If anyone were to ask me what the most difficult aspect of life and training is, I would say it is balance. We only have so many hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year. Finding a way to cram EVERYTHING we want and need in life into such a finite time frame can be difficult to say the least.
Most of us mere mortals with mortal jobs and lives and responsibilities have to find a way to balance work, fitness goals, sleep, commute times, social life (if any), laundry time, food prep, cleaning the house, giving the cat enough attention, dealing with health-family-relationship issues that pop up, figuring out your purpose in life and so on. That is tough. It has been the toughest part for me in all of my years of training for marathons and trying to keep myself fit and healthy.
This balancing act has been particularly tough for me the last few weeks with dealing with personal life changes, traveling, work and really trying to dial in my training and nutrition. I am trying not to be too hard on myself for not perfectly hitting my goals the last few weeks. A lot has gone on personally that I am trying to deal with in a healthy way.
Life does not slow down for anyone. The world keeps turning whether you are ready for it or not. Some days you feel lost and alone, other days it is not so bad. But even in a time when life seems uncertain again, I still have had some cool experiences.
Recently, I got my new Canyon Neuron 6.0 mountain bike (her name is Trixie). I am still working on a few tweaks and have only had a chance to ride her three times, but I am looking forward to many, many hours of riding this summer. I even signed up for a women’s mountain bike training program which starts in a couple weeks.
Last weekend I went to Bend, Oregon for the first time. Overall, the experience was a great one, but, of course, there were some mishaps. I ran the Bend Half Marathon while I was there and reconnected with someone from my Orlando running group. I would like to go to Bend again someday, but will likely wait until June or July to go. All of the really fun stuff I wanted to do was not quite ready yet because there was still so much snow at the higher elevations.
At Newberry National Volcanic Monument (that's a 7,000 year old lava field behind me)
The Monkey Face at Smith Rock State Park
Smith Rock State Park (really popular for climbers!)
The view from Misery Ridge Trail looking to the west at the Central Cascade Mountains.
Me and Gene post-race!
Looking ahead, I have a 25k on May 4th. This will be more of a supported long run for me, but it is always a bit exciting and nerve-racking to run a race. I think it will be a good gauge for me to see how my training is going. I feel my training is lacking, but maybe it’s not. We’ll see.
After that, I’ll be going to Florida to visit family and friends for a few days. Again, my training will get off-track for a bit, but this is a very necessary trip and one I can’t afford to not take.
Hopefully, this balancing act gets a little better in the next few weeks. I just need to take this one day at a time and do what I can. That seems like good advice for everyday life, not just training for ultra marathons and mountain bike races. Now, I just need to take my own advice.
