Today I stand as a mother of 3 beautiful children, a triathlete and an ophthalmologist. I’ve always wanted to be a role model for my children and raising them has been one of my most prized accomplishments. I believed that my most important job was to raise kind people who know how to take care of themselves, be responsible, work hard and contribute to society. My two sons and daughter have grown up learning how to do their own laundry, taking turns cooking dinner, getting up in the morning on time and preparing their own breakfast. As mothers, you put so much time and energy into your children, that sometimes we forget about ourselves. How can we ask our children to dream and set goals to accomplish when we don’t expect that of ourselves? Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be one or the other, you CAN have it all! You can be a great mother, have a successful career and work on your personal goals.

I was never really into sports growing up, never did any actually. But when I turned 40 I decided to run. And let me tell you, I learnt a lot along the way. It was hard at first because my body was continuously adapting to the changes I was putting my body through. I got faster and fitter. It was also hard at times but one of the most important contributions to my success was that I believed in myself. I kept pushing myself! And then I started doing marathons. And then I decided to do an Ironman! Why? Because I knew I could and I knew my children were watching. Let me tell you, nothing motivated me more than seeing my children at the finish line and hearing them yell “GO MOM!”.

During my training, I pushed my body to it’s limit. And one of the best advice I ever received that I believe is the biggest contributor to my athletic career was being introduced to compression garments. Someone told me once “If you want to recover faster, wear compression. Buy a good pair of compression shorts and just hit the road.” So I did! And let me tell you, compression provides a he advantage to your body. Not only does it reduce risks of injury when training (which is something detrimental to any athlete), it helps to pump more oxygen through your veins therefore helps to last longer during your training. BUT the most important thing is does is it helps your body to recover faster. And when you push your body to the limit continually, it because vital! I am now the proud owner of everything compression. I love to use compression pants and shorts and also compression tops.

Ten years later, here I am still training and loving it. My children are all grown up and I don’t have a coach. I can now structure my training session around my husband’s and my schedule. Our current plan: be healthy and happy. We have a basic weekly plan but we can easily modify things is things change. We also adjust our intensity and/or our duration depending on where we are in the season and how our bodies are adapting to the changes.

If I can leave you with any advice, here it is:

1. Make sure your family is on board and supporting you when you want to sign-up to do an Ironman.

2. Schedule your training session around family, not the other way around.

3. When you are with friends and family, be present.

4. Treat your body well. Allow your body to fully recover by wearing compression garments, sleep at least 8h and eat healthy.

5. Have an off-season where you put training on the back burner and soak up as much family time as possible.