Teacher's Pet

After my tempo run at the track this morning I emailed Jen to tell her about it... I was so proud to be able to tell her how I paced it spot on and was actually able to change up pace as prescribed.

While I was running I thought constantly about what I was going to say to her about it... and how much I wanted to be able to tell her that I nailed it.

It occurred to me that maybe something was wrong if my biggest motivation to run hard was so that I could tell Jen that I followed her instructions. I'm such the Teacher's Pet. But hey, whatever works, right?

Moana was not the Teacher's Pet today.

I took her over to Jenny's house to play today. Jenny has a 16 month old daughter named Sadie. She was very interested in the baby. She wanted to hold the baby.

Moana thought it was a good idea to eat Sadie's toys.

Sadie thought it was a good idea to eat her mom's shoes. I probably shouldn't have let her do that. Or at least not taken a picture of it.

I will admit it though... the real motivation of the trip was that Jenny is a triathlete and crazed stay-at-home-mom like me... desperate to get outside on her bike during the week. We met at the last two local sprint triathlons and within a few minutes of conversation about our daughters, our training, and our daily lives, she said to me, "I feel like I am looking in a mirror."

We enthusiastically agreed to do the baby exchange thing at her house today so we could each have a couple of glorious hours outside on our bikes. I will admit it (shame on me I know), I listen to my iPod when I'm out riding alone... today I was belting it out loud (Martina McBride's Happy Girl came on and I. could. not. help. myself...) much to the dismay of a Japanese woman who happened to be stopped next to me at a red light with her windows down.

Poor Jenny though. While I was out gleefully practicing singing and pedaling at the same time, for reasons unknown, Moana went into a I swear you better hold me full time and if you so much as put me down for a second I'm going to scream bloody murder mode. I don't know how moms handle two kids at once. Seriously.

In good news, Jenny invited us back next week, which pretty much just proves how addicted to our bikes we are... because as hard as it was to handle two little ones at once, it's totally worth it for the free time to ride outside.

Swing!

My mom is on a plane headed back to Ohio now... poor thing. It's always so hard to say goodbye at the airport. And now it's even worse for her because she knows that Moana is going to change so much by the time she sees her again.

I remember telling my mom I was pregnant... seems like a lifetime ago... and her first reaction (after she jumped on me with joy) was tears at the thought that she wasn't going to really 'know' her grandbaby. These are the hard things about living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Before I took her to the airport we went to a park in Kailua where Scott met us with lunch and we got to play with Moana on the swings. Boy, does she ever love that swing.

Mom and I actually took Moana to this park yesterday just to see if she would like the swing (or could sit in it). She squealed with joy as soon as she was in it.

Then today she got this huge smile on her face just looking at the thing. Two days in a row in the swing... I'm spoiling my daughter. Although today it was a treat she deserved because she endured three shots at the doctor's office. Boy can that baby scream.

Climbing Hills On A Tuesday

Usually riding my bike during the week involves my bike trainer and a Tivo'd version of The Biggest Loser... all strategically planned around a baby's naptime. But not today!!

Since Grammy is still here, I got to go outside. And climb some hills. On my road bike. Man, I totally forgot how much I love doing that.

I went to this hill and did repeats up and down for an hour. It was awesome.

I can't say exactly where all my motivation is coming from, but I feel like I'm on fire right now. Jen sends me my workouts and I yelp outloud with glee (seriously, outloud) when I see something that's supposed to be HARD.

Tomorrow we get to try again to make 100's in the pool on an interval we've never made before. I think we're gonna make 'em tomorrow. Then Thursday is something insane on the track. I'll admit, I was all psyched when I first read the workout... of course, the more I think about it, the more it's occurred to me that wow... it might be really hard to go that fast for that long... but I still can't wait to try!

Too bad I can't bottle up this motivation. I know these feelings don't hang around like this year round, so I'm trying to soak 'em all up right now. 4 1/2 weeks til Honu. BRING IT!!

Don't I Know You?

Grammy is here playing with Moana this week. She's in heaven.

