Work/Life/Triathlon Balance

Notice how "work" has a higher point value...

I think that one of the hardest things I deal with is what I've come to call work/life/triathlon balance.  As someone working in corporate America, I have, like most people, been given the standard lip-service of "work-life balance" through various modes of communication at work over the course of a couple of decades.  It's something everybody struggles with, because we all lead very complicated lives in very complicated and often, quite-demanding jobs. I don't think my problems are unique or different than anyone else's when it comes to this issue.


I just complicate the issues by adding in an on-going pursuit of triathlon. There have been times in my life when everything to do with this sport clicks together with my personal life--I have wound up with friends training with me--the workouts have been enjoyable--triathlon becomes a path of life that seems to fit and fill in a part of my life that helps to achieve that balance without taking anything away.

There have also been times when nothing seems to work.  I wind up plagued with injury--my friends have disbanded, so I'm training on my own--my workouts become a source of stress and anxiety instead of stress relief and a near meditative state. All of this goes on while my career does what it does, which is to go through the cycles of stress and reward that it does--as everybody's career does.

I think all of this kills me when the three major things in my life all go into a synodic intersection of a spiral of death at the same time.  My career has become a source of stress again--I just had a series of workouts that kicked my ass following a series of subpar performances at Gay Games--and I did them all on my own...mainly because no one I know wants to do a four hour long brick workout if they don't have a half ironman sitting on their schedule in the very near future.  Today, some of my friends headed out for drinks at the Faultline, and I decided against going because I'd lost seven pounds of bodyweight during my run this morning, and couldn't get my shit together to get my swim done in time to be able to meet them.  I'm insane--I realize that...it's just possible there's a reason why this guy that I dated many years ago had friends that told him "Gay rocket scientist triathlete?  Does not exist."  But there are probably many of us, actually--and we're all equally insane.  And frankly, I just don't understand how anyone with children does any of this--some people are simply superheroes.

But I'm not that strong--I cannot keep my shit together at a time such as this.  So I just have to cope day by day.  And search for a light at the end of the tunnel.  Find some new people to train with, wait for the aerospace cycle of death to turn around, and hope that the climb out of this quagmire is imminent. Besides, I've got an appointment with a new therapist on Thursday.  By Friday, I should be completely fixed.


Visualize puppies and rainbows.

Gay Games 9 Triathlon--A New Beginning

It's been a long time since I've written in my blog--I can name countless reasons why I haven't.  Brian and I sold our old house and moved to a new one, work stress has grown, we've had way too many issues going on with our dogs, Josie and Max, and frankly, I've just been a little overwhelmed with things.  And I would be lying if I didn't say that my issues with depression have played a role in dealing with things.

I'm currently at Gay Games 9 in Cleveland, Ohio, and yesterday competed in the Olympic Distance Triathlon.  My performance was excellent, but the outcome of the race was not--to sum it up, the race course was not clearly marked on the run, and I didn't know beforehand (as I should have) where the double-back loop was supposed to occur.  It turns out that the loop was supposed to be doubled over the 2 miles of the beginning of the run course, so by the time I'd identified something was wrong (within half a mile of the finish line) there was nothing I could do.  Following the finish, I waited to find someone else who had done the Olympic distance race and figured out where my mistake was.  I immediately knew that I had to ask the officials to disqualify me--the finish time that I was given would likely have been the fastest overall and robbed people of the medals they rightfully deserved.

Given my long term issues with injury over the past couple of years, this is disappointing, but there are some things that make this race a very big positive.  I had a swim split right around the 22 minute mark, which was the fastest of the day--in order to disqualify my results, the officials destroyed my swim split time, so I won't know for sure my exact time, but the next fastest time in the results was 22:47.   Given that I pulled away from my wave in the first 200 meters and never saw them again, I can be happy with my return to decent swimming shape.

My bike split was an average of 213 watts over a hilly course, and lacked the characteristic peaks and valleys in power that I have typically had problems with on this kind of course--it was a better ride than anything I have done in years.   And my run was going extraordinarily well--I ran 8:30s for the first four miles, and was prepared to finish strong for the last 2.2.  If I take a look at where 8:30s would have placed me in the final standings, I would have wound up second in my age group--but 2nd and 3rd in my age group go to the people who actually took the time to know the course beforehand, as they should.

Bike power--The dips under 100 watts are the turnarounds at the far ends of each of the 3 loops

So, I'm back in the shape I was before my injuries and probably even much faster than that. My injuries are under control, and well on their way to being completely non-factors in my performance.  In the past couple of months, the path that Joanna and I have taken is to address the muscular imbalances and weaknesses in my glutes, hamstrings, and core that so many triathletes have from excessive overuse in biking and running.  These new exercises seem to not only be fixing my problems with injury but also unlocking new speeds I have not seen before.

I'm excited to keep on racing--Up next is 5 events plus 3 relays in Gay Games Swimming!