Would you... (Page 2)

Yeah... this is a bit beyond training and racing then. I know your work situation is fairly involved and complicated, and it's not as easy as saying ' You should just quit, then', but until you can extract yourself from that situation, it might be that you need to adjust your expectations. If you are reasonably certain that scheduling will continue to screw you over, then instead of looking forward to races, look forward to daily training. Or whatever.

If you don't have anything to look forward to in your life, then it might be time to change your life.

Hmm...seems to me I said just the opposite..that you shouldn't give up what makes you happy. Just don't race. Is racing the only thing that makes you happy or does training make you happy too?
Of course, it goes without saying that if triathlon is the only thing in your life that makes you happy then you need to change things. You are the only common denominator in all the aspects of your life. If they are ALL going bad then maybe it's time to re-evaluate how you go about things.

Well here is the thing.  I can't eliminate work.....bills I need to pay etc.  Have looked into changing the situation and it isn't panning out.  I don't really want to move.  My current work situation is 95% not my doing.  I take responisibilty for being foolish enough to become partners with someone who turned out to be...well lets just say NOT NICE and left me high and dry.  I could not have predicted that he would just up and quit  however.  I take responosibilty for trusting my office manager who has gotten me into an extremely bad business deal which will effect me for years to come.  Because I no long have a partner I'm at the mercy of a hospital who is very much anti DR right now.  I don't know one physician on staff who is happy right now.  Unfortunately I have a time commitment to them and it will cost a great deal of money to up and leave or go off staff at this point.  Lets just say my finanial situation is really not good and I'm not in a position to do that.  When I signed up for these races I could not have predicted that 2 more drs in my specialty would come on staff and the hospital would completely re-do the call schedule thus putting me on ER call for the dates I was originally NOT on call  (ie the days of the races)  I did try to plan ahead for this stuff and I had it all worked out.  The whole thing just really sucks.  I can hope the other pods will be nice and switch call with me but thats it.

'The rest of my life sucks because of my work situation.  I reallylove doing surgery and sometimes the office can be rewarding but the business of doing medicine sucks.  I have made a lot of changes in my practice but its still quite stresful.  I don't want to stop being a dr.  I don't see a whole lot of point in doing IM training if I can't do an IM.  Its a lot of time and effort.  I can be fit doing a lot less and then I would have to time do things with other people.  I really really want to do IMFL.  And yes it is a sad commentary on my life that my best friends are cats and the only thing I have to look forward to is riding my bike. 

Losing a race for any reason is a total off.  I have missed quite a few due to illness and injury, which are out of my control.  This has happened enough that I have made peace with the fact that I can't control my health.   I keep going with the race plans anyways because I really enjoy the training structure, the motivation and social stuff when I'm well.  I can't imagine not doing it.  This is the main reason that I don't do IM, though because there is a high risk with me that I wouldn't make it....that would be too hard to deal with.  So I stick to shorter distances for now.  For me it's a challenge to get to the freaking start line each time!