Time To Train

This has been a really great training week. I attribute it to eating right, sleeping more, and streamlining my schedule to reflect my new focus of training. For many years, my attention was pulled in many directions. One of my passions has been raising over $110,000 on average for Merit School of Music as Chair of our Associate Board's annual Gala, Alegre Carnaval. This has been a responsibility like no other- one that allowed me the invaluable oppotunity to show others how important Merit will always be to our family. Merit is a music school that was started in Chicago 30 years ago to remove the economic and social barriers to music education for thousands of children. My sister and brother were students of this school, which provided them with the foundation to eventually excel as members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and travel around the world playing the violin and trumpet, respectively.

I share this background because it portrays my level of dedication to Merit over the last 3 years and the challenge it has been to cut down the time I dedicate to the school because I truly love it. My final year as Carnaval Chair was celebrated on November 14th and the weeks after have marked my transition away from outside responsibilities and toward my new love of long distance triathlon. I was so excited to begin training for Madison from the moment I registered that it was hard to want to focus on anything else after 12-noon on September 14, 2009. Unfortunately, September-November is the craziest time of year for me because of annual work deadlines and Carnaval. It was very frustrating to want to begin, but not have the time. I was still training 4-5 days/week but they were without focus and more sporadic than I wanted and needed. Since the fall, the Fellowship I've been awarded is off to a great start, I've completed another unbelievable year of Level IV Clinical Ladder projects, my last responsibility for Merit was just about 2 weeks ago, and holiday shopping is over. Slowly, I've noticed that I've been able to fit in every yard and every minute of every planned workout. I've waited patiently, and now it's all about Madison. And that's exactly why this was such a great training week :)