Balancing

After the last couple of weeks, my overriding desire for this weekend has been to have a quiet one at home with the family. Having spent nearly all of last weekend on the triathlon coaching course and most of yesterday on a bike, I feel like I have barely seen my family for the last couple of weeks. My plan for this weekend has been to rectify that.

I still headed out for a ride this morning, but I kept it fairly brief. I didn't head out with the BYL Juniors as I have been doing for the last few weeks, rather I just went riding by myself. I would be lying if I said my decision to ride solo wasn't at least little because of yesterday's long ride. If I am honest, I am not sure my legs had another 100+ km day in them today. However, my other reason for riding solo was that it let me stick to my own timetable, making the ride a short one and getting home in time to spend a day worth of quality time with kids. Just what the doctor ordered.

Still, despite the shorter ride today I am quite happy with how the last two days have gone. About 230km of cycling over two days is more than I have done for quite some time. Good to know the body is still able when the spirit is willing. So far I have pulled up just fine too.

After the bit of riding this morning, I certainly got my wish for a fun day spent with the family.

As I mentioned earlier this week we got a new (used) car, so part of today was heading out for a family outing in the new car. We were wondering where to go, but decided that really there is nowhere better than a quick trip up to Moore River, so that is where we headed.

Regular readers will know that my family have a house up in Guilderton on the Moore River and we head up there fairly regularly. While heading up there for just an afternoon makes for a busy day of driving (a bit of an hour each way), it is still close enough make the trip manageable. The quiet few hours we had up there was well worth it.

Moore River really lends itself to Summer fun, swimming, digging on the beach, fishing, playing about in boats, that sort of thing. Heading up there in late Autumn/early Winter is quite a different matter. Today had a maximum of 18 degrees and so the river was a little bit too cool for playing about. Rather the day was spent taking quiet walks on the beach and huddling up reading around potbelly stoves. Certainly a different sort of fun, but fun all the same, and just the sort of day out with the family that I needed.

Hopefully I have more of the same on the cards tomorrow, with a quiet day planned around the house with the family. A bit of a run in the morning and perhaps a paddle in the afternoon, but other than that a good day of solid relaxing (and doing my assignment for my coaching course).

These last couple of weeks have reminded me that whether or not a person is racing, it doesn't make life balance any less important. It is still very easy to get the balance of your life out of kilter if you are not careful. I have certainly felt like my life was tipping a bit too far to the end of triathlon over the last few weeks. This weekend has been about redressing that balance. More to do, but I think it has definitely helped.