Five Things I've Learned in Five Months of Self Employment

It's the fifth day of the fifth month and it's a Friday so it's a fortuitous day to do a "Five Things" post, don't you think?   Fittingly, it's also 5 months of self employment for me (amazing that I've littered a sentence with a bunch of F's and not one of them is an F-bomb, ha!) Anyway,  I can't believe it's been 5 months!  Time flies when you're doing what you love.  That being said, being self employed requires a fair bit of self discipline if you want to get things done and work at building / maintaining your business.

1.  Make a daily schedule.  If I don't do this, I guarantee that I will putter around and get nothing done.  I like to schedule my day into time blocks so I will schedule my work time, errand time, studying time etc.   It helps to keep me on track in terms of what I want to accomplish during the day.  Because left to my own devices, I could easily spend my day training, watching silly animal videos and reading.

2.  My calendar has become my life.  Now that I'm not leaving the house for work on a regular 9-5 schedule, the days of the week start to blend together.  So if I have athlete calls or meetings, they go in the calendar along with alarms / reminders.

3.  Don't be afraid to ask for advice and create a network!  Talk to people about how they started their business.  What worked for them, what didn't.   People are almost always willing to share their experiences.  When you're self employed you don't have the same network you would if you were working at a company so you need to create your own.  That was the weirdest thing for me when I left Westside.  I was completely on my own.  But I'm not really on my own, I know several triathlon coaches, therapists and personal trainers that I can turn to for advice.

4.  Not everyone I chat with / meet is going to work with me.  That is true of pretty much any business, especially one as personal as coaching.  This is still something that I struggle with from time to time but that's life and I'm learning to not let this bother me that much.  The world is a big place and online coaching allows coaches to work with anyone, anywhere so I've learned to look at the bigger picture.

5.  Each day is a blank slate and I get to choose how I fill it.  I am so grateful for that.   I'm learning to be open to new opportunities and I am slowly learning to put myself out there, which is something I've never been very good at (in my opinion)  I'd be lying if I said there weren't days that I've wondered if I'm cut out for this but I think that pretty much every self employed person has probably asked themselves that question at least once.  Even with those days, this was still the best decision I've made in a long time.

With that, it's time for me to get to work!  Happy Friday Folks, stay dry and stay safe!

`~Coach PK 

2016: The Year of Change

I had lofty goals for 2016.  I was feeling good and felt like I was on track to hit those goals come June.  And then I tore my hamstring and everything kinda fell apart.  I lost my focus and my mojo for a while.   At the time I was devastated.   But looking back I feel like that might have been a blessing. Work was incredibly busy at that point, we were getting ready to renovate our basement in order to sell our house.  The pace of life was getting to a point where something had to give and that something ended up being my training.  Tremblant came and went.  Just before we headed to Tremblant, we listed our house.  Two weeks later it was sold and the hunt was on.  Normally our summer weekends would be taken up with racing but instead we spent them house hunting.  It was a busy summer to say the least.  But it was also a pressure free summer.   As much as I enjoy racing, there is a certain amount of pressure that comes with that.  It's pressure that I put on myself to perform.  My first goal is to have fun and my second goal is to get on the podium.   Once I stopped running,  the desire to race kind of took a back seat.  Probably because the run is my favourite part of a triathlon.

When I can't run, I turn to other forms of cardio activity to keep me active.  Not being able to be on two feet, resulted in me turning to my two wheels more often.  Once I was able to start riding again, I ditched the power meter and just rode.  I paid no attention to heart rate other than to look at it post ride to see how long it would take me to recover from the workout.  I put in some good time on two wheels this summer.  I think the highlight of 2016 for me was the 250km ride I did with my friends Jordan and David at the beginning of July.  We rode from Toronto to David's parent's place in Huntsville.  I was so nervous the night before.  Even more so than before a race!  But I had so much fun.  I was totally ill prepared to ride that distance but I did it, thanks to these two.

We also sold our house the weekend we were up there, ha ha.  So that was a pretty good weekend!

2016 wasn't a total write off in terms of races.  I did three, which is a far cry from my usual 12-14.  But that's ok.  The three I did were a blast.  In March, I did the back half of Around the Bay as a part of a relay team with my friend Kiki.  We ended up in 4th, missing 3rd place by 30s, ha ha.

September was my busy race month.  I did the swim / bike at the Ontario Women's Triathlon in Georgina, which was so much fun.  It showed me that all my cycling had paid off.   I set a new power record and I won the overall race.   And I got to spend the day with some awesome ladies.

Still one of my favourite pics of 2016! 

