Day: August 14, 2019

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My ‘I don’t List…

I recently wrote a blog “The juggle (and real life struggle) of a working triathlete mum.” I read over it a number of times before I actually posted it as one of my worries was making sure it didn’t sound like I was ‘boasting’, or that ‘I had it all together’, and had this working, training mum thing down pat. Because that’s not how I wanted it to sound and it’s definitely not the message I was trying to get across.

Being a triathlete and a working mum myself, I did have other mothers asking me how I fit everything in though, how I managed to have the motivation to get up and train, to head out the door on less than optimal sleep. And even WHY?! Some people seemed in awe, others maybe looked on questioning… But I wanted to share the journey to show that yeah – it is tough, and it does require a lot of juggling, but if you want it to work, you CAN make it work. BUT that’s not to say that I have it all together. Or that I do everything. Far from it.

And an article I read this week reiterated what I was trying to get across. It was about a women who shared her ‘I don’t list’. And it really resonated with me.

“Are you watching your alcohol intake, your carb intake, your sugar intake? Are you intermittent fasting? Are you totally Keto? Are you cooking from scratch every evening with only organic, paleo, dairy-free, meat-free, grain-free produce ethically-sourced from a plastic-free farmers’ market?

Are you monitoring your kids’ screen time, while staying off your phone, while miraculously staying abreast of local and international issues so you can lead your well-tended friendship group in intelligent discussions….?

I didn’t think so. I told you, you’re not doing enough.“…..

“…..I can see that what women really need to hear is not how other women “do it all”, so that we can mimic their to-do lists and add more and more to our cracking plates. No. We need to hear what other women aren’t doing. Because we all have an ‘I Don’t’ List. And every one will be different.…”Read the full article here…

SO – I thought, along with my recent article of what I WAS doing to juggle training, working and family life, I’d now also share what I’m not doing – MY I don’t list…

  • I don’t always call or texts friends back (sorry!) 
  • I don’t do mobility and activation prior to all my sessions. Even though I encourage all my athletes to. 
  • I don’t give my daughter the recommended amount of tummy time every day. 
  • I don’t work enough ‘on’ my business as much as I do ‘in’ my business. 
  • I don’t meditate, even though I know the health benefits
  • I don’t brush my hair every day. Realistically only twice a week! 🤭
  • I don’t know the names of every child care worker at my sons day care. Even though these women give their love and attention to my son every week. 
  • I don’t always get through my days to do list, or stick to my planned schedule. 
  • I don’t put my phone down before bed. I know the science… but I still don’t.
  • I don’t remember all my friends birthdays – even when facebook reminds me! 
  • I don’t always put my baby down when she’s tired. Or wake her when she ‘should’ be awake. I keep her out longer than recommended. And let her cry when I’m too busy to deal. (go ahead & judge!) 😉
  • I don’t keep a budget, or know where all our money is being spent.
  • I don’t market myself or my business like I know I ‘should’ or ‘could’.
  • I don’t follow a training program.
  • I don’t always eat organic, or sugar free, or dairy free….
  • I don’t read as much as I would like.
  • I don’t have a five year plan. I never have. It’s just not me.
  • I don’t empty the bins, I jam those dam things until they are overflowing! (ask my hubby!)

Despite all these things that I don’t do – do you know what? I am ok with it. Sure I could try and ‘do’ more, ‘be’ more – but at what expense? I am ok with not having everything all together all the time. With not doing everything. With not putting that pressure on myself. And I don’t feel guilty one bit. Nor should you. Despite all the things I don’t do, what I do do is understand that stuff happens. Life happens. And there is more to every day than all those little things put together.

Sometimes all I do is enough in the day just to keep the household ticking over.  Sometimes it’s about picking your battles. Of choosing what makes you feel like you are winning in that day or in that moment, and letting go of everything else.

Sure. I could be working more, I could be spending time and money on marketing to grow my business, I could be stuck to a schedule and not deviate from it, I could put the phone down and get an extra 30min of sleep, I could be saving more…

But at the moment, that means I would be working more when I want to share more precious moments with my children, I would spending time on tasks that don’t add value in that moment, I would be so stuck in my routine that I couldn’t say ‘yes’ to a new adventure…..

So know, that everyone has an ‘I don’t list’. They may not share it, but know that no one is perfect. And that’s ok. Because today – and tomorrow. I don’t.

What’s on your ‘I Don’t’ list? 

~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ 
Sarah is the Director & Head Coach at Complete Per4mance Coaching. Sarah qualified for the Ironman World Champs in her first Ironman attempt at Ironman Melbourne 2013 (also achieving a podium place in the same race), going on to compete in Kona that same year. Sarah shares her 10 years of coaching and racing experience, knowledge and education with athletes of all levels to help them achieve their optimal performance while maintaining a balanced, happy and healthy life.

Contact Sarah to discuss training options for you.

