January 12, 2010

Nothing to report today. Tomorrow is my first day in a new division at work, so the next couple of weeks will be spent ironing out a workout schedule that allows for sufficient training/rest balance.

I have to be at work one hour earlier than at my old division, but my mat training time at night will stay the same. This is a significant change, as I have been running in the morning before work. Soooo, my immediate plan is to run my usual two miles tomorrow morning, and then time how quickly I can jet to work and get ready. A mild work in progress but completely do-able.

This family/work/training balance is always a challenge. In order to compete at a higher level, one must make the competition a priority. No debate. My husband and I do not have children (by choice), so the time commitment is not an issue in our house. But darn, work has a way of cutting into training time. Not an issue if I only competed in smaller tournaments, but once you step it up to the international level, you learn quickly that many of your opponents train all day, everyday. This means I need to be extra smart and ultra-efficient with my training hours.

The hardest part for me is striking the fine balance when I move into a period of more intense training. There is a time to burn the candle at both ends, and a time to sit quiet and let the body recover. Too much candle burning, the body cries in the form of annoying injuries. Too much quiet time, the skill and the edge suffer. This is the challenge. The gauntlet. Speaking of which, I need to go to bed. Night.

Comments

  1. slideyfootMarch 16, 2010 at 9:05 AM

    Interesting: while I'm not married, my gf and I have been together for nine years now, and we also made the decision not to have children early on (of course we're not even in our thirties yet so still young, but that decision hasn't wavered in the last decade).

    In my case, that has been strengthened even further by the experience of looking after my niece for eight months last year.

    She's a lovely child, but it gave me a little insight into how much commitment it requires to raise children, in terms of money, time and the sheer physical effort of making certain that they're happy, well-fed and positively occupied, not to mention the enormous emotional investment.

    I'm simply not willing to give up that much of my life, and I don't think anyone should have children unless they ARE willing to make all those sacrifices. Such a shame all prospective parents can't somehow be forced to look after a baby for a few months or a year before procreating. ;)

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