Stress

It's been a rough day, a lot of family stress. I struggle with it, because it makes for a tough situation for me. As a whole, my sport requires me to think and act selfishly, many times. Its demands require that of me, and honestly, my family struggles with it. Luckily my wife is wonderfully supportive, but not everyone else is.

It seems to become this battle between feeling like you're alienating everyone in your family, (even your friends to a degree), and following your goals, dreams and aspirations within this sport.

It's hard to expect them to understand, and it's even harder for them to accept situations where it seems my triathlon career takes precedence. I come across as selfish, and that only leads to other conflicts, which may not seem related, but clearly are.

It's not easy, and at the end of day I have to look in the mirror and be satisfied with the choices I've made, and who I am.

I recall when I first got into teaching, and was really down about some things which happened at school one day. One of my mentors, Coach Holman, who was my high school track and cross country coach, told me, "Sometimes, you get in your car at the end of the day and say to yourself, 'The kids won today.' It's going to happen."

Now it feels like one of those days. My training felt crappy today, (test-sets to boot), and even if they had gone well, my attitude was so poor, it didn't matter.

I am certainly faced with some challenges ahead, and realize I need to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish what I've devoted most of my life to. We shall see how that goes.

Vance