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Bucket list race: Escape from Alcatraz

Words: Athlete Ollie McNulty

Like most of us triathletes, I watched the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon and decided this was one for the bucket list! It was a few more years before I decided to have a go and entered the lottery. When I got the email to say I had a slot my first reaction was excitement. The second one was “Oh shit how will I get through that swim!!” (if you haven’t heard about it watch here)

The Race. The Escape from Alcatraz is not a standard triathlon. It is unique with a few new challenges I have not experienced anywhere else before. A 2.5 km swim in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay. Jumping in from a ferry off the shore of Alcatraz Island. (This was pretty cool – literally and figuratively! ) 😉 An amazing but tough 32 km cycle with plenty of hills and climbs. Followed by a 12.5km run with again plenty of hills, soft sand and the sand steps – all keep you honest!

Preparation. I live and train in Deniliquin – country New South Wales. We have a 50m pool which only opens between November through to March, so makes swim training over winter very tough. You either have to travel an hour to a near by town, or you can brace The Edward River, which is ok if you like the cold! To make it even more challenging to train for this race, we don’t have hills to speak of to train on. So sitting down with Coach Sarah to map out a plan we had to be creative!

I did the training that I could and braved the 11 C Edward River. ZWIFT is great and I managed to at least pretend I was cycling up hills. I don’t run to much so continued to shuffle around the bush her in Deniliquin. When possible, I travelled to Melbourne to get some additional sessions in. All in all I was proud of my efforts leading into the race. I could have always done more, but with a demanding and high stress job, we simply worked with what we had and did what we could, and I was content with that.

Pre Race. I arrived in San Francisco on the Wednesday before the race. First thing Thursday morning I collected my hire bike and went for a spin to get used to it. I had a good look around the city and again stressed a little (a lot) when I realised how small Alcatraz Island looked – so far away from the shore! And how steep some of the hills were – no amount of zwifting compared to these! (If you know San Francisco you will know what i’m talking about!)

The race and preparation of the race from the event organisers is fantastic. You get weekly updates giving you advice about the race which I found highly valuable. They tell you what to expect and how to help prepare, but coming from Deniliquin it was still a bit of a shock. Registration the day before is well coordinated but dragged a bit as they send you from one tent to the next to get all your information, forms, bags, drop off gear. We had an unusually warm day with a lot of people scrambling for shade and water.

Race Day. We had a 4am start to get to transition, as all athletes had to be on shuttle busses to the ferry by 6am . I was glad of the extra time as firstly our taxi driver was given the wrong destination and decided to take us to transition via the airport! (stress that wasn’t needed pre race!) Thankfully he was not to fussed about speed limits. I got to transition at 5am to find my back-wheel flat. Thankfully Coach Sarah and I had previously gone over a pre race mental check list with we went through scenarios of when things go wrong – so mentally I was able to work through this easier and not get too stressed. The bike mechanic on hand was great as my bike had tubeless tyres. Whilst I was a little stressed it stopped me thinking of the swim and made the shuttle with plenty of time to spare.

The journey out on the boat was an amazing atmosphere. So much nervous energy with 2500 packed athletes of all shapes and sizes. I was delighted to meet Jorge a Californian also had thought ahead and had a little extra ‘padding’ like me to accommodate the cold swim. 😉 Everyone like in all races was so positive and so encouraging as we got to the start line. They played the national anthem and then it was go time. We queued and with lots of encouragement we jumped! What a moment!

Once I got in and tried to settle into a steady stroke I was delighted to realise that my time in the Edward River was well spent. San Francisco bay was much warmer and with my extra buoyancy I felt good! I misjudged the current and after 50 minutes I managed to make the shore 400-500m downstream of the exit point. Just what I love an extra run across soft sand! It felt great and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the swim – which is the leg I worry about the most.

Out on the bike. The first 3km are flat and then you hit the hills. They were a lot steeper, longer and tougher than I expected. But I loved every second and managed to pass people going up the hills as well as going back down. Some of the roads were rough but we were well briefed about what to expect. When you are going 8km/hr uphill that does not really matter!! haha.

When I got to transition I knew I had pushed a bit hard and enjoyed the cycle to much. SO at this point, I was not looking forward to the run. The first 3km was flat so I settled into a slow steady shuffle. When I hit the hills there are a lot of narrow tracks, so it was easy to stop and walk as I didn’t want to try and push past people!! My legs were stuffed, and I had not prepared at all for a course like this – pretty hard living in flat country NSW. When you hit the beach and the soft sand it was so somewhat reassuring to see how much we were all suffering and all the support from other competitors and volunteers. Heading back in the sand steps are tough I was so glad to have the rope along the side to help pull yourself up the hill. When I reached the top, I felt faint and walked the next km. I hadn’t come this far to end up passing out and not finish!

With 4km to go the downhill section started to the finish line. I managed to get back into a steady shuffle and continued my way. Like all these races the thrill of finishing, crossing that line and getting that medal make all the training, the self doubt and the hurt all worthwhile!

In summary. This is a tough race. I loved it and would look to go again. The organisation was fantastic and as in every race the volunteers are amazing and looked after us extremely well on the course. Its so good to be able to say I Escaped ! !

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