100-mile weekend

So I had my first 100-mile weekend over Labor Day. I've been doing this triathlon thing for about 2.4 years now and I've had a few goals that I've been silently working on. This was one of them and now I can cross it off my list!

We had a small group go out for 64 miles on Saturday. It was a fun ride, if a bit windy! Julie wasn't feeling well (at. all.) so we all took turns hanging back with her to make sure she made it home safely. This is at the Texas City Dike - right as we all ran out of fluids and just before Julie started to really feel awful.

What are we looking at...? No clue...

Julie had a miraculous recovery and we had a Labor Day party at her house on Sunday. I didn't really intend to ride Monday with the crew, but man alive. EVERYBODY was going! The Careys were some of the last to leave and family after family left and said, "See you tomorrow!" It occurred to me that I was really going to miss out on a fun ride if I sat in the kitchen on the trainer and missed my crew. 

So I started pleading my case to Doug. The kids asked if they could play Minecraft in the morning. I said something along the lines of, "IF Daddy can find the kindness in his heart to let me go play with my friends in the morning..." To which Doug responded, "LET you go? There's no LET. You're just going." That was about the extent of "permission" I was looking for, so I loaded up my bike and started prepping for Day 2 of cycling with my buds. 

Am I ever glad I went! We had SO much fun. We laughed (mostly about really inappropriate potty humor - see the photo of the portapotties and the dump truck!!), we caught a great tailwind, and we had a wonderful 40-mile ride. 

THE crew, minus a few.

Davin was in that portapotty. "You think we should run and shake it and make him think they're coming to dump him out...? HAHAAAAHAHAHAHA!" We're so bad...

After it was all said and done, I had 104 miles for the weekend. I've also been chasing a 17 mph average on a ride for a loooooong time. I almost had it Monday with a 16.9. Next time! When I got home, one of the crew sent me this text:

THIS. This totally made my weekend. This woman is one of the most incredible athletes I have EVER met in my entire life (having played THREE sports in college and slamming down a 12-hour Ironman between babies - she's that amazing). I feel myself getting stronger. I know I'm making better choices and pushing my body harder during my workouts. I think I can see a difference. But when you get unsolicited praise like this? It really makes your heart swell. Thanks, Mel. 

Speaking of hearts... I haven't shared this with anybody at all (and writing it here certainly does NOT count as I don't have any "readers"). You know that feeling you get when a cop pulls up behind you and you think maybe you were speeding and your heart lurches in your chest? Yeah. That's happened to me a handful of times lately for no good reason and it's weird. I have a physical scheduled in a few weeks and I think I'm going to bring it up to the doc then. I'm fairly certain it's nothing, except perhaps a twinge of anxiety over life in general, but I think it's worth mentioning before I ask my body to pull me through 140 miles.

So that's that. 225 days until IMTX. Training is going great. My family could be better (Daniel has strep and Doug still works like a million hours a day). Friends seem pretty amazing. And if I'm not mistaken, there is a hint of fall in the air (you know, if I stand directly in the shadiest spot under the tree, turn my head at just the right angle, and lean into the wind just so).

That is all. Carry on.

Triathlon of life

This morning was a doozy. Doozie? Doozey? Doooooozey? DuZ? I don't know. Spellcheck doesn't like any of them. It was a bear. A circus. A mess. Second Friday of school. Kids are exhausted. The first lock down drill of the year is today. Sleep is short. Anxiety is high. I was a basket case trying to get us out the door and on with our day. I somehow managed to miss brushing my own teeth in the flurry of lunches, snacks, homework folders, breakfast, kid teeth, kid hair (oh the kid hair....), kid shoes, reading logs... you get the point.

I flew through the car line, kissed them goodbye, and hustled to the gym for my morning swim. You want to talk about race day conditions? Try this out:

• Every lane is full, so I'm sharing a lane with my buddy Julie.
• The sun is just coming up over the building so I can only breathe on one side. 
• The landscaping dudes are there, so the air tastes and smells of gasoline. 
• The sprayers are on, so there's a constant stream of splashing water in my face and in my mouth. 
• I have exactly 40 minutes to finish my swim (you know, like a cutoff time).
• I have all of my stuff laid out in "transition" so that I can bounce from the pool to the conference call.

I finish up my swim and hop out of the pool (with 5 minutes to spare - beat that cutoff, baby!!). A guy waiting for a free lane asks if I'm finished. "Yup," I say. "I gotta get out of here and on to my conference call. I guess we can pretend this is transition!" We both laugh. I say, " I guess I have my own kind of triathlon today - kids, swim, work." He laughs again and says, "The triathlon of life." 

Boom. That was so spot on. Life is SO much like triathlon. You do your best to get through each discipline with a smooth transition from one task to another. If you're lucky, you cross the finish line standing on your own two feet and you manage to nail your nutrition for the day. Sometimes you DNF. Maybe you forget a meeting. You miss a practice. You somehow manage to miss getting to the grocery and you wind up packing your kid a hodgepodge of weirdness for lunch. Hell, Some days you DNS. You just can't seem to find your mojo and you spend the day in PJs in front of the TV, just trying to make it until bedtime so you can get up tomorrow and try again. And some days? Dang. You just crush it. Some days the to-do list seems too short and you PR your laundry and you kiss your kids goodnight with a smile on your face and you just LOVE the heck out of life. And days like today? Well. I guess that's yet to be seen. I had a rocky start with stinky teeth and a flustered T1, but I think I found my bearings on the swim and I'm starting to find my stride with the meetings.

Here's to the triathlon of life - here's to hoping for a smooth transition and a strong finish! Happy Friday, y'all.