Over the next week or so, Team Evotri will be sharing some insight into their daily lives. We will have posts from every team member sharing their life/work/tri balance. First up is Pharmie.
As I suspect most parents do, I often look back and wonder what I did with all of my time before I became a mom a year and a half ago. The truth is, I wasted a lot of it. As team members of Evotri, we decided that it would be fun to do “a day/week in the life of…” to get a feel for how each of us fits training into the rest of life. I’m really excited to read how some of my teammates with 2 and 4 kids still manage to accomplish this feat, and it’ll be fun to see how my teammates who are sans kiddos are relishing in their training.
To be very honest, if I were to tell you about my entire week, it would get pretty repetitive. I think I’ll stick with one day and fill in a few gaps on the rest of the week. My day usually starts with a 5:30-6 AM alarm clock. I am really fortunate that my husband, Steve, does most of the toddler morning duties in our house, so I mostly just have to worry about getting myself off to work. As I head out of my winter maintenance phase, I will likely aim for a bit earlier alarm clock to sneak in AM workouts a few days a week. I generally work from 7 AM till 4 or 4:30 as a clinical pharmacist in major hospital here in Minneapolis. I perform a full review on all of my patients each day, taking into account their labs, their bacterial/viral/fungal cultures, which medications they were on at home, and which medication regimens they will be discharged on. Then I help my physician teams decide on optimal drug therapy for each patient. I often say that my having to be very type A at work is the reason I don’t have that attitude in training and racing. For me, that aspect of my life should be about fun, camaraderie and maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle. This is not to say that I don’t take my training seriously and that I don’t care if I ever get another PR again, but I’m certainly not out to win races, and I don’t let training and racing rule my life right now.
It seems that no matter how my day at work plays out, I’m always running out the door at the end of it. I am responsible for picking Henry up at our sitter’s house, and though she’s always very understanding, we try not to take advantage of her (she’s a stay at home mom who watches Henry along with her 3 kids). Henry and I are usually home by 5 or 5:30, and the next 2-2.5 hours is often our only time together. We make supper together by getting out a small step stool for him so he can see what we are making, and his latest craze is to sniff all of the spices while we are cooking. Then it’s mealtime, playtime, bath time, and bedtime. By then, Steve has come home from work, so we tag-team the end of the evening responsibilities – packing lunches for the next day, doing the dishes, and bathing Henry.
Henry’s usually down between 7:30 and 7:45. From that time until 10 is my time and usually consists workouts, paying bills, cleaning, catching up on emails, etc. For the sake of ease, lately it’s meant a run outside or a trainer ride in the basement. I will have to start sneaking in a swim or two a week in a couple of months, but that takes a lot of extra time and effort, so it tends to be the most neglected area of my training. This past week, Steve and I started doing intervals at the Metrodome again. They are open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-8 PM November through March. The 3 hour window means that we can trade off parent duties and both get in a set of intervals – just in time for the start of my 16 week training program for my marathon in June. I have been following the FIRST program for my last 5-6 marathons, and I think it fits really well into triathlon training. It focuses on quality runs 3 days a week (intervals, tempo, long) with plenty of cross training mixed in. This winter, I discovered that I LOVE spending time on my Cyclops Fluid 2 trainer if I can be reading while doing it. Coach Troy and Spinnervals have taken a back seat to my iPad and the fact that my local library has an ebook collection. I’ve read 11 books since October. It’s a great way to keep myself motivated to hop on my bike, which I love, and stay there. I’ve logged a number of 2.5 hour rides this winter.
As I look back and compare all of this to how I used to train, one way that being a parent has changed me is that I now don’t have time to waste. I don’t put off workouts on the weekends. If I wait to hop on my bike or get out for a run, I don’t get in my full workout. It’s that simple. Since my husband is also training, we try to be supportive of each other and getting one another out the door, but it takes a lot more coordination and planning.
This summer will mark my 3rd triathlon season as a mom, though the first one barely counts since I was on maternity leave and only did one small sprint tri and my annual marathon. Last summer, I was able to fit in a few summer races, but my training was all over the place. I am hoping that now that our family schedule and Henry’s sleep schedule have gotten more consistent, training will follow!
