A Life Update Midway Through 2022

Hey, reader. 🙂 I know I haven’t been around lately dishing up blog posts and vlogs about running, triathlon, fitness, and the active lifestyle. And that’s because life has actually been overwhelming the past month.

I celebrated my birthday this past week. With every birthday I reassess my goals and the things I want to accomplish, and this year was no different.

You can watch my vlog below, or scroll down for some of my written thoughts about what’s been going on in my life.

Health and Fitness Goals

My wardrobe choices hide it pretty well, but I’ve gained some weight and fat mass which isn’t optimal for health. (My clothes still fit, just a bit more tightly.)

I told a friend just this past week, “I think I’ve done all I wanted to do in endurance. Time to get babealicious.” It was half in jest, but I do want to try a new fitness challenge and focus on getting stronger rather than just excel in endurance sport. (Also, I’ve been wondering what it takes to look like Natalie Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder…)

Thanks to the fine folks at PACE Prehab & Recovery, I’ve overcome my knee pain issues. They’re now putting me on a strength and conditioning program. Once my expenses from finishing house construction are a little less acute, I’m also renewing my gym membership and taking some group fitness classes again. In particular, I’m looking forward to some Les Mills BODYPUMP, BODYJAM, and BODYBALANCE.

Stressors

As I mentioned above, we’re (still) building a house. I didn’t realise it when I vlogged it at the time, but building a house for my family has been a longtime dream of mine. Now we’re so close to getting things done, but it’s during the finishing that expenses can balloon and tempers can shortcircuit. That’s what’s stressing me out.

Unlike running a marathon or finishing an ironman where the distances are set and finish lines are known, house construction from scratch has felt more like a trail race where I’ve gotten pointed onto the wrong course and now have to cross three rivers to get back to the finish line. (Yes, this has happened.)

Juggling this in the background while trying to hold myself together for work has given me precious little headspace for anything else, including this blog. At work we just finished a massive project, and it’s taken us four weeks to stop feeling dead inside…

A New Pastime

I realise I don’t talk much about my job, but it’s quite closely related to my hobbies of running and doing triathlons. When work and play get to be that intermingled, play becomes less enjoyable.

Which is why I’m glad I became BTS Army the past year. My involvement in the fandom is quite low-stakes, and because my livelihood doesn’t depend on this, listening to BTS’s music and watching their content has a way of decreasing my stress and calming me down.

Diversity is the spice of life, and diversifying what I do and who I am outside of work helps me feel more grounded and anchored. It also makes me feel like a whole person and not so two-dimensional.

Anyway if there’s anything I’ve learned from being almost four decades old, it’s that “This too shall pass”. I just need to weather these storms; the sun will shine again.