Done for the Week: And Now, for My Next Trick. . .

This was a week  largely devoted to R & R--as much as could be managed with a family, a messy house, and two part-time jobs.  The "body-markings" of my triathlon race number--71--have almost completely faded, and the muscle soreness and fatigue are gone as well.  I have stopped wearing my medal everywhere, though it lives for now on my bedside table, where I can see it first and last thing each day.  


Here's the low-down on what I got done:


Done List--Week of Aug. 23-29

1. Rested
2. Recovered from triathlon, and resumed training--looking for 5K to sign up for
3. Made significant progress on repairing sleep
4. Finished Shannon, by Frank Delaney
5. Continued significant support to transitioning nonprofit organization
6. Worked my two part-time jobs
7. Published 5 blog posts
8. Meditated 3 times
9. Saw my therapist
10. Wrote 1 Gratitude Journal entry
11. Cleaned and reorganized pantry 
12. Attended 1 yoga class
13. Attended 2 prayer vigils for homicide victims
14. Took my grandson paddleboating with family for his 3rd birthday present
15. Went out with my husband for Happy Hour; continued reading aloud Elizabeth George's In the Presence of the Enemy; watched Treme episode
16. Had budgeting talk with my husband, on a bench overlooking the lake, with Starbuck's coffees in hand
17. Walked my patient dog
18. Spent a week "off-list"--no to-do list 
19. Began planning my next move

In red above is what seems to me the most important accomplishment of the week. After enduring a month of subnormal sleep--averaging somewhat less than four hours a night--I have become a bit of a sleep-Nazi.  I am refraining from my usual glass of red wine before bed; taking time-release Melatonin along with Celestial Seasoning's Sleepytime Extra tea a half hour before lying down; sleeping to "Rain on the Roof" from my grandson's Happiest Baby on the Block CD; and using a timer with a countdown feature that shuts off the light after a set time, so that I can read myself to sleep and spend most of the night in a serotonin-friendly darkened room.  I am getting between 6 and 7 hours of sleep each night, though still waking up in the middle of the night.  YouTube episodes of Becker can be counted on to lull me back to sleep, though having a laptop screen in my face is not ideal.  My sleep is a work in progress.  I look forward to the time when I can sleep through the night, sans Ted Danson and crew.

In green is the work I did figuring out how to harness the energy and lessons from the triathlon to achieving something else I care about, and identifying what that something else will be--last week's focus goal.  I am not surprised to learn that my post-tri challenges are pretty much the same as my pre-tri ones.  I still have to work on believing that I can do what seems daunting.  I still have to avoid getting sucked into other people's dramas and agendas.  And I still have to blast my way out of the torpor default that descends if I sit too long in pajamas.  


But I have decided that the next step is to establish a new schedule around my jobs' new hours, leaving time for exercise, meditation, maintenance of me and my surroundings, relationships, and writing.  It is perhaps telling that the activity at the end of that list--writing--is the one I most want to tackle, and am most afraid of.  So this week's focus goal is to develop a training plan for writing, and to spend at least 6 hours on my novel.

Maybe I should keep wearing the medal. . .