Sunny San Diego and becoming a “list person”

This past Sunday I left the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island just as it was starting to rain again. I jetted off to San Diego, California for a little, two week training camp at the Chula Vista Olympic National Training Center.

I’m here with a group of athletes and staff from the Athletics Canada Western Hub which is based out of Victoria. We are here working hard and enjoying some warm weather!

There are two other speedy Vikes here at the camp: Thomas Riva and Tyler Smith. Warm weather training camps are great to use periodically as a way to refocus, have some really good training sessions (muscles respond well to heat!) and get a change of scenery.

Zero complaints on my end about the constant 25 degree Celsius weather! Even through my SPF 60 sunscreen, I’m starting to get a nice tan again…

The facilities here are amazing! The trip worked out well in timing as I’m only missing a week of classes because of reading week (our break from school for students to catch their breath) coming up.

I worked out agreements with my professors well ahead of time so once I arrived, I knew exactly what I needed to do with no surprises or an overload of work. It only took me until my fourth year to start to figure out these time management skills so, if you’re struggling in that, don’t worry – you’re not alone!

I’m a self diagnosed chronic procrastinator and love to work under pressure. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve found myself stressed beyond belief with a paper due the next morning that I haven’t even started. Being on the track team with all of the travel and time commitment has forced me to learn how to balance my time and tasks in a way that results in the least amount of stress possible.

My solution? LISTS. I’ve become a list person! My mother was always a list person and, although I used to always say how much I hated how she made these lists, here I am being my mother’s daughter.

They really do help. I was sick of being constantly disorganized, frantic, anxious and fretting about what else I need to be doing or if I had forgotten things. I have developed a tactic where, every night before I go to bed, I write down what I have to do the next day, from appointments, assignments, reminders about a commitment to a coffee date or a phone call, or even a cue word or phrase to set a theme to carry me through the day.

Also, I have become a big user of the iCalendar. This is a great thing to try out to keep yourself organized! Especially if you’re a busy bee like me with a mind that can be everywhere at once.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be here spending my time running, napping, maybe treating myself to some of that Nutella I shouldn’t have bought on a hungry grocery trip and chipping away on papers that are due…but quite honestly, I don’t mind the last part at all out here.

The workouts are going well and I’m looking forward to my upcoming race in Seattle on Valentine’s Day for an honest test of how fit I am!