Things that go by the wayside

My training gal pals and I were trading emails today about trying to fit it all in - IM training, full-time jobs, commutes, keeping our homes from looking like we completely neglect them due to training, and being social. It's a balancing act, for sure, and not one I feel like I excel at. I've done an Ironman every year since 2008, so we're moving into year 6 of this nonsense. It has simply become a way of life, and I feel like it only becomes an invasive monster for the 2.5 months leading up to the race. Rather than asking how I do it, the better question to ask is how does Mr. Sweetie put up with this? Most of the time I feel like I am flying through each day by the seat of my pants and there are many days that I wish I could just work from home because the commute time could instead be used for something more fun and rewarding, like extra sleep. My time management isn't the greatest (but I seem to manage it better when I have alot on my plate, so I guess this whole IM training isn't a bad thing) and a fair number of things fall to the wayside...

- It looks like Banana Republic and Spandex spawned all over our bedroom, due to the three weeks worth of clean laundry strewn about that desperately needs to be folded and put away. I'm searching through two hampers of clean clothes just to find a pair of bike shorts.

- I'm cheap and bike/tri shorts can be expensive and I barely have enough pairs to get me through the week. Therefore, on days where I ride the trainer, I wear my old shorts that are so worn out they are indecently translucent. But I'm biking by myself in the basement where only the cats can see me and they lick their own behinds, so I think their threshold of indecency is even higher than mine.

- I had a mini meltdown when I couldn't find any more Skratch Labs lemon-lime mix in my nutrition box in the pantry (I eventually found it) and then had an even bigger meltdown when I couldn't adjust one of the screws on my trainer (turns out I violated the lefty-loosey law). This was all so I could ride my bike at 8:15pm because guess who needed her beauty sleep and slept until 7:30 this morning, wiping out any chances of getting this trainer workout in before work. Sigh.

- My bike is a permanent resident of our reading room upstairs by the front door, even though there is a perfectly good hook in the basement for it to hang out on. Some days it feels like too much work to lug the bike up and down the basement steps so I just leave it out.

- The dish fairy neglects to put away the clean dishes sometimes. She is probably the sister of the missing laundry fairy.

- There is more but it is late and I'm going to bed.