When I asked friends about what topics they would like to read about here, balance was on top of the list. It’s on the top of my personal goal list as well.
We all are doing a balancing act, all the time. Family, work, friends, training and racing. Expand time in one area and you have to remove time from another. Sometimes it is easy to have things balance out. I worked until 2:00 AM delivering a change to production for work; I 
leave work for a 2 hour lunch and go see one of my boys at school. Most of the time, it is more difficult.
In graduate school at Queens University, we did a time management exercise where we stack ranked what is important to us, then filled out a pie chart on how we spend our time. It is such a great exercise to go through.
Chico stage race has been on my calendar as a goal for a couple of years now. This year, I’m actually in condition to try an early season race, but my oldest son Foster has a soccer game in Eugene that same weekend, and it was an easy decision to make. I’ll be going with the full family to Eugene for a weekend, and we are taking the RV.
I did look for a local bike race in Eugene and found a collegiate race that Sunday is at the same location as Foster’s game later in the day. But for men it is collegiate only. It is an open race for women who want to race, and for those in the area it looks like a great Ominum.
Balance, like control is a tough nut to crack. I feel fortunate to have so much support from my family to pursue racing, and spending this weekend with the family seems like a great alignment between my values and how I spend time.
I also get to enjoy events due to volunteers giving of their time. Who knows, perhaps the weekend away will be a good time to give back to the cycling community. That would feel like a good balance!