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Stuff About Balance...

Sunday, 22 February 2015 00:10

Image - Pretend that "Triathlon" is in the "Friends" circle.

By Justin Chester (usatriathlon.org)

I recently had a friend ask me, “You’ve trained for an ultra-distance race; are all IRONMAN triathletes completely obsessed and self-absorbed?”

Obsessed … probably, but more like passionate. Self-absorbed? That struck me as a little derogatory. But as I dug deeper, I found that her boyfriend was training for an IRONMAN and was completely ignoring their budding relationship (and in a few months they would eventually break up). Was there a communication problem? Probably. But it is easy to see that as he started training longer hours their relationship started to take a downward turn.

I could definitely sympathize with the situation — I’ve been on both sides. As an athlete, my wife and I have had some serious conversations about my triathlon habit. And as a coach, I’ve had to have long conversations with athletes (and their significant others). So let’s talk about balance.

Read any time management book and the first thing it will tell you to do is to establish priorities. So let’s put them in order....

Health: taking care of body and mind
Family: spouse, children and even immediate family
Work
And finally triathlon

We run into problems when these priorities get jumbled up. Why are they in this order? Well, without maintaining your health you are obviously sacrificing your family and your job. Without a thriving home life, your work suffers (have you ever gone to work after an argument with your spouse?). And finally, without a supportive employer you won’t have the time to participate in triathlon, let alone any other hobby. READ MORE