Overbooked and Overtired

The worse part of the triathlon life is definitely the time commitment. I absolutely love training and will do just about anything to get my training in but sometimes life just gets in the way. So what’s a girl to do? Something has got to give, right?

Well unfortunately, I am and never will be a good enough athlete to quit my job and dedicate my whole life to triathlon, so a precise delicate balancing act is necessary to continue doing the sport I love and carry on with my life. Right now I must admit I am struggling with balancing everything. Here is what I have on my plate

1) Depending on how far into training I am, at any given point we can have 10 to 20+ hours of training a week.

2) I work an average 45 hours/week and sometimes those hours are spent in the field where 10 to 12 hour days, hours away from home, are the norm.

3) I am trying desperately to finish my grad school work, thus I have class two nights a week. Not to mention my thesis which will be going into full gear VERY soon.

4) I like to give back to humanity wherever I can since I find myself so blessed with a fantastic life therefore I volunteer one night a week at the Children’s Hospital.

5) Engineering is a different kind of professional world than most; it works like an apprenticeship like in the old days when a son was sent off to learn a trade. First we must take a brutal 8 hour exam on the fundamentals of engineering and pass it (four years of engineering school put into one test), then we must work for four years under a licensed engineer to learn “the trade”, and finally, we must take another brutal 8 hour exam on the practices and principals of engineering to become a licensed engineer. This last one is where I am at in my career. The professional engineering (PE) exam is just a God awful exam testing your knowledge of the last four years (6 year for me, hehe I’ve been putting this off) under a licensed engineer. Imagine taking a test on every little detail of your profession and then some... it’s just plain hard. People study anywhere from months to years for this exam and yup, you guessed it I have to take it in April!!! So I must study all weekend every weekend and then any time I might find during the week!

6) Family time. My poor husband is so neglected! Lucky for me he does Ironmans as well, so he understands the time commitment but with everything else, he is probably really annoyed with me because he is just getting ignored. I know it’s awful and I need to carve out some time for him!! (and the pets!)

Ya see, SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE!!! I find all these things above equally important to me so how am I to choose what goes? I mean I am overbooked, right? And I need to back off on something, right? Am I just being an overdramatic person? How does everyone else balance all of this? I know in the end I will find a solution but right now it just all feels so overwhelming. I guess “overwhelming” is what you get when you have the luxury to complain about such things.

"You owe it to everyone you love (including yourself) to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world"