Mother's Day and Racing

Mother's Day Weekend treated me well.  It is actually my new favorite holiday.  I requested a race, a morning to sleep in, and some reading time. 

 One of Isla's daycares had Muffins With Mom.  In this weird way, I absolutely loved it.  Who knew sharing muffins with your kid was so much fun?  It was one of the best mornings I have had.  Once Isla got a muffin in her (something she has never had at our house), she loved it too and now requests Muffins With Mom every morning. 

I had a pretty solid sprint race.  My goal was to be faster overall than I was last year, and I was.  Of course, once the results came out I picked at my results a bit.  The swim was 30-40 seconds slower than I swim daily at practice.  I just swam a timed mile last week at a much faster pace than I did a 400 for this race.  But that can be explained by the fact that I got zero, zero warm up since I showed up late and just jumped into the race as un-warmed up as possible.  I am definitely an athlete that gets better as I am warmed up, and a warm up is crucial for me in a sprint.  But, this was such a low key race, I really didn't sweat it.  Next race, though, I will really focus on my race morning prep.

The bike just isn't moving forward as I would like, although it was fine for the race.  I am still getting hung up on my position as I can't engage parts of my legs like I use to, and I feel like I am just not in my sweet spot.  I just can't seem to get the wheels rolling.  I think the bike will just have to be my project for 2015, and I need to be patient.  But overall, the ride was fine, and I was only passed by one guy.

And....I followed him onto the run and really tried to make my race with him.  I kept turning my legs over, and finally at the top of the hilly turnaround, he cracked and walked.  I passed him and felt him on my shoulder for the next mile.  I finally felt like I was racing and worked really hard to put a gap between us.  I finished ahead of him by 4 seconds, so that was fun.  It wasn't about the place, but it was about me being able to mentally engage and care.  So, the run was a good one, and my mission was accomplished.  I pushed through the run and really started to get a sense of racing again. 

 My parents came to watch me race, which was a real treat.  I think they have now watched me 4 times out of 100s of run/tris?  I think they lost interest somewhere in high school/college soccer when they no longer had to drive me around.

Throw back Wattie Ink OG kit and Enell bra.  Perfect for racing!

So, good stuff...next up Heatwave in June.  I am hoping to put in another few good weeks here.  I had one of my best track workouts on Tuesday, and that was exciting. Unfortunately I followed that up by getting sick at work today with some bug and have been in bed since 3pm, miserable.  That is just part of the game when you have little kids in daycare and work in a hospital.  So, I am still trying to piece together the whole shebang with training.  It is not near perfect yet, but as a whole it is getting more and more consistent. 

I want to end this post thanking some friends for being "encouragers." I really like using the word encouraging in this way as a noun.  Gina, Caroline, and Joy have been instrumental in this past week with just helping me hang in there with work, motherhood, sport, and life.  Things just weren't on track this past week.  And, they seem to be off track more often than not lately.  It leaves me confused, frustrated, and stagnant.  I find that when I am having success in one area, I seem to have success in many.  The opposite seems to be true as well.  I brought my excuses to them...all lame, as excuses tend to be.  I cried.  I complained.  They listened.  They encouraged.

So, let's continue to encourage each other.  We don't really know what struggles other people are facing.  Sometimes little bugger rain clouds can all but be pushed out of the picture by the sunshine of a friend.  An encouraging word is certainly more helpful to all than a disparaging one.  And in this day of social media, it seems a little easier to feel alone, even when surrounded by virtual people.  Thank you to my friends!

 Cutie patooty!!!!!  Look at those long legs!  94th percentile in height as of this week.

I love that she cheeses it up for the camera now!

Next

Next up- sprint triathlon next weekend!  I am going to go back to the race that was my first post-baby triathlon and try to better my time.  "Try" seems like such an inappropriate word, as I better improve my time!  My only goal is to S/B/R faster than I did last year on the same course.  I am stepping back into some sprint races to really get my system firing and re-learn how to push the pace and suffer more. 

Since Nola 70.3, I took the first week almost completely off.  After all, I guess I am not a spring chicken anymore.  (And I define "no longer spring chicken" not by my age, but more by my 30 years of sports/joints pounding).  I think my schedule called for 6 total miles of running after a 5 day lay-off.  I would have never done that in the past simply because I love to run and don't need much recovery as long as I keep the easy runs easy.  It kind of grated on my nerves, but I followed the plan.  

