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!