What does your wife think...

These past two mornings the weather has been beautiful. My plan was to get up real early and run, but yesterday's late night prevented me from doing so. When I did get up I relaxed and took it easy, and started drinking lots of water before I did my long run. I had Reid make me some pancakes, he makes an excellent pancake. Mine are awful, unless you like black burnt pancakes. 

It was nice out and I debated if I should wear shorts or not. I went for the shorts. I also found a new route in the Escarpment. Went down Walkers line and went west on Britannia Road. Lots of rolling hills. I finally took a picture of myself with the "Women's Institute" sign on someones yard. It's old and I think it's cool looking. I'd love to have it in my "man cave". During the run, I started thinking about the questions I get from people when they learn that I put in 12 - 24 hours a week of training for triathlons. 

It seems I always get the same two questions, Where do you find the time to train, do you work? and, How does your wife feel about you training so much and what does she do while your training? Normally I just answer it simply and say, yes I do have a 9:00 - 5:00 job and Alice doesn't seem to have a problem with it and seems to have lots to do at home, especially during the week.

The reality is that I'm a lucky person. I have a personal and professional lifestyle that supports me doing triathlons, and to do it it requires give and take on the home front. The first thing I did was marry my "soul mate", which took 6 years of dating to verify. Last year we celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary and 26 years together. She and I both learnt about each others, or I should say, "my warts and pimples" before we got married. To me she's the picture of perfection. Alice is secure within herself. She doesn't need me by her side everyday and in fact, it would probably drive her crazy. She enjoys being a mother and being around the kids and understands that I need to train in order to feel good about myself. 

On the other hand, I know that it is important to be a good Father and Husband. My core responsibilities are to provide income, help raise our kids without damaging them to much, spend quality time with the family as a whole and with each of them one on one. If I just did my own thing it would be all wrong.

The first thing I realized was that quantity of time doesn't equal quality of time, and the second was that when I am around the family I try to make life fun, or at minimum humor them with my stupid ideas and actions. Alice is a stay at home Mom and I try to spend as much time with her on weekends as possible to give her a mental break. When I was training hard for the Ironman and putting in 10 hour training weekends, that was a little unfair. So I've now decided to try to get up early, while she is sleeping and try to get back from training an hour or two after she wakes up. And I've decided to only do an Ironman every second year (at least that's what I say now). We've also been lucky to find something we both enjoy doing together. Which is hanging around the bar downstairs, enjoying each others company, talking, listening to 70's music, drinking more than is healthy (at least I do) and getting to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Of course on those weekends, which is almost every weekend, it's impossible to get up early to train. But my intent is to get up early:-) 

In five words, "we have a strong marriage". That's how I'm able to train for the Ironman. Actually, I just realized that from now on, when people ask, I'm just going to say "we have a Strong marriage". Like I said, I'm a lucky guy!

Long Run - 2:02:44 / 15.05 miles / 8:09 pace 

Lost 7.5 lbs on the run.

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