She came over yesterday afternoon and told me that while she was walking around in Lanikai that morning, she saw the folks racing the Kahala Challenge. She was so proud of herself because she spotted Rachel Ross running. She's never met Rachel. But she recognizes her from her blog. Too funny. Bet Rachel didn't know that my mom reads her blog.

Then this morning she came back over with another fun story... getting coffee at the Kalapawai Cafe, she recognized Kelley's baby, Sara. She didn't know Kelley's husband, Ryan, but she knew that he won the Kahala Challenge yesterday. She knew that because I read Kelley's update on Facebook yesterday out loud. She probably freaked the heck of of him when she walked up to him and congratulated him on his race and then called his daughter by name. I swear, Ryan, my mom is not a stalker. She just reads your blog.

Isn't it funny how we think we know people we've never met because we read their blogs?

Yesterday I didn't feel too bad leaving Scott and Moana and heading out for my bike ride. Moana was busy being schooled by her dad on the star players from Manchester United. She was mesmerized.

Today we loaded up the whole family and headed up to the north shore. It was perfect at Sunset Beach today. Scott went surfing with several of his lifelong buddies and the wives/kids hung out in the sand.

Moana loves the beach.

Mom joked today about how she feels like she's on vacation. I told her that she is on vacation. Truth be told, I felt like I was on vacation too. Except, this is my life. :)

Monkey See Monkey Do

Some of you may have already seen this video, because I posted it on Facebook a few days ago... Looks like Moana is really paying attention during those Saturday morning soccer game viewings with her dad.

Mud Run

This was not our sunrise this morning. This was yesterday morning. Nice, huh?

Today looked like this.

I woke up at 5:25 to the sound of a text message coming through from Tom... telling me about the rain... as if I hadn't been listening to it all night... wondering if we were still planning on the 'Trainer at the Track 'workout out this morning. My reply to Tom: "Toughen Up."

I put a little :) at the end so he wouldn't think I was a complete b*tch.

When I told Jen that my mom was going to be here this week to watch Moana so I was going to have opportunities to ride my bike outside, this isn't exactly what I was expecting.

I gotta say though, I just love Nalani. She is the best training partner a gal could have. She's reliable. She shows up on time. She never complains or gives excuses about anything. We train hard together without actually racing each other. And she's just an overall great person!

So earlier in the week before I told Nalani about this workout, I thought she might look at me like I was nuts and tell me to have fun dragging my trainer to the track... although my gut told me (and I was really hoping) that maybe she'd be up for it. Sure enough, I told her what the plan was and I swear, I hadn't seen her smile that big since she announced her engagement to Kurt.

And I never questioned that Nalani would show up with her bike trainer to ride and run on a muddy track this morning.

It was really more like slip-n-slide.

Ok, maybe not quite like slip-n-slide.

But at the end of 16 laps around the track at race pace, Tom and Nalani looked like this.

And I swear, I did the same workout they did. But I guess I was more of a princess picking my way around the mud puddles rather than running straight through them, because at the end my legs looked like this. Go figure.

Regardless, that was my favorite track workout yet. I'll take mile repeats over 400's anyday. Even in the mud.

Accumulating Fatigue

Yesterday Angela posted a picture of her bloody heel caused by her running shoes. My comment to her was something about how I never get blood like that. Seriously, I never had before.

Um, spoke too soon. I guess I forgot to knock on wood or something, because this is what my foot looked like today.

In my defense, my bloody feet are due to the No Sock Situation I had goin' on at that sprint triathlon on Sunday. They're still all ripped up and raw. I had to tape them up with mole skin to get my 10 mile progression run in yesterday. Which, by the way, was hard. I think the instructions from Jen said something about wanting to puke at the end.

I didn't actually puke, but believe me, I wanted to. I worked that run.

It's 5 weeks out from Hawaii 70.3 and everyone I know is in a big phase of training right now. This is a hard week for me, filled with lots of specific workouts. I knew that I was going to need legs to get through the next few days, and since mine were shot, I figured I'd give that ice bath thing a go. Couldn't hurt, right?

