To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Where in there is a time to train for a triathlon? Levi's game was a forfeit by the team they were suppose to play. Luckily I knew this before the game. They still scheduled a practice in place of the game. So, I ran home from work met the younger kids off the bus, called Tamara and Grandparents to tell them about the game. Then had to call Tamara back for suggestion on clothes Levi could wear instead of his uniform. Then I started the push mowing. With the height of the grass it is was PUSH mowing. Maddy got home. Talked to her about dinner she was going to make while I was mowing. Realized everyone had a ton of homework. So, I stopped long enough to help do homework, had one kid in tears about understanding syllables. Jumped back on mower. Fifteen minutes before practice jumped off mower, drove Levi to practice, asked another parent "If it starts to rain could you hang out ten minutes with Levi, for me to get here". Ran home, jumped on mower. Tamara gets home. I talk two minutes with her. Finish, bank and weed whacking. Jump in car, run to practice, stop off to grab a sandwich for my dinner. Get to practice to see last batter in what became a intra team scrimmage in place of game. Jump back in car, run home, clean up mowers. Finish studying for spelling with kids. Get them to bed. Setup Stepper, do a 30 minute workout. Talk to Tamara for about 15 minutes, play with dog 15 minutes, bath, bowl of tortilla chips & salsa, with a lemonade and bed.
Next Week my training program has me doing 2.5 to 3 hrs of workouts on two weekdays. Huh? Where in last night do I find that much time. My schedule is going to have to be regimented. I wanted to do 40 minutes last night on the stepper, but opted to see my wife for that extra 10 minutes. I am not complaining I am understanding why it is so hard to perform exactly like you want to. "Exactly like I want to", has become a function of time, good or bad that is how it is going to be. I cannot wait to start 6 am swim workouts tomorrow. My next post will be about my lack of sleep.
3 comments:
You are not alone in this. I bookmarked this thread awhile ago.
http://www.trifuel.com/forum
/11757/work-family-and-training-how
Paste those 2 lines together.
My favorite was this one:
"early morning runs and swims before work. Nobody misses you before 8am."
Of course 8AM might be a bit late. 6AM might be more appropriate weekdays.
Don't be frustrated by the schedule. Just remember you are still doing more exercise than most people out there. When you look at the overall rankings. Just add in all the people that didn't show up.
That's right. Even if we come in 600th place, we beat over 300 million other Americans.
My friend, I am having the same kind of issues. This is the month I am supposed to be really hammering the training, with intervals twice a week, and long aerobic work at least three times a week. Yesterday, I did push-ups. That's it. I tried to do them every chance I got, but still, it's not aerobic, which is what I need to be doing. At the very least, I should walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes. If I walk, then I don't need a shower which takes another 20 minutes I don't have. If I run for half an hour, it is really an hour by the time I can do anything else. Swimming is at least a 90 minute commitment. I guess Matt's right that no one will miss me before 8AM, but I will miss my sleep and my sunny attitude, as they will have left me. I may have to do it anyway. Not much time left. I guess if I get home by 8AM, everything would be okay. Ugh. Just thinking about that makes me feel tired. I went to bed at 1:30 AM last night.
I'm gonna call yesterday a rest day and keep up the good work I started earlier in the week. Gotta get to the gym to do some quad work, then run later today.
Luckily, I only have one kid (I don't know how you do it!), but we did literally about two and a half hours of homework last night. Isn't that nuts? And there was no way any kids in her class could have done it without parents. I guess that explains why she said that they all had to redo this one sheet of questions they did in school because everyone was wrong. Gasp! This homework is too hard for the kids, so let's let the parents do it! I theorize it is a test the teachers do to see which kids have parents who help and who are smart enough to do the homework. If the parents can't do it, I guess they can give up on the kids. No hope for them. Of course there always those kids who come to the science fair with a working wind turbine with auxiliary power from the methane created in a biodigestor, and you have to say "His parents are creative! I wonder what the kid can do."
So maybe we should just wear really heavy ankle weights and vests and wrist weights (20 pounds each?) and then as we go through our day, we will be getting exercise without having to cut out special time. I wish you the best of luck. We can only do what our lives allow. Sacrifices can be made, but our priorities do not place the triathlon as high as the kids' life experiences and school successes.
I'm becoming the "creative" parent. Between inventions, experiments, and egg drop competitions, I am working on a strong "A" in kindergarten, 2nd grade, and am currently the star student in 5th grade.
I have built a working air conditioner (out of a cooler, a computer fan, and some ice), a electric motor (battery, magnet, two paper clips, and a piece of copper wire), and two egg drop winners (it was over a 30 ft drop), I went bankrupt on ideas and both were built out of a milk jug, styrofoam, bubblewrap, and plastic grocery bags. One was decorated like a bird, and the other like a helicopter.
I view this as they had a concept just not the right stuff to actually make it work. I do make them do any work that doesn't require 220V power tools, razor blades or fire. Tamara reminds me often that we achieved an "A" about three hours before what we actually finished.
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