Balance...or an athletic teeter-totter

It's been awhile since my last post, I blame life...work, training, friends, family, I could probably make an entire blog post about why I couldn't make the time to update my blog. I'm not sure where i'm going with this one yet so that just may be what it's about!

So how does one learn to balance their job AND their social life, especially since one's job is very demanding right now. I love my work and I love helping people reach their goals even more but I do need to work on saying "no." Which, oddly enough is one of the first things a co-worker said to me when I began this position.

I began squeezing in yoga classes whenever I could...trying to find this balance between a job and a passion that is always on the go and making myself slow down and simply enjoy the moment. Somewhere between tadasana (mountain pose) and virkasana (tree pose) I always seem to find this balance. Quite literally actually. In that yoga studio I am able to let go of my crazy life, the bills, the training runs, the bike maintenance, scheduling clients, squeezing in professional development, making time for friends, family and trying to keep my sanity.

But my life isn't in a yoga studio...what can I change about my life to make it more yoga-esque and less hectic? The truth is I can't...so sometimes little stresses become larger than life and feelings that I had managed to keep down in the past begin to show themselves. This results in very off days...off days being the nicest possible way of putting it.

So what happens when you can't hold it together anymore? I escape. To the trails on my mountain bike, to the long country roads on my road bike, to the streets in my running shoes, to the weight room to clean, snatch, deadlift, chin up and sweat my worries away. I have to wonder if fitness will always be the escape...what happens if one day it's not enough to crank out a good 10Km run or do the 3 bars of death workout? Or maybe someday there will be a day where I don't need the escape...i'll simply be one of those people who can "fun run" or will one of my nagging injuries get the better of me?

I had an interesting discussion with my physiotherapist, Anne, at our last treatment session. We were talking about how some people "drop out" of a boot camp half way through a set or stop mid-triathlon and DNF....what kind of pain does it take for your body to say "no" or just "no thanks." And where do we draw that line? I know for me that line is a long way away, I will run through pain until my body stops working all together. But someone else might get a side stitch or a hangnail and not finish. Does that mean I have a high physical pain tolerance or a highly evolved mental pain tolerance? Does my brain not allow my body to stop moving or does it block out minor pain until it becomes overwhelming? And lastly, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

New goal: teach my body to find the point just before an "athletic discomfort" turns into an injury...the truth is, I just can't stop training. I won't let my body lose strength and tone. So maybe this goal has to wait...stay tuned for more thoughts.

*I am currently receiving IMS therapy from Anne Edwards at CSA Physio in Edmonton, AB, She's amazing and I highly reccomend CSA for any sports injury!*