Finding the TimeBy Alison Colavecchia
4.26.01 (www.slowtwitch.com)
If anyone would have told me five years ago that somehow between being a Mom of three, a wife and having a full time job I could find ways to regularly fit 9-12 hours of training into my weeks, I would have laughed and said they were nuts! Yet, here I am.
I set out to write this article about the practical things I do that allow me to squeeze all the training into my busy days. There are a bundle of small things that I have stumbled upon that work for me, none of them very unique, all of them strategies most mothers or busy people rely on to get through busy times. This includes things like having the lunches made the night before, cooking dinners ahead of time, planning the weeks menus BEFORE giving my husband the grocery list and thinking about the training week ahead in tandem with the rest of our family week to see where potential conflicts lie.
Over time, I have discovered that the greatest number of `hits’, workouts planned and accomplished, occur when they are scheduled early in the day. At this time, they interfere less with family activities and my resolve is least vulnerable to the competing demands of the day. The added bonus of getting them done early is that it goes a long way to improving my efficiency elsewhere, for I am no longer preoccupied with thoughts of how to fit the workouts in, they are done. I have also discovered that an hour and a half at 6 or 7 am feels shorter than an hour and half at 7pm!
Sitting down to think about things practically though, I realized that while there are many things that make it less stressful to take time for training, these come up short when trying to explain the persistence and consistency required for long term commitment. Why I consistently find the time, is more directly related to the psychological than the practical.
First, I have gradually accepted that I must always begin where I am. In the very beginning this meant accepting that a swim of 800 meters was a success as was a 15km bike or a 3km run; and that just getting out the door was in and of itself a reason to celebrate. Likewise through injuries, busy family times or returning after an `off’ time, I have had to learn to assess where I am and begin there or even a few steps back. This lesson has taken time for I have come from the school (mine) that says more and more often is better. So injuries were my wakeup call. Thanks to Joel (coach), I am learning that matching the workouts with where I am in my season and my health, means looking forward to the workouts instead of dreading them for they are reflective of where I am and not 5 steps ahead of me. Doing so has made me more patient, more willing to go through steps 1-4 to get to 5.
Second, to keep finding the time, I had to accept that I was entitled to it. I had to learn to stop apologizing every time I headed out the door. At one point it dawned on me that I had never once in nearly 16 years of being together, heard my husband apologize for heading out the door to go to hockey or basketball. Why was I doing it several times a week? So I stopped.
Finally, and most importantly, the return on my investment is too great to be ignored. What I get back from this active/sporting lifestyle is so much more than the sum of its parts. In return for heading out the door to swim, bike or run I have received the gift of myself. This is not new, it is what thousands before me have discovered while seeking to get fit, test their mettle or achieve a more balanced lifestyle- that our bodies and indeed our selves are so much more than we have ever given them credit for. Sport shows us that. I had tried other activities like focusing on my house, creative projects or career but none has given me the gifts that returning to sport has. Some might argue that I am somewhat hard wired for this but I do not think so. Too many people come to this lifestyle never having been a childhood or high school athlete only to discover that the physical gifts of sport are only the beginning- that the true gifts of a sporting life are spiritual, emotional and psychological. So that along the way to pursuing their first triathlon, first marathon they find in themselves someone they otherwise might have missed. I am no exception.
So the main reason I find the time to train and race is because I am rewarded for doing so. In return for swimming, biking and running each week I get to see that there is more to being me than I had imagined. There is vitality in my step that didn’t used to be there, firmness in my opinions and greater resolve when I commit to things that just wasn’t there before. I like how this all feels, that's why I find the time.
Still Tri’n
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