Sunday 7 February 2010

Life and Training

It's been a hard week. Made harder by the lack of sleep from Monday to Wednesday. But I am getting better at organising myself, concentrating on the important stuff and just getting by.

My days at the moment consist of getting up at around 7, teaching until 4, gym/training until 5.30/6 then hospital to give my dad his dinner and spend precious moments together until 10.30ish. Then bed. Then again from the beginning. Some days I get some more time and the important thing then is to spend it with Duncan. The best thing however is that we both enjoy training and so a lot of our training time is also quality time together. Two birds with one stone. I knew having a triathlete husband would come in handy at some point.

I get tired. Sometimes I get overtired. So much so that I cannot sleep or eat. I have lost a lot of weight and struggle to maintain a healthy diet, as I am never at home for meal times. But I try not worry too much about it now - I will eat when I can and what I can.

In terms of training I have really enjoyed this week. Training is my "me" time, my psychotherapy time, my stopping-brain-from-overthinking time, my taking-care-of-my-health time, my spending-time-with-my-husband time and lately it is becoming my setting-goals-and-working-towards-them time. I have been setting my eyes on June 13th Half Iron Distance here in Greece, organised by Leo and Marie from Schiniathlon (www.schiniathlon.gr). Just to be able to train for such an event again makes me happy.

So training hours hit just over 8 this week (that's assuming D and I decide to brave the rain and go for our 70-90 min run). I did two swims, two bikes, and two walk/runs - massive fan of the run/walk movement as led by Bobby McGee(imtalk episode 190 for more info) . The ride yesterday was challenging, longer than I have done in a very long time, but enjoyed it so much that I cannot wait to go out there and do it again.

On top of all this trigreece.gr is about to take off! We are starting to work more on the Athletes in Athens side of things, getting some sessions going for local athletes, as well as planning some big training weeks/camps and clinics for later on in the year. Again, very exciting, but lots of extra work going on.

Sometimes I wonder if people who only "do" one thing in life are happier than us overachievers who try and cram multiple roles in our days. People at work, who know me as a teacher, find it hard to understand all the stuff I do outside of school and people who meet me in my trigreece.gr gear find it difficult to realise I also have a day job, where I do not wear lycra, but I teach children about Egyptian mummies and irregular plurals. But for me it's all part of who I am and both roles are as fulfilling in their own separate ways. I sometimes ask myself which of the two I would give up if I had to and the answer is never there... Luckily for now I don't have to give up any of it.

2 comments:

  1. Alex, I hope you are well! I wish to share my deep empathy to you father's pain and sincere wish that it all ends soon happily in his boat cruising across the Aegean. I am sorry that we are not close however I am always there for you and admire your courage and passionate heart
    love anna

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  2. Thanks for the comment, Anna. It means a lot to know that people read this and in a way share my journey. Hope to see you soon.

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