Overliving

I found a perfect descriptive term for my life as a (full-time, working) obgynmom attempting to train for triathlons, per Joe Friel's Training Bible, under the chapter dealing with the spectrum of over training: "Overliving". It describes the attempt to balance parenthood, full time employment and triathlon training. In particular for OBs, summertime is the time when we are very likely overliving as we try to balance these parts of life. The peak season for babies being born (just look 9 months back to see the reason), as well as vacations for colleagues AND the season for triathlons all converge into 3 months. For me, June and July flew by with 24+ -hr calls every three nights (no Mem Day, no July 4th holidays) yielding 100- hour work- weeks. In this period, I had the simultaneous joy and exhaustion of parenthood, delivering 3-4 babies every call night (typically between 1 and 5am) and training for-- and participating in-- sprint triathlons. I am sure there are similar situations with lawyers who travel, businessmen and the like (although less likley to be seasonally- based). I had a sense (not clearly until I read Friels book) of this sort of thing as I formally started training for triathlons on May 1st of this year. I decided to minimize this sort of thing by signing up with a terrific triathlon coaching service on that date. Somehow I still manged to "overlive".

On the one hand, "overliving" is appealing-- what a full life! But I am acutely aware that it is unsustainable in the long run. I have a colleague who believes it impacts the immune system and eventually may be a hit that leads to cancer. She may be right. I am familiar with fellow triathletes who get more frequent head colds or other viral infections during this season. We all know the interaction between lifestyle and the immune system is so far from being understood.

The rewards from what we do in this phase of living make it all the more difficult to bring it back to normalcy: The slightly less than normal amount of sleep is adapted by the body, the workouts completed are rewarded physiologically as the body achieves perceptible fitness, a seasoned specialist is able to rely on experience and knowledge throughout this short period at work and children and spouse accept that that it is part what makes up the worker-parent-athlete.

This past week, (finally!) having a reprieve from hospital call, on a training taper week (meaning short workouts) and glycogen (carbo-) loading in preparation for my A race, it took as much discipline to cut back on the frenetic pace as it has been to keep it going. On Sunday August 9th, in celebration of my upcoming 45th birthday, I participated in my very first International ("Olympic") Distance triathlon (1 mile swim followed by 22 mile bike followed by a 6 mile run). I was surprisingly awarded a medal as I came in third for my age group. How cool was that??!! Yes, this absolutely rewards the "overliving" I have done in the past few months, but fortunately due to my supportive family, spouse and friends I am gently reminded of the life "outside". So, shortly I will happily end this phase and move on to the "off-season".