn on the coffee machine. I sit at the table waiting for the coffee to brew, and that’s when I’ll pick up my phone to check my work messages or organise my day and make sure I have the schedule right in my head.

06.30

For most of my life, I was not a breakfast person, but I’ve tried to listen to the advice that it’s the most important meal of the day, and have something simple like yoghurt with berries and granola. If there’s no baseball and we actually get to relax on a Saturday, that’s when I cook a real breakfast and make bacon, eggs and maybe some avocado toast. That’s a rare treat.

09.30

I’m rather psychotic about exercising in the morning. It’s important for my mental and physical health, but also because I have multiple sclerosis. Exercise has proven to be a great way for me to stay in the best place – if I have adrenaline in my system, I handle things better. Even on baseball days when I know I have to leave early, I will get up beforehand so I can get on the bike or the treadmill before we go.

11.00

I don’t need a quiet weekend, but I need diversity. My dad taught me plumbing, carpentry, and electricity when I was a kid, so when I get to spend a few hours doing that, it reminds me of my childhood and my father. Getting things done relaxes me; it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished things.

15.30

A dream Saturday for me would be if my son wins his baseball games, we get home at a decent hour, and then I get to grill and have folks over. I find joy in cooking. It has to be a wood or charcoal grill, not gas; you lose the flavour otherwise.

My mother told me a long time ago that you don’t learn when you’re talking, you only learn when you’re listening, so for me, there’s value in conversation. 

Anytime I’m with good people who want a real conversation, I love that and learn from it. That’s why I’m so excited to come to Ireland!

The last several years have been a gift; to be able to come to Ireland again and have conversations and learn in a way that’s helpful to me professionally, but also, personally, I look at it as an enormous treat. My parents both died young, and I really wish I could share this with them. I kind of owe it to them to explore, look under every rock and find everybody I can… every time I make a trip to Ireland, my family grows, and that’s an amazing thing.

18.30

Most of the time, I like to eat in. Because my day is so busy, I just like to be in my home with my people. It brings me peace and re-centres me at the end of the day.

Every now and then, I go out. In middle age, you become a creature of habit, so I tend to go to the same places a lot. There’s a spectacular family-run Tex-Mex place near my house. I’m loyal to them because I watched them start this restaurant from scratch. The hard part for me is breaking out and trying something new!

19.00

When you’re busy, you tend to take the beauty of the place you live for granted, so when I do get extra time on the weekends, I try to challenge myself to get outside. Heat is one of my MS triggers, and Washington summers are very hot. I cherish September, October, and early November because the temperature is usually better, and you can get out for long walks outside.

I’ve lived in DC a long time. It’s a beautiful city, whether it’s the monuments and the Capitol and the government spaces or the Potomac River, which runs through it. My neighbourhood is right up above the river, so I go down to the bike trails and nature trails and walk around. There’s always something to complain about, but we all forget to look around because there’s also a lot to celebrate. Saturday is sort of a sacred day, so make sure you take advantage of the things around you.

21.00

In my prior life, I never had weekends off. I covered the White House for 10 years, and that was seven days a week. Even if you were ‘off’, you were constantly making phone calls. I have to do that less now than I used to, so I try to cherish my Saturdays when I can. 

I have a lot more flexibility in my schedule, but because every Saturday is different, it can be hard for me to visit friends or a partner. I completely understand the frustration of people who have a more ‘normal’ schedule. Media is an unpredictable business, but I’m used to the unpredictability of it. In some ways, I like the unpredictability of it. The randomness of my weekend doesn’t bother me. I like a little bit of chaos in my life.

• John King joins Dearbhail McDonald for two events at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on September 23 and the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, on September 24.