Life has a funny way of wreaking havoc with plans…”the best laid plans of mice and men Go often awry”, as the poet said. There are a lot of things that impact our training as athletes…both the amateurs like me and the pros (that’s an assumption, but it’s probably a fair one). It’s especially tricky for those of us balancing a 40+ hour work week, family, pets, and training.

Working in IT poses its own set of peculiar complications: special after-hours updates, occasional weekend work, on-call schedules, etc. Major system upgrades are time-consuming, and require a lot of extra work…in the last month, I’ve had several weeks where I make only one run or gym workout, due to working long nights and just being exhausted by the time I get home. And being in healthcare IT is especially challenging, because of government-imposed deadlines and regulations.

Well, here we go again…we’re in the middle of another upgrade that’s taking the better part of two years; yeah, it’s that major. While my team isn’t directly involved in the upgrade, there are pieces that affect some of our processes, and we have to be available and trained. And therein lies the issue…it’s hard to plan for time off when it don’t know three to six months in advance what your schedule is going to be.

And so here’s the crux of it: I have to adjust my planned 2013 race schedule and drop two races from my docket. It sucks, but that’s life. So I won’t be participating in the Pacific Crest Olympic tri, nor the Sisters Stampede XC (my replacement for the Heart of the Valley sprint tri that got moved up a month). So I’ll have two races at the beginning of April, then nothing until August. I’m going to check out the local fall tri scene…there’s one race I know that I’ve never been able to do that might fit the bill.

While I’m bummed, this does give me a pretty great training opportunity…instead of focusing on building and tapering constantly, I can focus on a few races and really amp up my training, and thus (hopefully) my performance. I’m also going to see if I can change my entry for XTERRA Portland for the sprint to the full…with six months to train, I should be more than ready.

Question for you: have you ever had to completely rearrange your race or training schedule due to work or other obligations?

Keep moving!!