Two weeks later, I was the swimmer in a relay team at the Barrelman Triathlon.  I was racing with my friends David B and David L.   The double D's.  So of course, we went there, ha ha.

This race was a turning point for me in my open water swimming.  It was the first time I made it through a race completely calm.   No panic attack, nothing.  That was a huge win for me.  I'm going to carry that with me into 2017 for sure.

Athletically this year was totally not what I hoped for.  But all the setbacks and side steps paved the way for some major life changes.  We sold our forever home and moved out of the neighbourhood we loved.  The biggest change came when I quit my job as a commercial photography producer to focus on building my coaching business and getting involved in the fitness industry.  It's a complete 360.  It was a huge leap of faith but the time was right.  I couldn't see myself producing at 50.  I just couldn't.  So it was time to move on and follow my heart.  

I'm looking forward to learning, growing and evolving as a coach and athlete.  I'm pumped for 2017 for that reason alone!  Of course I have a few adventures lined up for 2017 but I'll save those for another post.

Thanks for reading, even though these last few months haven't been the most exciting, ha ha.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2017!

Coach PK  xo

Better than Expected: 2015 Year In Review

How is it almost the end of the year already?  This year absolutely FLEW by.  To be honest I'm happy to see the end of this year.  It wasn't awesome, but it wasn't horrible either - It was just kinda "meh".  It wasn't a HECK YEAH kind of year like some of my previous years (2013 in particular) I did get to race a fair bit this year but I never raced at 100%.  There was always some kind of niggle or pain somewhere in my body.  My knees, my hips, my back.  I didn't have many races where I felt really amazing.  I fixed my knee problems only to have some sciatic and SI joint issues crop up.  Those plagued me for the first half of the season.  By August I started to feel better and when I raced Toronto Island, I think that was when I felt as close to 100% as possible.  Ironically, I led that race from start to finish.

I had 3 goals at the start of this season:

1) Break 20 minutes for a 5km.  Didn't happen.  Changing my gait resulted in other weird issues with my SI joint and speedwork became very uncomfortable for me.  So I didn't do it.  I matched my 5km P.R at the Frosty 5km this year and that was without much in the way of any speedwork.  I'm chalking that up to my new running gait.  I was actually using my glutes so I had more power.  It ended up resulting in other issues with my sciatic nerve so speed work fell to the wayside.

2)  Race another 70.3:  G and I made a last minute decision to race Eagleman in June.  We signed up 9 weeks out.  My longest run at that point was 10km so it gave me push to start building my run mileage up.  It was the hardest race I've ever done.  It was so disgustingly hot, it was all about survival.  It was also my first non wetsuit swim, which I made through without freaking out.  I ended up 11th in my AG which I was pleased with given my ad hoc training plan. 

3) Take the 40-44 year old AG title in the Recharge With Milk Series for the 3rd Year in a row:  Nailed it.  I had some tough competition this year with some of the speedier girls that aged up.  My bike became the stronger leg for me vs. my run which was a nice thing to see.  Next year I'm in a brand new AG so I'll have new ladies to chase! 

I ended up doing 11 races this year which is way more than I expected to do.  And given my injury issues, I did quite well so I honestly can't complain about my results.

The somewhat dissatisfying part of this year was that I never really felt "on".  There was almost always something that felt off or not right.  Perhaps not having a coach was also part of the problem.  Normally I'm fairly confident in my abilities but this year every race I went into I took a "we'll see" approach.  That feeling really starts to wear on you after a while and you begin to doubt your abilities.  Taking the time off running after Scotia was exactly what I needed.  In retrospect I probably should have taken more time off and used that time to fix my bike fits.  I do think that has been a major contributor to my knee issues.  I was actually feeling pretty good after Scotia but once I got inside and started riding on the trainer, my knee issues resurfaced.  I've since had a very comprehensive bike fit on my road bike and will do the same on my tri bike in February.  Thankfully my knees no longer hurt off the bike.  A positive that I'm hanging on to right now!

While my running may have taken a bit of a back seat this year, my cycling did not as evidenced by my miles logged on Strava.  I've ridden almost 4700km this year and run only 975km.   I joined Morning  Glory cycling club and worked hard at becoming a better cyclist.  I still have a ways to go but can honestly say I've improved in leaps and bounds compared to last year.  And not just speed wise, but skill and confidence wise as well.  I'm looking forward to another year of chasing those fast guys around High Park.

Got the Yellow Jersey award on my first ride with MGCC

This year was definitely more low key than 2014 (i.e no big crazy trip), but we still did a bit of traveling.  We went to the Dominican in February, Maryland in June, Newfoundland in August and Mont Tremblant in September.  We were out in Newfoundland for a wedding and it was amazing.  Neither G nor I had ever been out to Newfoundland so that was a nice little adventure.

