Monday, August 29, 2011

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

The hardest thing I've ever attempted is being a working athlete mother. And I even have quite a bit of help, in the form of an amazing husband and family. But for some reason this past week seems to have been particularly tough. Tough physically, and especially emotionally.

Because, and I realize this is a good problem to have, there is simply too much for me to love and not enough hours in the day for me to fit it all in. I would never NOT want to work where I do. I would never NOT want to spend every waking second with Bug and Bean. And I can't even wrap my head around not working out at least 4 days a week.

So, by the wayside goes the unnecessary.

My beloved lengthy race reports, filled with pictures, for a start. Followed by all remnants of a clean and orderly house, dinner that involves more than a protein, a veggie, and brown rice, and afternoon workouts. I actually thought I could run after school today. Ha! Silly me. I know better. Even if I could somehow get that in (which it was literally impossible), all I ever want to do after school is spend time with Bug and Bean. And Bug's totally NOT down with the jogging stroller (yeah...he's been done with that for a while now).

Here it is, with random pictures and thoughts and I've got 15 minutes here so that's what you're gonna get:

Lorain Sprint Tri

I came, I did not have my heart in it, I tried to put my heart into it as much as I could, I still did pretty darn good.

Swim: Awful awful awful, but I didn't panic, which I take to be a result of me swimming in pretty rough conditions a few times this summer. So sucking is not good, but at least I didn't suck AND panic. Lots to work on here. I lost it in the swim on this race, and could have had a better finishing position with a better swim. Took a wrong turn in T1 to boot and had to turn back around. Awesome. Arg. 3/6 AG (<-----boo.)

Bike: Just didn't really have my head in the game here. Official results have me at 21.4 crazy miles per hour, which sounds awfully purty but is just not true. The course was a little short and I had 20.3 on my Joule, which is just about on par with what I did at Huntington. But only 160 watts?! Boo. I can do better. Held back a bit due to fears after a derailleur malfunction the night before, so kept it in pretty much the same gear the whole time. I should have trusted it a bit more, but wanted to have a good run so just kept on in the same gear. 1/6 AG

Run: Very proud of this. 25:05, which is an entire minute faster than Huntington. And I felt pretty awful! I could swear I was crawling. I need to take at least 90 more seconds off here. Work to be done, but definite progress! (1/6 AG)

All in all? Work to be done, but isn't there always and ain't that why I love this stuff? I muddled through after a challenging week and I didn't have my head in the game like I did at Huntington. So to finish where I did felt awesome.

5/52 overall females (a few seconds out of 4th--poop sandwich!)
1/6 Age Group (small field, but I finished just shy of 8 minutes ahead of 2nd, so pretty happy!)

Here are a few pics at least, courtesy of my awesome Mom:

And now I'm going to collapse. Goodnight!

6 comments:

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Great job on the sprint tri! It is hard trying to do it all and I only work three days a week, but I couldn't imagine giving up my job, my running or the awesome time with my kids either.

Carolina John said...

We do what we can and that's all we can do. Great job winning your age group! That's a good time for sure.

Christi said...

Congrats on your race finish!

Janet Edwards said...

U said poop!

Great job on your race!

And I hear ya, that there never really is enough hours in the day! You are just lucky to have sooo much to love :-)

Anonymous said...

No, You can't "do it all"-nor do you have to! You are doing amazing things with your time. Making a difference in many kids' lives at your school and being there for your family. That's the most important! Time for training and racing will occur in random spurts-but wouldn't mean anything without the other aspects of your life. You are doing well maintaining that balance, I think! Congrats on a strong finish and having fun at the same time!

KimZ said...

I'm slowly returning to teaching, by being a substitute this year. I have no idea how I will still fit in being an athlete since I'm also a mom to two boys, ages 6 and 8. You seem to have been doing a great job of it! Nice job on this tri!