Wrong. Holy moly that hurt. Maybe worse than the run itself?! Seriously, I stayed in for 3 minutes before I just had to get out... I sat there staring at the icy water in the tub, and somehow managed to convince myself to get back in. The second time it wasn't quite as bad, and I forced myself to sit there for 9 more minutes before draining the tub in favor of the hottest shower I could stand.

The cool thing about this week is that my mom is visiting... and you know how grammy just loves loves loves to play with Moana... :) so I've totally taken advantage of the free time to put in some good miles! I didn't have to rush back from the pool this morning because she was watching Moana for me. The swim workout was 4500 hard longcourse meters (ok, I exaggerate, only 4000 of them were hard). Toward the end, after we were already exhausted from a lot of very solid 500's, I told Nalani that it was time to make our feet go numb. And she was game. That was one of the hardest swims I've done in a while. But we nailed it.

I followed that up with a great bike ride with Bob. Most of it was solid steady state riding, although he did take me off the beaten path a bit and showed me some nice climbs toward the end. It was awesome- we were riding through what felt like Old Style Hawaiian Living... by plantation houses built in the 50's on these quiet roads at the foothills of the mountains... papaya trees everywhere... doesn't get much better than that. Nice of Bob to show me his 'Sanctuary' as he called it.

So now I'm doing everything I know (sans ice bath) to help myself recover again before tomorrow.

Look, Jen... No Socks!

Jen gave me a hard time a couple weeks ago when I mentioned something about putting socks on in transition of that little sprint triathlon. I hate being made fun of. So today, no socks.

But you know what? There's a reason why people wear socks in triathlons in Hawaii. Can you guess what it is?

How about SANDY FEET?

And do you know what little grains of sand do to tender wet feet when running for 27 minutes? Rub them raw. That's what they do.

So I've got raw feet. But you know what? I didn't get smoked in transitions today. :)

It was another stunning and perfect day in Kailua. Which in a tiny little way bummed me out. Because we've been ocean training in Small Craft Advisory conditions out there for the last couple of months, and conditions like that = advantage: swimmer. Skinny little runners get tossed around a lot in chop and surf, and since every other piece of this race was favorable to runners, I just wanted one little thing in my favor. I can swim in chop. But alas, it was like a warm smooth lake in there today. At least the swim wasn't short like in years past.

Gun went off and it was full on sprint. I'd heard that Katherine Nichols had gotten fast in the water. Rumor is true. I was red lining the whole way to stay on her feet. All 9 minutes of the swim.

Run up the sandy beach to our bikes... heart feels like it might just pop out of my chest because it is beating so hard... and while my transitions were better this week, I still suffer some when there's a long run involved in the transfer from sport to sport. My point here is that Kathryn was out of sight by the time I started pedaling. She went on to win the whole thing so I didn't feel so bad.

I managed to ride the first half with Rachel in sight... even climbed the hill to the turn around with her. But then at the top I swear my legs were completely numb. I just wanted like 2 seconds to take a deep breath. I got my breath in as we were u-turning... but then Rachel was GONE down the hill. I actually felt a slight sigh of relief and just rode back at my own hard pace rather than Rachel's hard pace. Mine is easier.

Run shoes on. My poor heart had been beating about as fast as it could go for almost 40 minutes already and now I was supposed to run 3.75 miles as hard as I could. Hmmm.

I tried. I really did. And now looking back at the splits, you'd think that ticking off 7:20's in that scenario wasn't so bad. But you know what? Oahu is full of very fast runners. Seemed like everyone and their little brothers were running by me the whole time. That is so frustrating. I started the run as the 3rd woman and finished it 8th. Apparently I need to be running 6:30's to not get crushed in sprint races around here.

I won my age group though, so that was cool. The prize was a t-shirt from a 5K race from last year that I didn't do. Sweet.

Here's a picture of our Pacific Velo Tri-Team. We swept 1st place in W35-39, W40-44, M35-39, M40-44, and M45-49. Would have had M30-34 as well, but Tai got 3rd overall. This is a fast group! They're the same ones who drag me around the island every Saturday.

