In 2012 I made a push from the robotics side of mechatronics engineering to medical devices and had one job in mind, product development engineer at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. It looked to be my best shot at getting into true research and development of medical devices. I had heard great things about their East Tamaki campus and employee culture which made me very set on this one option. I went all in and got the job starting in 2014. Since then I’ve dabbled in many areas of product development including computer-aided design, electronics, control systems, machine learning, usability, clinical trials and plastics. I’m someone who has more interests than I know what to do with and the variability of my work and proximity to different expertise, applications, and products was the key to making this the right place for me. The culture also lived up to my expectations, and my honesty about sporting commitments has always been respected and even celebrated by my managers. I received a real sense of shared humanity, where everyone was appreciative of the importance of having a life outside work and I never once felt pressure to sacrifice my passion for running in order to work more.
But the tide eventually turned and in 2017 I experienced my first burn out, and I repeated this again in early 2018. So was I working too much at FPH? Well, working 4 hours a day instead of 8 would have likely prevented the burn out, so you could make the case. But another way to look at the situation is to compare 2014 to 2018. What you find is that I’m now doing more stuff outside of employment and training. More coaching, more travelling, more research and more content creation. My training load has also crept up a small amount. Although I had far less late nights than at university, while at FPH I had less flexibility. Going into Monday not fully rested meant a struggle would certainly be upon me before the weekend. Five 8-hour days in a row at FPH simply didn’t offer the level of flexibility I needed whenever I was found on the back foot. This was partially remedied by taking some mornings off to sleep in, but with only so much annual leave that wasn’t sustainable.
The last Friday of September was my last day of employment for at least a year. In September next year I will make a decision to go back to FPH or continue on my own. I have a lot to test in that time, starting obviously with the effect of maximum rest on physical and mental performance. I’m also delving deeper into my own body and will need to learn more about my gut microbiome and genetics to complete that work. There is also a lot more to research on nutrition and it seems the more I know, the more I realise I don’t know. Mindset and mental well being will also be a major focus, although this is not a new addition to my schedule. Coaching will be a larger avenue for me and I will try to take on some more athletes and further develop my ideas around training for endurance sports. I want to spend more time writing about my findings and also talking to knowledgeable people about these ideas. It’s really a year of exploration. I’m excited that the journey has begun and nervous because it’s all on me now to make it happen.
As usual I will be sharing as much of this as possible, so expect a much wider variety of articles. If I am successful, race reports could become a small part of my writing.
To everyone who has got me this far, thank you, especially to my FPH family for the great experiences of the past 5 years.