After returning from France eight months ago, I experienced a lot of changes in my life. I had a lot more trouble readjusting to life in Canada than I had expected. I guess you could call it reverse culture shock. I had spent four incredible months working with 5 incredible people who I also lived with in a small two bedroom house. Needless to say, we became quite close over the months and I became accustomed to dinner every night with my "wifey" Caro, G&T nights with Emily, morning jam sessions with Taylor, chats on the beach with Maryse, and hockey games with Ben. There was always someone around. You were never really alone - even if you wanted to be.
Upon returning to Canada though, all of that changed. I said goodbye to colleagues that had become my family and to a job that I loved, I ended a relationship because we all deserve to be with someone who supports our hopes and dreams, and I returned home to live with my two former roommates who I barely saw due to the general crazyness of our lives. I suddenly felt very much alone. I was flying solo for the first time in six years and I have to admit it was a little bit scary. My parents have always referred to me as being fiercly independent, but in spite of this independence, I don't think I truly knew how to be by myself. Professionally, I had things figured out. Just a few short days after my return from France and still slightly jetlagged I began Teachers College and discovered how much I loved standing in front of a classroom full of students and getting to speak French everyday. Personally, however, I came to realize that I needed to do something for me. I needed to spend some time by myself and to figure out exactly what it was that I enjoyed and what I wanted in my life.
My first few months of Teacher's college went by in a flash as I became accustomed to my new workload and made new friends. I quickly found myself in my first practicum placement - stressed and a little overwhelmed! I desperately wanted to do a good job and found myself waking up at the crack of dawn to practice my lessons before school. Not only was I teaching history for the very first time, but I was doing so in my second language. Planning, preparing, and practicing began to take over all of my time and I decided that if I didn't get myself a hobby, I may just go crazy from the stress of it all. This is when I decided to return to the gym.
The gym became my stress reliever and I realized how much I had missed it. The idea of doing a triathlon one day had always been in the back of my mind from my days as a competitive swimmer, but the more time I spent biking and running, the more convinced I became that I wanted to take on this challenge. I knew that I needed to start small and dedicate time to training, so on January 1st I signed up for a sprint distance triathlon (0.75km swim, a 20km bike, and a 5k run) which I will complete on May 19th.
After talking with a couple good friends who had both completed triathlons themselves, I began to set my sights on the Olympic distance triathlon on August 4th. I told myself that if Raph could do it, so could I!
And thus the training began. After a few weeks of early morning swims with Elise and countless bikes and runs in the evenings... I was hooked! I am proud to say that last night, I officially completed my registration for the race on August 4th and tomorrow I start my 16 week Olympic training plan. This plan will have me running, biking, and swimming each two times a week with some strength training thrown in for good measure (all the while completing my last practicum placement and beginning an internship program which will have me travelling throughout the province 5 days a week).
It will definitely be an adventure that will test my mental and physical strength as well as my dedication and time management skills, but I couldn't be more excited to be able to say "I am a triathlete!"