Anyway, onward and upward. That's the last sprint tri i'll do this year. Phew! I'm looking forward to the longer stuff now. 6 weeks until Hawaii 70.3. I just got my schedule from Jen for this week. It's a big one and it involves taking my bike to the track for bike/run intervals at race pace. I've never done that before. Should be interesting!

Blueberry Banana Pancake Breakfast At The Beach

After 4 months of crap weather (ok, it's all relative I know, but for those of us who are completely spoiled living here, it's been rainy cold crap), we finally had a perfect day! Ahhhh... reminds me of summer in Hawaii... which I guess it almost is... so we can expect more days like this for a while. YEA!

I rode my bike down to Kailua beach and met my swim team for a little ocean swim.

Last one in's a rotten egg!

...followed by a pancake breakfast. Kurt doesn't mess around... he wasn't grilling just any old pancakes... blueberry banana pancakes! Yep, we know how to do Saturdays around here when the weather's nice. ;)

As if that wasn't awesome enough, Scott brought Moana down to play!

This is why we live in Hawaii. Moana really seemed to enjoy her time at the beach today... and in the ocean! The water felt a lot warmer today and we sure had fun playing in it.


Moana is now recovering from the wild morning in her crib... so it's time for Mama to pack the bag for the sprint triathlon tomorrow morning. It's happening at the same beach we were at today... somehow this little race has a way of bringing out the best talent Oahu has to offer... lots of fast gals to play with tomorrow! Too bad the swim is so short (they say 500M but I don't think it's ever actually been that long) and the run is disproportionately long (3.75 miles, ending with 500M in the sand). Seems to me that if we're going to run 3.75 miles, the swim should be at least 1000 meters... but who am I to say that? Apparently the race directors don't favor swimmers around here. ;)

I'll be up early tomorrow since the gun goes off at 6:15 (yikes!) It'll be fun regardless I'm sure.

Moana Goes Swimming

I've been waiting for the weather here to warm up a bit more... enough to take the chill off of the unheated water in the pool here at our condo complex anyway. And while I wouldn't call the pool water warm at this point, it is tolerable enough to not make a baby cry.

So Moana put on her Little Swimmer diapers and went swimming!! First time in a pool...

As a swimmer, I've been dreaming of the day when I could take my offspring into the water. Because like any proud mom*, I'm convinced that she's got the swimmer genes and I can't wait to extract them from her by any means necessary.

I asked the maintenance guy who was taking his lunch break at the pool to take a picture of Moana and me in the water. He didn't speak English, and apparently didn't know how to work a digital camera... because although he thought he snapped the shot, he didn't actually push the button. So the precious mother daughter moment had to be captured by my own hand. This is the best I could do.

So what did I learn today?

A) Moana likes the water! (Of course she does.)
B) Wet babies wearing sunscreen are slipperier than regular wet babies.
C) Taking pictures of a slippery baby with one hand while trying not to let go of her with the other hand is harder than it sounds.
D) Swimming makes a baby hungry and tired. Just like her mom.

She was quite curious about the whole thing. First I just dipped her feet in. When there was no problem with that, she went in up to her knees. Then she sat on the first step. Eventually we went in up to our waists and I was able to swing her around a little bit. I think she liked that! She wasn't such a fan of floating on her back because she just didn't relax in that position, but once when she accidentally got her face wet, she didn't seem bothered a bit. Surprised, but not bothered.

It's really fun that Moana is getting a little older and able to do cool stuff like this! Taking my daughter swimming was easily the highlight of the week for me.

*Scott, as the Proud Dad, is convinced that she will be the next soccer star. Stay tuned for video footage of the not-quite-six-month-old-girl kicking a soccer ball. It's a must see!

No Bonus Workouts

I just scrubbed the stains out of my kitchen sink. The microwave is spotless. The laundry has been done. Bed sheets have been changed. The cat box is clean. There are no leaves left to be swept up on my front or back patio. And now I'm trying to convince myself that I do not need to eat yet another bowl of cereal.

