Work/life/triathlon balance
nicknofinger
Posts: 284
in General Chat
Hi everyone how do you all cope with the this problem????? I never seem to have time to do any of it with full effect. There's always something in the way, either that or I just end up staying up really late.
And as I writing this my two year old is shouting "daddy daddy" downstairs. SLEEP god damm it you're are tired.
Nick in Cardiff tired and just wants his dinner.
And as I writing this my two year old is shouting "daddy daddy" downstairs. SLEEP god damm it you're are tired.
Nick in Cardiff tired and just wants his dinner.
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Comments
My 2 and 4 year old are having a late night eating popcorn and watching The Incredibles beside me.
With the heat they just aren't sleeping, so why not?
Am I training? Am I on the Turbo? Am I hell - I'm a buffet trolley tonight!
I think an early night and an early morning stress free swim is in order.
My wife and I both work shifts and long ones at that.
We get 4 days off together every 5 weeks and when I work she is at home and when she works I am at home.
2 kids, 1 with special needs means at least 2 appointments a week, home physio, speech and language therapy, portage workers..... it all adds up.
For the last month I have virtually done nothing. Think I may have cycled to work a few times and been running (2 x 5km). Just felt exhausted and drained.
So your not alone. I think the answer is difficult but I have dropped a few things - (like Overtime) like social stuff so I can fit in enough training to do my A race next year.
It certainly isn't easy I grant you.
Time with your family is limited and oh so precious,if you start to resent the important things in your life due to the big green eyed triathlon monster putting too much pressure on you,has a hobby/sport now developed into a habit not a pleasure.
Cheer up, all we can do is make the best we can do, with what we've got available. If you get satisfaction from your performances, then that's all that matters.
But it's not all bad it's great feeling fitter than you ever had and when you cross the finishing line shouting yes I did it.
I think this year has just been hard trying to fit in an Ironman with everything else.
I don't know how possible this will be, and is very much dependent upon how structured your non-triathlon life is, but planning can make a huge difference. At this point, if you're feeling really low about training, try looking at your schedule and saying, "Ok, I have one hour on day x when I can do session y for certain". Put it in the plan, and try and find more of these 'windows' and do the same. Leave some free; this means if something unavoidable comes up, you might have some float to reschedule.
At the very least, you might feel better about training if you have made a plan and stuck to it, and it doesn't matter how little you have planned!! This way you will know what training you might have wanted to do but couldn't at the planning stage, and you can deal with it there. I don't know about you, but it sure beats feeling that slippery slope feeling when you think back on the week and just get that sinking feeling that the training is fizzling out. Instead you look back and think, "Well I completed every single one of my planned sessions", and forget about how many hours it was, I thought about that during the planning.
Of course, you might do this already but might be useful to someone else.
I have wife, family and job to fit in, so it can be stressful, and you want triathlon to be pleasureable not a chore or a source of stress to you or the family. Family time is very important.
I don't train as much as I'd like. That said "as much as I like" is probably as much as someone like Hussler trains - 20 hours a week or so. I do find myself not able to do planned sessions from time to time (this weekend for example it's my mother-in-law's 60th so we are away all weekend) I've had to learn to be relaxed about that, and to make sure that when I am training it is quality training.
Some people might say that I just need to get my finger out and find the time to train more, but it's difficult. Three mornings a week I take the kids to school, so I can't even put early mornings in on those days. Plus what with everything else, if I pull too many 6am sessions I'm just knackered, training suffers, work suffers, I get grumpy so everyone at home suffers.
I agree that you've got to fit training in when you can, but the balance becomes quality over quantity and that there is where the difference is made. Provided you can maximise the session then you'll be fine but its getting that quality that presents most of the troubles.
Jon.E, I can't agree with what you said about being a loser. If you think that then you've defeated yourself before you've got in the water. I go into every tri hoping to knock time off and get a pb. Granted you've got to do work afterwards but are you seriously saying that you hold from not getting a new pb because of work. I don't think so. At the end of the day we are just normal plebs trying to do well in a sport thats extremely hard. We also have to contend with the elites who are sponsored and most likely will win, does that mean we give up. Bloody hell no.
I've been thinking long and hard about how to get the balance, and at the end of the day there is no defined answer. Its what works for you and you alone.
For me work is a crappy, unrewarding job at times involving very unpleasant people and naturally as I work in the Public Sector am obviously an object of scorn and derision by Daily Mail readers. Still it pays the bills (just - despite what the Daily Mail says).
Anyway my schedule is after work:
Monday - gym, generally treadmill, stretching, abs, light weights
Tuesday - gym, stretching, abs, light weights, spin/treadmill brick
Wednesday - gym, pool swim 750 - 2,000m in wetsuit (depending on whether I am going to pass out from boil in bag heat stroke) as it get sme used to that style of swimming.
Thursday - gym, stretching, abs, light weights, spin/treadmill brick
Friday - perhaps a short gym, generally treadmill, stretching, abs, light weights deepnding on what we are doing.
Saturday - Pilates, pool swim 750m in wetsuit, bodypump, bike ride
Sunday - REST!
My wife is not a triathlete (has a balance problem so cannot ride a bike) but does other classes at the gym so no squabbles there about gym time and we also run in 10K events together. Also thinking about doing Time Trials with a couple of the chaps from the gym.
Oh yes also a member of the Reserve Forces.
As you can probably guess we do not have children but we do have a very fine cat called Timmy.
So in short as said do what you can, don't worry about what you can't & be the best you can be with that & still you are better/fitter/thinner etc than 90+% of the population.
If you have given your all (that you have to give) then you are not a loser.
Although I hate my job I am fortunate that I do not have to work shifts (yet) so I do have sympathy with your position, but you know how much you can give and if you give it all and still carry out out your work at the end of it then respect to you.
As for those with families again respect, you cannot switch off from your responsibilities just because you are tired.
But to you Jon.E and those with family/caring responsibilities the fact that you drag yourself out for training and toe the start line and give evrything that you are able to give to get over that finish line deserves respect as, pointed out quite rightly previously, that puts you in the top 10% of fitness for the country.
So well done, and as my Dad said to me when I told him I was going to enter my first traithlon 'keep it up'.
In reality my only time constraint is a GF who likes to organise a lot of things to do on weekends. Not much of a complaint really.
Er, didn't aim to sound smug or anything, just wanted to say I've got respect for those who fit so much in.
To Jack,I kow that Bopo's coments was posted and its meaning to which it is intended,work hard play hard.
To stratotom,yes a plan to follow would be ideal,but sadly not viable,I tried but it created more hassle than what it would be worth.
The day I resent a race,or a training day will be my last day in triathlon,the enjoyment will be gone.
I was also in the Reserve Forces for seventeen years but I am currently in the process of retiring to try and increase the amount of time I have with the family....
So now I only have a European job (that takes me all over UK, Europe and the world), two daughter (2 and 5), three dogs and a triathlon obsession to mange time-wise...simples....but I do seem to have got somewhere with the IM dream....the boss has said yes to IM Switzerland 2010
the reality is, my commute helps me keep my training to a basic level and i fit in the other stuff when i feel i can around family and work commitments. i'm another with a 2yo and by the time she is in bed the thought of going out for an hour or so just can't compete with cooking, cleaning, or spending time with my other half.
i've been considering finding an joining a tri-club to encourage me to get out and train more. i tend to find that if i make a regular evening for a particular session then i stand a better chance of carrying it through. unfortunately my nearest club is bath which is £180/year! i could try out swindon tri club but it's more of a trek.
Cheers everyone I feel better today .