I just checked the date of my last post – kind of a self-disappointment, just as I was getting on a roll with my posts……..
however the good news is that we have been putting in lots of hours and lots of kms on the bike. And then top that off with work, that has left little time for much else. Pretty much just eating and sleeping, and I haven’t been doing much of that either. I am pretty sure some of my friends are starting to wonder if I met my fate with an eighteen-wheeler – nope, still here.

The last couple weeks have taken me back to a space that was always difficult for me as a Pro Racer. There were many days when deadlines won out over training. And it was all I had in me to keep focussed on the task at hand, while the sun shone through the window and I knew the competition was out putting in the miles and getting stronger. One of my biggest mistakes was to try to do it ALL.

A typical day would look like this:
4:45 am – wake up, dress, grab gear for the day
5:15 am – in the car, commute 50 minutes to gym/work
6:00 am – gym, weight workout
6:45 am – stretch
7:00 am – shower, grab breakfast, head to work
7:45 am – 1/2 hour of personal emails, start work
8:15 am – 4:30 pm – work
5:00 pm – grab bike gear, grab snack, train with coach
7:30 pm – end training, ride commute home
8:15 pm – start cooking dinner, call friends while cooking dinner
9:15 pm – finish dinner, make lunch, plan for following day
9:45 pm – start freelance job
11:00 pm – wrap up, pack for tomorrow
11:30 pm – finally fall asleep

Now notice a few things in there……
No “bleed time” (for things that just happen to “pop up”. No downtime. Laundry, chores what are those? It was really easy for things to get out of hand and eat away at the already very little time I had to sleep (on average 5.25 – 7 hrs). Lucky studies have proven that as an athlete gets more fit they require less sleep – though I plan on doing more research on this as I think the lack of sleep over my race career contributed to adrenal fatigue.

I always found it difficult, if not impossible to find the “balance”. Ahhhhh, the ever elusive concept of balance.

Unless you are an athlete who is FULLY sponsored (meaning someone is paying you a salary to ride – that includes those of you who ride for the bank of Daddy), you are likely doing as I was, balancing at least a 3/4 time job, if not full time job (newsflash: cycling isn’t the most inexpensive sport!), training, a relationship and everything in between. And I’ll be the first one to tell you, if you don’t already know, it can be a struggle.

So, here are my top 5 tips to help find the balance:

1) Sleep:

• monitor your sleep hours and figure out how much sleep is enough for your body
• once you figure that out, block out that time in your schedule at the very least FOUR days a week and let NOTHING interfere.
• figure out when you get your best sleep – some people it’s from 9pm – 1am, others it’s 2am – 5am, everyone is different.

2) Meal Planning:

• plan your meals/snacks for one full week – this way you don’t have to THINK what you are eating for each meal or snack, just look at your plan and make the meal
• make ONE trip to the grocery store – there is nothing worse than finishing a training ride, having NO idea what you are doing for dinner, and having NOTHING in your fridge
• *hint* – this also saves $$

3) Be Flexible:

• if you can arrange it try to get a flex schedule – when you work extra hours one day, take those hours out of another for training
• sometimes work just wins, we have to pay the bills somehow, just accept it, don’t fight it – because with me, fighting always caused too much anxiety and that got me nowhere
• set our your ideal training schedule for the week and accept that it might change
• mark your TOP 3 training priorities for the week, accomplish those even if you have to trade out less important days

4) Reward Yourself:

• most times nobody is going to do be there after a training ride to pat you on the back, so you need to do it for yourself
• create rituals and rewards that encourage you to train and leave something to look forward to

And the answer to my Blog Title, is neither work nor training, it’s:

4) Set Your Priorities, know which is most important to maintain balance:

• which means SLEEP wins over ALL else

• if you are feeling drained/exhausted before a training ride, trade it in for sleep – I personally have a hard time with this one, even though I know better!