See, normally during Moana's long morning nap, I'm getting in my second workout of the day. Typically on my bike trainer. Sometimes a yoga DVD (Power Yoga for Athletes in the best!). But this week is a recovery week. I am under strict instructions not to do any bonus workouts.

This is killing me. I think this is the smallest training week I've had since the week after I gave birth to Moana. Seriously, I was doing more when I was 9 months pregnant! Ok, totally not fair because then all my exercise then was really light and easy... at least now I'm getting in some intensity, but still. Time-wise, I've got an extra 8-9 hours of free time this week.

Consequently, my windows are all streak-free.

This is what has been missing from my training plan when I didn't have a coach. Regular, planned, recovery weeks. Time to let my body absorb all that training I've been doing. I know it is the right time, because last Saturday I totally blew up on my brick run after that hard ride. My body was trying to tell me I'm Tired, and since somebody (read: Jen) was listening, we're giving it a break.

But body, listen up. Enjoy this down time now, because starting Sunday, we're back at it! Yes, I get to culminate this recovery week with another sprint triathlon on Sunday. I'm chomping at the bit to go HARD. Bring it!!

Then next week The Laundry Fairy is arriving... you know... the one who can't wait to get her hands on Moana... so my little triathlete brain is thinking of all those extra workouts I'll be able to get in while Grammy plays with Moana during the day... yes... dreaming of bike rides... outside... during the week! I can't wait to be exhausted tired again. Crazy that I crave that feeling, but I do. And Jen promised that if I am good this week, I'll get to have a big week next week. Yippee!!

So now I need something else to do to distract me from that bike trainer until Moana opens her little eyes. Update your blogs out there, will ya? Mama needs something good to read.

Plants Gone Wild

I realize that it is a bit early to be reading about parenting a toddler, since Moana hasn't even reached the 6 month mark yet, but I started regardless. The other day at Borders I picked up a book called Toddler Wise, which is by the same folks who wrote Baby Wise... I can't say I agreed with all of the advice in Baby Wise, but apparently there were enough pearls of wisdom in that book to inspire me to purchase its sequel.

Toddler Wise starts off with an interesting comparison... talking about how a gardener "does not create the bloom or the petal, or the stem that produces the petal..." But that "the power of life and beauty lies within the plant itself..." It goes on to say that it is the gardener's role to "know the time of pruning, training, and fertilizing that is necessary to bring the plant to a beautiful bloom.."

I thought that was a good analogy to the role of a parent.

Then this morning I was out drinking my espresso shot on our patio. A glance around at the plants made me second guess that analogy.

I sure hope that being a good gardener is not a prerequisite to being a good parent. Because we've got our own version of Plants Gone Wild outside.

Of course I mentioned this to Scott, since he was the one who took on the herb growing project several months ago. I think we did get a couple of tomatoes ripe enough to throw on a salad, but who knew that dill could overgrow every other plant in the vicinity? Seriously, that dill is like head high now. And it's got flowers. Flowers that Scott has apparently taken to admiring. Though in all seriousness I don't think he even knew they were there until I pointed them out.

His proud answer? "I'm letting them get to seed."

Sweet. Dill is going to take over our patio, and we're going to be parents of a wild child. I should just put those parenting books away.

Moana Goes Bananas

Moana is getting the hang of how to use a spoon. Like a little bird, she opens her mouth to gleefully accept anything that spoon offers*. No questions asked.

Of course, once she gets a taste of something new, it might come right back out of those lips faster than it went in... and then we've (ok, I've) got some cleaning up to do.

So I've learned to practice solid foods with her twice a day- once in the morning before we change her out of her pj's, and once in the evening before bath time. So far we're doing pretty well with a mix of rice cereal and bananas. This mix is only really a problem when she sneezes before she swallows, in which case bananas end up all over me and the surrounding vicinity.

And it looks like somebody is getting pretty darn close to sitting up on her own. She can do it for a few seconds before toppling over if her legs are positioned right out in front of her and she leans forward on her hands.

