Thursday, April 4, 2013

A week in the life....

So, I haven’t been blogging much, and there is a reason for that! I am super insanely busy. I am studying (again, but for real this time) for the CFA exam in June. I am in such a better place than 2 years ago when I tried to tackle this beast exam. I have my securities liscence, and I am working in the industry. I haven't mentioned it on here but 10 months ago I left Scotiabank got a job at an investment firm as a Client Servies Associate where I work with a Portfolio Manager. Now I can relate the information I am learning to what I do every day,and I have way more of a foundation to work off of. Also, I am surrounded by people who are supportive and encouraging and many have written the exams themselves. What is the CFA? It stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It is a series of 3 exams that you take over 3 years (hopefully, if you pass each one on the first try). Each exam is 6 hours in length with a pass rate of 34% and covers about 6 text books of 500 pages each. It is painful, but will be worth it if once I pass all of them. It will just be a rough January-June for the next 3 years, but then I'll have it. However, unlike this year, I have promised myself definitely no more Ironmans until I’m done these exams. Next year I’ll probably just do a half ironman (my favorite distance), and an Olympic for fun. It would cut the training down SIGNIFICANTLY and give me a little more time to I dunno… see my wonderful husband!.

So what is the Typical week of a CFA studying working Ironman Training Person?
Monday : Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm. Cook and eat, study 6-9. Bed/Read.
Tuesday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, after work 30 minute run followed by Hot Yoga, get home 7:15. Eat dinner, study 8-9. Bed/Read.
Wednesday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm.Train 5-6:30. Cook and eat, Study 7-9. Bed/Read.
Thursday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm.Train 5-6:30. Cook and eat, Study 7-9. Watch Greys anatomy and the Big Bang Theory. Bed.
Friday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, hit the pool 5-6. Drink some wine, have a nice dinner… relaaaaaax. Unless I haven’t gotten what I needed to get done, then guess what… I get to STUDY. Ugh.
Saturday: Wake up, relax until 8 or 9. Bike for 2-6 hours. Then every second week I work for a few hours, or else I have the afternoon free… which we usually get to do chores.. and maybe some relaxing.. ahhh relaxing.
Sunday: Wake up, relax until 8 or 9, study 10-12, lunch, study 1-3, train 3-5. Cook and Eat, study 6-9. Bed.
Repeat.

Basically I study roughly 16 hours a week, train 11 hours a week, work full time, and work very part time 2-4 hours every other week. The longest Saturday bike yet has only been 4 hours.. but it will get up to over 6 at the peak. Yep. It’s busy. You can see my “bedtime” is around 9. Well, that is about right. I stop studying at 9, but by the time I let the dog out and get ready for bet it’s 9:30. And If you know me… I need my sleep. If I get less than my 8 hours look out, especially with this schedule.Luckily I have the most supportive husband in the world that lets me just put my head down and go. We did take a week away in March which was amazing. We went to Puerto Vallarta Dreams and it was just what the doctor ordered. A week without any training or studying and just being together in 35 degrees was perfect. We had an amazing time. We absolutely loved that part of mexico.




Then it was back to reality. So here we are, 2 months until the exam, and 2.5 half months until Ironman… Its time for the final push... but then we’ve got the ENTIRE summer. We can get back to the basics of hiking and camping… and beer.. stuff that we haven't been able to do for the last few years because our races have always been in August, so we were training all summer. Alas, we are looking forward to re-enacting our first summer together full of mountains and camping and just simply being together.