Balancing Life, Training, and Racing

Two weeks ago in Girls on Track we had a lesson on "The Balance Beam of Life". (For my coach's recap click here.). The purpose of this lesson was:

1. To identify the individuals in our lives who are extremely important to us
2. To learn why it is important to balance time with our friends and family, with all of the other activities we do
3. To learn how effective time management skills can help us do this

 

My Girls on Track Group

 The goal for us as coaches was to help teach the coping skill (or Out of the Girl Box Skill) of time management and learning how to strike a balance. As we went through the lesson and the girls talked about everything they were trying to balance (school, sports, dance, GOTR, friends, music, etc) I thought WOW, these middle school girls are totally overloaded! How can an 11 year old feel stressed? I hope this doesn't set a trend for their adult life! Although thinking back, I think being so busy as a kid made me feel a need to feel busy through my adult life.

 

As a kid I was pretty involved in after-school activities. I went through lessons in everything: ballet, tap dance, gymnastics, acting, ice-skating, piano, violin, and even modeling. (Barbizon: train to be a model or just look like one! Don't laugh.) I sometimes wonder if my parents (mom) was just furtively searching for something that I was really good at. Of all of the lessons I took, piano seemed to be the place where I had the most talent -  but I still wasn't the next Beethover. Regardless of this, like a good Asian kid, I took private piano lessons for about 7 years, and continued on with classes in my high school for another 3 years. (Private violin lessons only lasted for about 3 years thankfully. ugh!) 

Ten Years of Piano Lessons

Anyways, between lessons and school and studying, I didn't really have much down time. Since my mom was a teacher, school never ended when I got home. My mom used to purchase the teacher's edition of several of my text books so if the teacher assigned problems 1-10 of 20, my mom would have me do 1-20 and check all of the answers. It seemed like the work was endless. Fast forward to today ...  I can't sit still. I have a hard time relaxing and have a constant need to be doing one or several things at the same time. If I'm not doing anything I feel like I'm wasting time. For the most part I've set up my life to stay super busy, but every once in a while I just get overwhelmed. 

My Favorite Child Series: Little Miss and Mister

Right now my current commitments are work, coaching GOTR, serving on the board of GOTR, heading up the Marketing efforts for GOTR, training for a triathlon, and training for a marathon. Its a lot! BUT ... without all of those things I think I might feel empty!

 

Work

I am extremely blessed to say that I love my job and enjoy my job. I work at a start-up and was initially leery of taking the job since the last time I worked at a start-up I was working 80 hour weeks, but fortunately I work a normal 40 hour work week, with some evening and weekend commitments.

 

With a Rep and Doctor at a Tradeshow

Girls on the Run

I'm now currently coaching my fourth season of Girls on the Run! Technically, I'm coaching Girls on Track which is the program for middle school girls. GOTR is two days a week for an hour and fifteen minutes. I am the head coach which is generally a 3-5 hour per week job. On top of this though I'm also on the board and narketing committee which takes a few more hours per week. Most board members quit coaching when they joined the board, but I just can't give it up. Its tiring, but at  the same time but so rewarding, and I truly love it. Its instant gratification for a passion of mine (GOTR), and I love being with the girls, the other coaches, and interacting with the parents and getting feedback about the program. 

"I Love ME" - Totally a Girl on the Run!

Triathlon vs the Marathon

Last year after a horrible race (more here) I decided to give up full marathona and focus my efforts elsewhere. I enjoy the routine of training and wanted a new challenge, so late last  year I turned to the triathlon and focused more on half marathons. After completing two sprint triathlons and improving my time continuously on half marathons, I thought my life would focus there! Well, the marathon came knocking on the door of my heart again and this year I will be running three full marathons. The OC Marathon May 1st, the San Francisco Marathon July 31st, and the Marine Corps Marathon October 30th. 

This plan collides somewhat with my triathlon goals for the year which are to work from a sprint distance up to an Olympic distance to prepare myself for a Half-Ironman (70.3) race next year. The challenge of the two sports is that while I'm covered on the running leg of a triathlon (running 4 days per week), I also need to bike and swim. My three remaining days now are currently split between swimming and biking. No rest days! Argh! Luckily swimming is a great recovery activity from running since it uses totally different muscle groups.

Finishing My 1st Triathlon - In the Rain!!

 

Racing

I absolutely LOVE racing! Putting your work to the test? Yes please! Unfortunately with a full training schedule which includes a triathlon and a marathon, its really hard to work a race in. I'm already scheduled to run a long distance on Saturdays and bike or swim on Sunday. Running in a race mean sacrificing one of these things, or cramming in another workout. Also, once you're about a month into training for a marathon you're running over 13 miles each weekend. (For free). To pay a race entry to run a distance shorter than a marathon or even a half marathon is hard for me. I do appreciate the value of a race and the way it pushes you and what it gives you, but sometimes its hard to go for that over a training run.

Approaching the Finish Line of the San Dieguito Half Marathon

 

Life Crashes Together

This past week (and in this coming week) all of these aspects of my life have come crashing together and I'm just plain tired. Last week I went out to dinner with some coworkers Thursday night and got home past my bedtime, had two 12 hour days up in Orange County for a project for work on Friday and Saturday, had to do my long run on Sunday because I was tied up Saturday, missed the month Tri Club's beginner bike ride (once again) on Sunday because I was running, had a long day Monday because of work and then a GOTR board meeting, worked and then coached GOTR Tuesday night .. followed by a training swim with a fellow coach to make up for the Monday swim I missed... and then this weekend there is a lot more craziness packed in. (Triathlon Saturday and a 20 mile run Sunday among other things. Eek!)


Right now I'm pretty pooped, but I decided that to get back on balance I need to stop and take some time for me. Next week I'm going to take Monday and Friday off which will give me two three day weekends. Yippee! At my first job out of college my first manager said to me once "I can push you and push you and push you and give you more work and more work and you seem fine, and then suddenly you break". Haha, in engineering terms, I have an exponential failure curve. :o) Its like metal and fatigue! Okay, geek hat off.

Metal Fatigue ... Failure!

 

I'm looking forward to taking time for myself to recharge and reset, and I hope I will feel more balanced afterwards! I don't want to give up any of my commitments right now since they all enrich my life in different ways, so apparently the way I will tune down on something to even everything out is to take a tiny bit off time for work. Hey, we get PTO days for a reason right?