So it's Monday, which is typically a recovery day, for both Moana and me. Seems weekends lately have been big for both of us... me on my bike (mostly), and Moana at her dad's soccer games or out on the town with us at some social event. Weekends wear us both out, and lucky for mama, that means extra long naps on Mondays for Moana. :)

But this isn't just a recovery day for me, it's a recovery week... so... What to do? What to do? A trip to the local mall was in order (man it's a good thing I'm a triathlete and normally have other ways to occupy my time because going to the mall isn't really my thang...). Anyway, turns out I'm actually a complete sucker for those cute cute cute clothes at The Children's Place. Seems they're always on sale and Moana always gets new clothes when we walk in to check out what's new.

Now I've been instructed by Cat to check out Mini-Boden... oh boy... here we go.

*What's funny is that I've been mixing up her solids in an espresso cup (since she just eats a little bit at a time right now)... consequently she now thinks that anything in an espresso cup is for her... one of these mornings when she reaches out for my hot shot she's gonna accidentally get a little surprise. ;)

Typical Female

Moana went down for her morning nap sort of early today. Just a few minutes after I left the room she started wailing, and when I went back in to check on her, I found that she was upset because she had rolled herself over onto her tummy... so like a good mom I rolled her back over, gave her a little kiss on the cheek, replaced her dollie in her arms, and all was well in her world.

I didn't hear another peep out of her, but about an hour later (after finishing my Power Yoga for Athletes DVD) I went in to check on her. This is what I found. Notice her 'pillow'.

Not sure why being on her tummy was unacceptable the first time she rolled herself over yet perfectly acceptable the second time? Typical female I guess.

And here's a little product review for all you moms... I guess I should know what it's called before I go raving about it, but I can't remember... And since nobody's paying me to talk about it, I don't feel too guilty about not calling the product by name. Anyway, it's a little teething food sucker thing... it's got a little handle and a mesh bag that you can put food in for baby to suck or munch on without the potential for choking on it.

Yesterday afternoon I cut off a slice of the pear I was eating and put in in the mesh bag for Moana. And guess who's eyes lit up like little lightbulbs while chewing on the thing? There was some serious munching going on.

The One Day I Didn't Wear A Hat

I'm not a huge fan of running in sunglasses. I used to wear them all the time but inevitably they would end up on top of my head. I guess I just feel like I can see better without them on.

So instead, I wear a hat or a visor. Every run. Used to be to keep the sun out of my eyes, but now that I have transitioned into doing most of my runs when it's not exactly light out (o'dark-thirty has become o'dark-o-clock), the sun factor is not as much of an issue. Besides, it's been so cloudy here lately I can't remember the last time we saw the sun?

But just because the sun isn't out doesn't mean that visor is useless. Lately its purpose has been to keep the rain out of my eyes. Visors work pretty well in this capacity.

So this morning I was getting ready to jog over to the track and I thought about grabbing my visor, but then remembered how the last couple of weeks have been so windy... and when you're killing yourself around the home stretch trying to make your goal times the last thing you need to worry about is your hat blowing off your head. So I made a conscious decision to skip the hat today.

And wouldn't you know it? We arrived at the track and were immediately greeted by an ominous looking grey cloud... one that opened up on us during our first item. Me... No hat. No sunglasses. Just a runner squinting through the rain.

We laughed about how this was going to be an epic track workout... killing ourselves in the dumping rain... I told Nalani it might even be blog worthy... It's not really though, so I don't know why I'm blogging about it*. The rain pretty much stopped after just that one downpour and left us running through the resulting mud (because in Hawaii we don't have nice track surfaces- ours are dirt, which become mud when it rains a lot). I tried not to get too frustrated about the mud though, because hey, at least its not ice, right Angela?


*Ok, I do know why I'm blogging about it... Cat was giving me a hard time on FB about how she has posted more than me this week, so I had to blog about something.

