I recently decided to take the plunge during the off season and head back to a "normal" job. It often makes me laugh when people don't think what I normally do (the lycra wearing, training and self-inflicted suffering that is being a full time athlete) is "work". In truth, whilst I love it and it has many, many great benefits, its the hardest job I've ever done. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that there are jobs that are FAR harder and more demanding -teachers, nurses policemen or being a full time mum to name but a few that I admire immensely- but the demands we must make on ourselves as full-time athletes, both mentally, physically and emotionally are huge and at times VERY tough. But I digress....
After (as you'll know if you read my previous blog) deciding to make some much needed changes for next season in order to get my performances back on track, I needed to put in place a number of things... and some of these, as with most things in life, required money. Hands-up MY fault, I'd not got the results this season to enable me to actually have these finances in place; rather than sulk about this though I decided I had to fix it... my mistakes meant my responsibility. So by Gods grace, at a time when more and more people are unemployed and the financial world seems all doom'n gloom, I find myself back in an IT job and sat behind a desk for much of the day and commuting into an office at rush-hour (on my bike of course).
2 weeks in and I'll be honest, life is now relentlessly hectic! The days are passing without me even noticing. I'm up at 5am (sometimes earlier) and still training at gone 10pm some nights. In a way though, exhausting as it is, its actually quite refining for me. I've been forced to get VERY 'lean'n mean' with my time... no moment can be wasted! Even my love for Masterchef Australia and Grand Designs has been snuffed out in the name of effective time management. My time now can only be divided between Jesus, my girlfriend & family, training and work. Unfortunately there isn't time for anything else.
The interesting thing is, that the result of being SO time starved, is that I'm finding I'm actually getting things DONE! Or maybe that should be the important things done (however as I write, the Christmas shopping hasn't yet made this list yet... GULP!). With no time for dawdling and with all systems "GO" from the moment the alarm goes off, I'm actually not feeling stressed or exhausted but actually (though still tired) quite effective and productive. With the expert and very understanding advice or my new coach Tom Bennett (T2 Coaching) my training is now all about bang--for--buck time effective sessions, no waste or junk miles allowed :-)
The other thing I've realised is that a lot of bad habits that had crept in and I'm sure helped lead to sub-optimal performance, have now been broken too. There's no option to "wait for the rain to stop before i head out for my run"... and then fail to actually get out the door at all; there's no "oh I'll just watch the end of this program and then go for my recovery nap"; and there's no "hit the snooze and take 5 more minutes" when i wake up in the morning. Its quite nice to feel like I've got some disciplined control back. Its not so much a transformation though, as it is conformation.
Having said all this however, I simply have NO idea how people do this all whist also having kids too! I tip my hat to you all because you must have somehow invented the 25th hour in the day or the 8th day in the week.
As Tom recently quoted to me "In every situation there is potential value, believe this then begin looking for it" - Norman Vincent Peale
