By: Suzanne Hamilton
Growing up with a Mom who is a teacher, our household operated in a September to September calendar year. Fast-forward to today, my brothers and I are graduated and my Mom is retired, but thanks to the end of the bike racing season, it seemed that my September would begin just the same: a fresh start with new routines chasing new goals.
Having gone through the cycle of full time athlete (speed skater), to full time business women (marketing and sales), back to full time athlete (cyclist), I knew I was ready for a change yet again this September. I am convinced that the ultimate success in life is finding fusion and balance between training, work and family. I seem to have tackled three of those pillars very well individually but never in unison. When I told my coach Jenny I needed a change from the full-time athlete life, I am sure she shook her head knowing full well I didn’t know how good I had it. I had a total Champaign lifestyle but was convinced I needed to hunt down balance and fusion between athlete Suz, career Suz and social Suz.
August was filled with resume writing, interviews and a couple final races including the @RBCGranFondo Banff and Whistler. It was in Banff where I met the CEO of a Canadian Tech and Innovation company, 4iiii Innovations who was sponsoring the Fondo.
Little did I know that sharing a burger in the beer gardens with Kip Fyfe, CEO 4iiii Innovations would turn into a job interview 3 days later and a job offer the same week. 4iiii HQ’s is based 30 minutes outside my hometown in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. I scored my dream job heading up Marketing and Communications of a major cycling and technology brand. September, 2016 became a fresh start with new routines, chasing new goals.
The first few months on the job tested by ability to balance life alongside training while embracing the learning curve of a new career. Although it has and continues to bring immense struggles, this was the opportunity and challenge I was craving!
Fast forward a few months and I am finding my groove and new routines. Thanks to Jenny’s support and guidance, I am continually working on keeping my train-work-life pillars balanced. This new Monday to Friday lifestyle lends well to hitting my intensity mid-week and leaves my weekends open for outdoor play and the odd bike adventure with my new teammates!
This past week has been the ultimate silver lining in some very heavy work weeks as I got to go down to Palm Springs to test new product with four of my 4iiii co-workers! The business trip objective: produce as much ride data as we can and send back to our engineers to analyze! Consider it done.
I head home to Calgary on Sunday where I will have a solid ten days to rest, recovery and tackle the 387 emails in my inbox before meeting all of my new @CycleryRacing teamies in South Carolina for our first team camp!
Until next time, ride safe and be seen!
Suzanne.
IG: @SuzHamio T: @SuzHami
Cyclery Racing 
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