Wearing A Baby Out

I almost hesitate to post this... I know many of you have babies that go on nap strikes and just don't like to sleep during the day (or night)... I guess I'm just really lucky that Moana doesn't resist naps too often, or for too long. Anyway, if you have a baby who doesn't sleep much and you're frustrated about it, this post might just irritate you so consider yourself warned. ;)

Moana had kind of a big weekend... going out to a party on Saturday night and staying out wild and crazy late (she didn't get to bed until 8:00!! And without a bath! Oh my!) Then she went to watch her daddy's soccer game on Sunday morning... then yet another little social get together on Sunday night which once again kept her up past her normal bedtime. I did force the bath on her Sunday night because it was necessary, but luckily she was asleep within 3 seconds of hitting her crib. So much for the 'an overtired baby won't sleep' theory.

Two 'late' nights in a row just about threw me over the edge because I was petrified that she was going to be all off on her schedule and stop sleeping like such a champ, but apparently late nights have the opposite effect on Moana. In fact, it seems that her instincts allow her to play catch up and sleep even more in the next days.

Yesterday Moana was playing in her jumperoo. I planned on putting her down for her nap at 12:30... at 12:25 I noticed that the jumperoo was quiet... no monkey sounds like normal when she's bouncing up and down... and I look over and find her like this. Yes, my baby fell asleep while in the jumperoo.

Life Is Simple (It Used To Be, Anyway!)

I have a lot of really old training clothes. Most of my running shorts are at least 5 years old... some of them I remember buying in 2001. Shocking that the elastic is still stretchy! (I think the key there is never putting them in the dryer). I know the cycling outfit I wore yesterday needs to go in the garbage because the side panels of the shorts are almost sheer and the zipper on the top is all corroded and I couldn't get it unzipped yesterday when I was done. Mama needs some new clothes.

Here's an example of an old one... a long sleeve technical shirt that I got for $7 in 2002.

How's that for a classic? Those of you who were doing triathlons 7 years ago might remember that Utah was the Ironman where the crazy winds picked up and made the water in the shallow lake impossible to swim in... I tried... but after 1:20 of duck diving overhead waves and not seeing a single buoy, I walked in to shore 3 piers down from where the swim was supposed to end... all before knowing that the race had actually been cancelled.

Anyway, needless to say the Ironman Utah clothing was on a firesale the following day. At first I remember thinking that I didn't want any IM Utah clothing, because there was no IM Utah... but now, 7 years later, this stuff is classic.

I put the shirt on this morning before heading over to the pool. This is what it says on the back:

Pouring his coffee, Scott said: "You need to add to that list..."

Since I hadn't yet had my coffee, I had no idea what he was talking about. Me: "What?"

Scott: "On your shirt. It should also say 'Feed baby, Change diapers, Do laundry, Vacuum floor, Clean kitchen, Grocery shop, Fix dinner, Sweep the patio'..."

That got me thinking. My life is definitely more complicated now that I have a family. It used to be simple. When I was single and had a job but no husband or kids, I might have been busy time-wise, but it was all more flexible than it is now. I made all my decisions about what to do and when without consulting anyone, or even taking anyone else into consideration for that matter. Swim in the morning? Or at noon? Or at night? Whatever I felt like.

Now I feel family responsibility to be home as much as possible and orchestrating our home and everything that goes along with it. I am the hub. If I don't remember to get toilet paper, there will be none in the house. If I don't fold the laundry, it'll stay indefinitely in the dryer and just get more and more wrinkled. If I don't keep the kitchen completely clean, the ants will have a hey-day. And if I don't orchestrate Moana's day properly, there's a lot of crying and then and everyone is unhappy.

Not that Scott doesn't pitch in at all around here, but his job is his job. He goes to work and does his job and brings home the paycheck. My job is to make sure that everything is running smoothly here. And I really feel like I have to get everything done as well as possible because, at least in my own head, that's my free pass to go train. The guilt I feel about being away for hours every weekend putting in long miles of biking and running is enough. I totally couldn't do it if I felt like I was neglecting anything at home.

Maybe that's the difference now? When I was single, lots of things got neglected at home... But it didn't matter... Because I was the only one who would notice. Now I have two people depending on me NOT to neglect things at home.