Cape Spear, Newfoundland

Cape Spear, Newfoundland

Whale watching in NFLD

Riding in Mont Tremblant

The best part of this year has to be the growth of my coaching business.   I got my NCCP Triathlon coaching certification in January and I coached my first triathlon client to an AG win in her first 70.3 and then on to the 70.3 world championships.  I had a full roster of runners all year long, many of whom will be continuing with me in 2016 along with some new folks.  I can't wait to see what my crew of athletes can do in 2016.   I am honoured and thankful that people have come to me to help them achieve their goals.

As for my 2016, well, that remains to be seen.  Once again I'm in rehab mode so who knows.  Yes, I have races I've registered for and yes, I have goals but I will leave all of that for another post.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a huge thank you to people that have helped me get through this year and have given me some pretty awesome opportunities.

My rehab crew:  Dr. Kris Sheppard at the Runner's Academy for showing me how to run.  My chiropractor Dr. Peter Lejkowski for making things right, even though it wasn't always pleasant.  My pal and RMT, David Lamy for keeping me limber.

Michelle Clarke and Barb Mitchell (a.k.a The Mizuno Fairy) for giving me the opportunity to be a Run Bird and to do my first ever video.   Being a Run Bird was one of the highlights of my year.  Hanging out with great women and supporting other women in their achievements = so much amazing.

The Mizuno Run Birds at the Toronto Women's 8km

Burnbrae Farms for sponsoring me into two races this year.  One of which I actually won some prize money at!  

My friends and co-workers at Westside.  I work with a fantastic crew of people who are always so supportive of everything I do outside of the studio and for that I am eternally grateful.

A massive thanks to all of YOU who read along and follow me on social media.  I have met so many awesome people because of blogging and social media.  Following your stories is inspiring and encouraging.

And of course, my amazing husband Gary (a.k.a "G").  I have no words to express how lucky I am to have someone so supportive and encouraging.  Someone who believes in me more than I believe in myself.  He is my voice of reason and my rock.  Love you to the moon and back.

That's a wrap for 2015.  Bring on 2016!

How was your year?  Any big plans for 2016?

Weekend? What Weekend?

Oh hey Monday, how did you get here so quickly?  Right, I didn't really have a weekend.  BUT, I can't really complain about that since I chose to fill it up.  And, I had a lot of fun.  I'm sure you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about, right?  This past weekend I did my NCCP Triathlon Community Coach certification.  This now means I'm a certified triathlon coach (yippeee!).  There are several levels of certification depending on the level of athlete you want to coach.  This certification level means I'm able to coach individual age groupers or in a club setting, which is exactly what I love doing.

 The facilitator was excellent as was the course and I knew several people there as well so it made for a really fun afternoon.  Definitely not a bad way to spend a weekend.  

Knowing that I was going to be spending most of my weekend at this course, I ended up shuffling my workouts around and taking Saturday as my day off.  We wrapped early on the Sunday and I was home by 3:00 but I had work things to deal with so I didn't get on my bike until 4:30.  But I still managed an easy 90 minute spin, thanks to Hannibal (the TV series) and Breaking Bad.  Yes, I know I'm really late to the party but whatever. 

I'm feeling a whole lot better than last week and I finally finished my antibiotics on Friday so hopefully that's it for my sinus issues.  I know our upcoming week in the Dominican will help with any problems that may arise in the next little while.  I think I need to live somewhere hot and humid.  My hair will always look good and I won't have any sinus issues.  And, I'll never have to deal with cold and snow ever again, ha ha.

This past week I started putting a little extra intensity into my run and bike workouts.  My body can handle it, my knees not so much.  I've had sore knees since Tuesday and I'm trying not to freak out about it too much.  My run on Friday really did them in I think.  I feel like my left kneecap has gone back to it's old tracking pattern which is really frustrating.  I have physio next week so we'll see what she says.  I also think I need to have my bike fit looked at again.  Because I have so much time for that.....ugh.

Anyway, this is how my past week panned out:

Monday:  OFF
Tuesday:  60 minutes strength & mobility, 2km run on the treadmill.  P.M.  25km on the trainer (52 minutes)
Wednesday:   2200m swim in a.m.  Awesome 6km run in p.m.
Thursday:  Physio work in a.m. 25km bike (52 minutes) in p.m.
Friday:  2300m swim in a.m. 10.10km run in p.m.
Saturday:  OFF
Sunday:  90 minute ride.

Total time:  7h 24 minutes

How was your weekend?  Who got out and enjoyed the milder temperatures?