It's Hard To Do It All

Phew. I am glad this week is over. I feel like the last 3 days have just been a whirlwind and Mama needs a break. That's the biggest problem with travel, isn't it? You have a great time while you're gone, but then you have to come home (and I won't go into the nightmare of travel that can entail) and everything you were supposed to be doing is still right there, waiting to be done, but now you just have less time to do it all. That's how this week went.

Suffice to say that my bike is still sleeping peacefully in its box and shall remain there for time unspecified. Hey, at least it finally showed up here at my house. 2 days late is better than lost completely. And at some point I'll unpack my suitcase. Really, I will. I unzipped it the other day and saw that the glass french press I took with me was shattered so there was broken glass all over. Rather than dealing with it, I zipped that suitcase right back up and left it there. Does tell you anything about my personality? Maybe when I open it up again the glass will be magically gone? I know. Not likely. But I need to have a different mindset before I can clean all that up.

Anyway, in good news, I made a positive change with my coaching business this week. I've recently gotten calls from several more athletes who want coaching, which is great, but I was feeling overwhelmed with my unsatisfactory way of managing them all via email. So I bit the bullet and bought myself into the Professional Edition of Training Peaks. I've been contemplating this for a while but when I only had a handful of athletes I just couldn't justify it. But now I've got pretty close to what is a full load for me and my old way was NOT working for me anymore. I *knew* that transitioning into this program was going to cause me some extra work as I was really going to have to sit down and concentrate to learn all the bells and whistles of the program. I have to say though, the live support I got from the staff at Training Peaks was awesome and extremely helpful (thanks, Chris!). I'm proud to report that I managed to get all of my athletes up and running on TP in the last 3 days and all their schedules are written for next week. Phew.

So given that, here's what my days have looked like:

5:30 Wake up before my alarm with my brain spinning 100rpm with all the stuff I need to do but have not done yet. Get up and log onto my computer and start working. Spend several hours with a cup of coffee and work until I can't see the computer screen anymore. Get Moana up and ready for day care and thank Scott for taking her in. Keep working in my pajamas. Eventually I get to T1, which involves changing into run shorts and a sports bra and taking a break to go clear my head on the road. T2 involves a shower and one of my Coffees of Hawaii shirts (and some lip gloss, coffee flavored now, nonetheless) and then out the door to drum up some more business for COH. Smile! It's time to sell coffee! T3 @ 4:00 involves bringing a sippy cup full of milk to pick Moana up from daycare. Try to forget about all work (um, put that phone away!!) and play with my daughter at the park for an hour before dinner. T4 quick change into housewife mode as I prepare dinner and hope that Scott comes home before Moana rips the whole house apart. Eat. Clean kitchen. Thank Scott for taking care of Moana's bath/bedtime. T5 back to the computer to obsess about Training Peaks for several more hours until I can't see the computer anymore. T6 involves getting back into my pajamas and asleep by 10. Repeat in the morning...

This morning I did manage to get down to the beach as the sun was coming up for an ocean swim with Nalani. In truth, I don't think either of us were really looking forward to it. The wind was howling, the water was choppy, and it was not as warm as it should be for JULY in Hawaii. We're both tired and stressed out right now (for different reasons, neither of which are athletic related) and I think it would have been easy to dump the idea of a swim altogether in that angry ocean. But you know what? The ocean, even on those crazy choppy days, is a cure all. We finished up our workout with some barefoot running and skipping and sprinting in the sand and the smile that put on both of our faces was priceless. Ready to start the day!

I do think that next week will get a bit easier. First of all, I'll actually have 5 days to get my 5 days worth of work done. Seems like the last few weeks I've been trying to get 5 days worth of work done in 3 days. That's really hard.

Anyway, of course I am looking forward to the weekend and the Tour starting tomorrow, though I am foreshadowing some disharmony in our house given that the World Cup is not yet over... Scott and I may have to arm wrestle for that remote!