But in the end, I wouldn't trade it away for anything. And I think the forced organization has made me a better athlete. Because now I don't have the option to swim in the morning, or at noon, or at night. Now it's swim in the morning or miss it altogether. So I'm hyper-scheduled. I can't remember the last time I skipped a workout.

This past weekend was a big one. I ran a 10K on Saturday morning. It wasn't as fast as I was hoping for, but not bad in the big picture (45:51). No would-have, could-have, should-have excuses from me... I just took it out too fast and completely underestimated how hard that last mile was going to be with the uphill and headwind. Yesterday was a huge ride/run brick (B95, R4.5). Probably (ok, clearly) more than we need to be doing right now since we're only training for a 1/2 IM, but there is a degree of satisfaction to be gained from successfully completing a workout like that and feeling strong at the end.

30,000 Words

When my phone rang this morning and it was Kelley asking if I wanted to meet up at the park with our girls, I didn't hesitate for a second before saying yes.

Because anyone who stays home all day with a little baby knows that as much as we love our little darlings, it's imperative to 1) Get out of the house at least once/day and 2) Have some stimulating adult conversation.

The second point above is especially important of you want to save your marriage. Because our poor husbands walk in the door and are immediately assaulted with our verbal vomiting of every detail of the day... you know how it goes... Moana reached out for the keyboard and pressed the spacebar for the first time today and you should have seen her laughing at the dog! Then we went to Toys-R-Us and picked up these cute teething toys for her to suck on... I think she's going to like them... and look! A little toothbrush.. isn't it cute? Angela posted today that she took Zach in the pool and he loved it and kicked the water a lot and then Beth posted on Facebook that she dropped her cell phone into a port-a-potty at Oceanside... can you believe that???

Kelley and I laughed about how we talk non-stop at our husbands for like two hours straight everynight. Scott and Ryan will appreciate that we used some of those 30,000 words per day on each other today.

And of course it was just the cutest thing ever watching Moana and Sara interact... they're still maybe a little too little to really appreciate each other, but they did express some interest. Sara was so cute rolling around on the blanket and talking up a storm... Just like her mom!! :)

Things That Aren't Funny

There was a rumor floating around that the pool by my house had heaters on and that it wasn't icy in there anymore. That gave me high hopes for this morning's swim! But then as I was just about to dip my toes in the water, the lifeguard announced that the water was 74 degrees. WHAT???? My heart sank. Dread filled my soul. It would yet again be another session that was more a matter of survival than a solid workout.

"April Fools!" laughed the lifeguard. "It's actually 80 degrees!"

See, that was not funny. But boy was I glad that I was gonna get a good workout in without going numb.

So then I kind of thought it would be fun to put a little practical joke up on the blog today... seeing that it's April Fool's Day and all... I was gonna announce that I was pregnant again (surprise!!)... but then how and when do you convey that it was just a joke? At the end of the blog? The next day after starting inevitably a bunch of rumors that might be hard to stop?

In the end I decided that A) It's not funny to pretend such a thing, and B) My poor mom would just fall of her chair if she read something like that online.

So just for clarification, there are no more babies on the way in this house. ;)

Last night I had a dream about the Honolulu Triathlon. It's an International distance race here in May, and rumor has it that it's going to turn into a 5K-40K-10K duathlon because it's likely the ocean will be filled with jellyfish that weekend. Grrr. That was going to be my only shot at an International distance race this year and I was looking forward to finding out what I could do, but alas, they're going to take away my strength and make me run instead... Anyway, last night I dreamt that I was at that race and they decided instead to make us swim in these flooded hotel hallways... only the water was like a foot deep so we couldn't really swim... so they led us, ankle deep in water, down this maze of hallways until we got to the deeper part, which was just barely deep enough to not hit your hand on the bottom. Somehow I ended up swimming alone around this maze of hotel hallways until the water dried up and I was all lost and frustrated. That wasn't funny either.

To end on a more positive note, Miss Popular here seems to think everything is funny. :)