This past week I returned to my old, dreaded, favorite Peddler ride.  It is that early morning ride that requires I work at my max to keep up with the guys as they sprint for the world championship title.  I used to do this ride frequently 4 years ago or so, but I just haven't been ready physically to get back out there.  When getting back into training that is really challenging for me, I just get into a mindset of working hard.  If I get dropped, so what....I am there to work hard.  If I can't keep up, so what...I am there to improve. 

Ah, so I got back out there and it wasn't that bad.  I kept up for that ride, but I don't judge that as good.  Conversely if I don't keep up on the next ride, that is not bad.  It is just an opportunity for me to work very hard and do the intervals that I struggle to do on my own.  I am really hoping that if I can get the opportunity to put in a few harder rides on my schedule I will start to break back through and find my cycling legs.

And that is that!  I am hoping to report next weekend that I was able to just work really, really hard in my sprint and feel like I could push and find the next gear. 

PS-  anyone else over-the-moon excited to see Andreas Raelert on the podium at St George with the fastest run split?  Not bad for a first race back...he is absolutely my pick for IMTX.

All About Isla

Isla is almost 22 months now.  I am jut a couple of months away from having a 2-year-old.  Wow!

We, as in the whole family, sleeps now.  Isla wakes up generally 1 x a night now, and Dave is able to rub her back and sing "Twinkle Star" while lulling her back to sleep.  She actually requests him to sing sometimes.  LOL!  She sleeps in her crib in her room, about 10 whole feet from our bed (tiny house).  LOL!  We co-slept for a long time, and at times we still co-sleep in the wee hours of the morning if she wakes up and it is my turn to parent.  I honestly would still be co-sleeping with her if she actually slept better that way.  When she was a baby, she wouldn't sleep on her own.  The only way any of us could even get in a 1 hour stretch would be for me to sleep with her.  But, as she got older...maybe 1.5 years old, I found that she needed a very quiet room to sleep as she is so wired and alert most of the time. 

Some babies just need more time.  And while I complained quite a lot on my blog, um...because I was TIRED from averaging less than 4 hours of sleep for about 1.5 years... I knew that Isla would be fine if I could just be more patient.  Dave and I discussed it often, and we decided to stay the course.  We were going to parent our child.  We weren't going to let her cry for hours because some book told us too.  We weren't going to force her to sleep alone until she was ready.  We weren't going to go against our guts and our parental instincts. 

So, if you are a mama (or daddy!) who has a kiddo that doesn't sleep well for a long time, just know that is more normal than people will lead you to believe.  No, you don't need to make them cry it out, ferberize them, or any other crap that doesn't feel right.  If you need some tips or a virtual shoulder to cry on because you are so exhausted, you can write me.  :)  I get it!  

And what is really unbelievable to me is that I am still breastfeeding.  I never set out to breastfeed this long.  I was never able to pump extra, and Isla never really took a bottle.  So, again, things just seemed to be on a different path for us than for many of my friends.  Forget the scheduled bottles...we were nurse on demand around here, and that usually meant every hour at night.  AHHHH!!!!  But, that is reality.  Babies like to eat at night when your supply is the highest.

I have absolutely no idea how I am going to wean her, and honestly it could happen today and I would be totally fine.  Like really...let's wean today!  But, while I have convinced her that we only need to nurse 1 x morning, 1 x when I pick her up from school, and 1 x before bed...I have not convinced her to give it up all together.  After all, she told me that she liked to nurse more than drink cow's milk because "mommy's milk tastes better."  She really said that. 

And while she has been very verbal from early on, she is a huge talker and singer now.  No word is beyond her now, and it is really quite fun to have full conversations with her.  I mean, we talk all day long to each other.  But, then she gets around other people and completely clams up.  The only word she will say is "mama," as she buries her face in my legs or shoulder out of shyness.  Then it will be the two of us again, and she will use full sentences to talk to me about any and everything. 

Oh, and tantrums?  Those started a long time ago.  This is a very headstrong girl.  I think I will have to consult with Angela K a bit as time goes on.  

I think she has a bit of girly girl in her.  She loves playing with her Mema's makeup, and wonders why mommy doesn't put on makeup.  She likes to pick out purses with me when we go shopping.  She has opinions on what might be "pretty" and cute."   But bless her heart, she loves bicycles and getting dirty.  She is the first of her friends to leave the playground to go play in mud, and I don't stop her.  She also LOVES to help me with my bike, and you can tell she thinks it is interesting that mommy "goes running, ride bicycle, or swimming."

And while no one blogs anymore, I still love to keep a history of this sort of thing.  I remember when I learned so much from other people through their blogs, and I really was able to reach out and meet a lot of new and amazing friends as well.  So, I am going to keep this blog pushing on!  Training-racing-kids!!!!!  Yea!!!!