Missing in Action
Hi! I’ve not been blogging much recently for a variety of actions. I’ve been desperately trying to stay afloat and I’m not managing it very well.
I really appreciate everyone who reads my blog and especially those of you who take the time to comment, but I need to acknowledge why I started this blog – as a way to keep myself accountable. I’ve also found it therapeutic to be able to write things down, but I’m struggling to find the time at the moment.
I articulated my goal in February 2013 as being to complete an Iron distance triathlon within 5 years. At the moment I feel like I’m a long way away from that, but perhaps I need to ‘big myself up a bit’:
- Swimming: I completed a 17.5km swim in 2015 and even managed a 5km pool swim this year off the back of next to no training. When I started this challenge, I couldn’t even swim 25m crawl
- Cycling: At the start of this challenge, I hadn’t cycled much and had never ridden a road bike. I’ve only cycled outside 5 times this year (a gentle ride to parkrun, a 10 mile TT, a triathlon and two short rides with friends), so I need to get on top of this if I’m going to complete RideLondon this year.
- Running: This feels like my biggest success. In the past month, I’ve set new PBs at a number of distances, including 1 mile (7:10); 5km (23:40) and marathon (4:14:44).
- Triathlon: I’ve managed to get a PB in a sprint triathlon so far this year and am still hopeful that I can take part in a longer distance event in the autumn.
However, even with those achievements, I’m feeling a bit lost at the moment and as if my identity is fracturing. I’m trying to fulfil all of the following roles:
- mother
- wife
- learning designer
- parkrun Run Director
- Tri Club member and press officer
- blogger
- running coach
I feel that I’m just about managing to be a wife and mother and I manage to fit in being a Run Director, but the rest of it is all falling apart, so I need to come up with some strategies to get it back together again. One idea I have is to try to do one thing a day on my blog. It might not be writing a full blogpost, but I need to get back on top of things.
Sorry if I’ve let anyone down – onwards and upwards.
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I find that with so many roles, you just have to prioritize. I knew this year was going to be busy for me so I only made it a goal to blog once a week. As long as that post was up, even if it was minimal text and lots of pictures, I’d still consider it a win. I hope your roles get easier to manage! 🙂
I guess prioritising is my trouble – I get the really important stuff done, but a lot of the stuff that’s close to my heart isn’t high priority in the scheme of things.
Blogging once a week is a really sensible strategy. I think I really need to try to do that and accept that an image heavy text light post is better than no post at all. Thank you.
no worries, i know i have not blog as much as i been busy with work you be able to blog later. keep doing and congrats on the pb!
Thank you 🙂
Cherish your time as a mother of a little baby. Blink and they are 8 years old giving you lip about not having the right football boots (mines my niece).
We met doing the Long course weekend 2015 you were 6mths pregnant. I was running in memory of my best friends little boy.
I would focus on what gives you most happiness. Alot of what you are doing is giving to others- give more to yourself (and family). Just my opinion but to me you are already an Iron Woman! X
Thanks, Corrine 🙂 I think my Ironman won’t be this year, but I’m very tempted to go back to Tenby next year. x
That would be life getting in the way, but then, it sounds like a good one! And you have a little one too, and those moments don’t last. Training for an ironman does eat up time, and if you find that you are regretting not being there for those moments (and subsequently not enjoying either the training or the ‘other stuff’), then you may need to make a decision. There will always be another race. Not so with baby’s first steps, first words, first bike ride…
My youngest was 18 when I did my first long-distance tri. Having said all that, it can be done. I suspect the bike is the main thing… and this can be done at home (boring and all as it is). You can swim and run all day. Get the hours in on the bike. You have a hubby who is totally onside too; that is huge thing.
Thank you. I’m now realising the disadvantages of living a long way from my family (and leaving it quite late to have a baby).
I’ve finally had a go at riding my bike with a trailer and I can fit them both in my car, so hopefully I’ll be able to go to a quiet area in the New Forest and get a bit of cycling in soon.
Lovely post! I’d been thinking about you in your new role 🙂 Totally agree with unitedironman! Life is about reinventing ourselves, you just reinvented yourself as a mum, enjoy the process and please don’t judge your success on benchmarks set 5 years ago.
Thank you x
I have seen you at various events and feel the need to comment to this blog. I saw you at parkrun on saturday, you seemed so confident in your role as race director. Please be gentle with yourself, you have taken on a massive role as a parent and you are doing amazing, be kinder to yourself, give yourself some chill time and relax. We all have down days, do something you enjoy doing, do not push pressure on yourself just do it for fun. Hope things improve for you soon x
Thanks for your kind words, Nicki. A sunny buggy run combined with a chat with a friend has made the week feel more positive 🙂
Woah! Hold on there. You haven’t let anyone down in terms of blogging or achievements.
A new job and the number of other things you have going on would be a test on their own. Sure, have goals and change them when you need to, they give you direction but if you end up at a different destination it doesn’t matter. I managed an Ironman last year and scraped over the line and am trying again this year but the commitment in time is unreal when you actually consider it and I have the same lulls and doubts.
Look forward to the next update, your writing is always worth a read, keep the updates coming, even if they aren’t on target!
Thank you. I think I’ve always been ambitious, but my success or failure has always been entirely down to me and the effort that I’ve put in. It’s hard to accept that the motivation is there, but the time isn’t and that that’s outside of my control. I just hope it improves!
Often times we find we just take on too much. Do what you can and if the rest makes you unhappy quietly let those roles go.
Unfortunately, the stuff that I enjoy less is the stuff that has to be done… but I guess everyone has dilemmas like that!
Tamsyn, only just seen this post and I appreciate that since you wrote it, you’ve managed to get some things back on track. However, having personally tried to do too many things for several years (I’m sure I don’t need to reiterate some of the multiple roles I’ve had), my best advice to you is to focus on those things that make you happy and that you have time for.
There are a few things that are on your list that you can readily stop doing at least for the time being and, in doing so, you won’t be letting anyone down and it’d free time up for you to focus on you, being a mum and whatever other goals you want to focus on. If you were to focus on 4 or 5 of the roles on your list rather than the 7 you have, that would, in my view, be a good thing. Plate spinning may appear to be a great skill but eventually the plates start crashing to the floor in a mess!
Thanks, James… I guess the trouble is that one of the newest roles on that list is one that I can’t drop, but is the one that is most time-consuming and the one I like least 🙁