Living my dream of being a world class triathlete was not an easy task today.  As my alarm sounded at 6am this morning, I was excited about my fun, yet challenging day ahead!  After my breakfast of a spinach omelet and Ezekiel toast, I got the kids ready and took all of them to school.  My children have three different schools this year –  Aliya (4) goes to preschool ,  Asha (6) and David (10) are in elementary, and Shanti (12) attends middle school.  Straight from there I went to the Northwest YMCA pool where I swam 5,500 yards in about an hour and a half.  After refueling with a peanut butter and banana sandwich and some Gatorade, I headed straight home to get a few chores done before the next workout began.  I ate a banana about noon, rested for a while, then got on my indoor bike trainer at about 1pm.  I rode for 2 hours and 45 minutes – a Clifbar, Gatorade, and water were my fuel for this workout.  During this time my husband picked up Aliya, Asha, and David from their respective schools. He dropped Aliya at home, Asha to a friend’s house, and took David with him to the office to get homework done.  My mother-in-law (who lives with us) took care of Aliya for a while.  As soon as Shanti arrived after taking the bus home from school, she watched Aliya and listened for Asha to be dropped off by our friends.  I was then able to go for a 30 minute run straight off the bike.  Wow! 

Today my family really pulled it off.  By 4:30pm I had been able to complete over four and a half hours of quality training.  I then changed clothes, stretched , checked homework, made dinner, got Asha off to soccer practice (another friend took her today), and listened to my kids to see how their day had been.  After a hot bowl of chicken soup, mixed vegetables, and a whole wheat English muffin for dinner, I watched TV for an hour with my husband and put the kids to bed at 8:30pm.  I prepared for the next day’s training by writing in my calendar and putting my clothes in my backpack.  I got to bed about 10pm.  About twice a week this is a typical day for me.  The other days I do an average of about two to three hours of training while the kids are in school – I usually pick up the youngest three from school.  As a result of putting in the hard work of training and sharing my story as an athlete, my husband, mother-in-law, 12 year old daughter, and two sets of friends helped me achieve my training goals today.  It’s very clear that I could not be the best I can be without my family and friends to help along the way.    I have found that when I am inspired by my dream, others are inspired to help me achieve it.