People ask me all the time, “How do you do it?” The funny thing is that they aren’t asking me how I swim 2.4 miles, followed by a 112-mile bike, followed by a 26.2-mile marathon. Yes, I am a professional triathlete and a professional cyclist but most people aren’t that curious about that. People are curious about how I train for those things while I also work 60-80 hours a week owning and running my own pet care business in San Francisco with my husband, called WAGS.

I am a very busy person. But in my mind so are most people. Life is a juggling act, and everyone has all these balls up in the air at the same time. For me my juggling act is between Wags, training, real estate management, my husband Johnny, my family and friends, and teaching cycling. It’s a lot, but the stay-at-home mom has her own balls she is juggling too. Hers are most likely the kids, the household, the finances, and the cooking to name a few.

So when people ask me “how do you do it?” I tell them it’s not simple, but it is possible! Here are a few things that help me maximize the time I have to be a competitive athlete while being a wife, business owner, teacher, and real estate owner.

1. HAVE A SCHEDULE (REGIMENT)

Every day of the week I have a schedule. It’s easier to find spare time when you have a schedule, and you aren’t guessing what you are going to be doing every day. It takes being pretty organized, but you can do it!

2. PREP THE NIGHT BEFORE

Every night I sit down and plan my next day. My husband makes fun of my daily lists, but it’s part of what gets me through each busy day. Each night I prep my list of things I have to do with work, working out, and friends/family, so I am prepared for the next day.

3. SIMPLIFY

This is something my husband, Johnny, has taught me. On my daily list I have the “optional things”. If I don’t get to those “optional” things, then I don’t beat myself up about them. You need to prioritize your list to the things that must get done and then have the things that could be put off for another day or month.

4. FOCUS

When you don’t have a lot of time, you really need to focus on your training. When I get on my bike or go out for a run it’s not: “I’m going to go for a spin” or “I’m going to go for a jog.” When I train, I train! I don’t have time to go for a 6 hour ride 2 days a week. But what I have learned is that within that 6 hour ride there are very important shorter intervals that need to be done. So instead of 6 hours I will go for two 3 hour rides and get rid of any of the “fluff” and get my work in with less time in between!

5. RIDE A TRAINER

People never believe me when I tell them I usually only ride outside 1-2 days a week. It’s true! The rest of the time I ride my PowerBeam Pro trainer! A trainer helps once again by limiting the amount of time I have to spend on my bike to get the same amount of “work” done. I teach cycling classes on trainers 3 days a week for 1.5 hours each. I use my PowerTap to make sure I am being honest with my intervals, and before I know it I have done the work that would have taken me 3 hours on the road in 1.5 hours indoors on a trainer. Is it as fun?.......well, to me it is!

6. MULTI-TASK

With limited time you often have to combine activities. For me, one thing I do is teach cycling classes on trainers. In these 1.5 hours I get to teach and help others, see some of my friends that take my class as well as train myself. Other multitasking I will do is get in a run while I do my errands on my day off from Wags. I will usually take 1-2 dogs with me, and we run from the post office to the bank to Blockbuster to the pharmacy and finish off at Trader Joe’s so we can walk home with all the groceries. I have gotten my run in, exercised the dogs and gotten all my errands done! It’s multi-tasking and time saving at its best! ;)

7. TRAIN SHORTER AND HARDER

I have found over the past 9 months of bike racing that the most effective form of training for me is short and hard! That’s not to say that if you are training for an Ironman that you don’t need a few long days, but it’s way less than you would expect. When I swim, I rely on masters swimming for shorter and harder workouts. On the bike, I rely on my PowerTap and trainer classes to get my short and hard workouts. On the run, I rely on my Garmin and the track. It may not work for everyone, but for me, I only have about 15 hours a week I can train, and if I did all those hours at aerobic efforts, I think I would not be as fit as I am today.

8. REST HARD/LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Most people who are very competitive athletically tend to be some sort of type A. As a result we blame ourselves when we don’t have good workouts, good meetings at work, or a fight with a family member. The truth is that a lot of times we push ourselves too hard, and as a result start digging our own graves. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are days that it is important to push yourself physically and challenge yourself to be stronger. However, there are also days when our coaches have told us what to do, and we try and try and try again to make it happen, and it doesn’t. So then maybe we go out and try it again the next day and again we continue to dig. If you are trying to prove to yourself that you can suffer, fine. But I think most of us know how to suffer. It’s the smart ones who can listen to your body and back off even when your coach may tell you to push through or your friend may call you a “slow poke”. If you feel tired, sleep. Here’s my rule: If I start a workout and it feels horrible I make myself keep going for about 30 minutes to make sure I cannot just warm myself out of it. If it still feels terrible, I pull the plug and call it a day. If you wake up one morning and don’t feel like training, DON’T!!!!!!!! You have to learn to rest hard as much as you do train hard!

9. CHOOSE YOUR TRAINING PARTNERS

Because I have to train alone most of the time due to my schedule, I have very wise training partners. The one I rely on the most is my PowerTap! There is no better coach than my PowerTap. It tells me if I went too hard, too easy, and forces me to be very honest during my training intervals. I train and race with my PowerTap, and I swear by the data it gives me instantly as well as all the data I download off of it. It also helps me to recover on those important days as well. It’s easy to ride too hard when you need to be recovering, and my PowerTap serves as my “governor”, always keeping me in check!

Life is a juggling act! Even time efficiency takes time! But I think the more focused, smart and balanced you are, the more you can do in a day and in your life. Remember you have to be able to go through your day with a smile on your face or it’s just not worth it!