Triathlon, Training, and Camp Grandma

Last August Jeanne did the Iron Girl sprint triathlon in Syracuse.  I went to watch.  And I basically said "Shit, if Jeanne can do a triathlon, so can I."  At the time I was limping at the walk, and going to PT three times a week for my crappy knee.

So I started swimming when Dexter had swim team practice.  A little while after that I started biking on whatever crappy bike we had laying around.  Around that time I got an injection in my knee, went back to the ortho for a follow-up, told him I wanted to do a tri.  He sad go for it, do lots of swimming and biking now to get your knee strong, and don't worry about running til the spring.

In December, I signed up for Iron Girl Syracuse 2016.  The race is the first weekend of August.

In December I bought a real bike.  A hybrid, so I can still go off-roading with the kids if desired.

In January I stopped PT, started back at the cross-fit class I love so dearly at the Y.  Continued biking and swimming.

Sometime late winter I found an organization that does lots of triathlons in our area, and saw a little tiny mini tri in June, not too far away at Lums Pond in DE.  They had a "Race With a Friend" category, where you could start your wave with a fellow crazy tri-friend, and be right next to them in transition.  And the entry fee for the second person was like half price.  So I asked Jeanne if she'd come down and help me through my first tri, before I did the "real thing" at Iron Girl.  Since she's all experienced and stuff, what with one triathlon under her belt.

Fast forward to Father's Day weekend.  Jeanne came down on Thursday night so that we could go pick up our packets, attend the race meeting, scope out the lay of the land, and attend an open water

swim clinic at Lums Pond on Friday afternoon.  The open water swim clinic was exactly the first time I have ever tried to swim for real in open water and not in a pool.  Also the very first time I swam in my tri suit.  It was a wise decision to pay the extra dollars and do it.  The water was warm, not weedy or slimy, and completely brown.  Like, could not see your hand in front of your face brown.  It was fine.  We had a nice swim, practiced looking up to see where you're going, practiced swimming in to the beach and standing up and running out of the water.  And then we practiced drinking beer at Iron Hill, because it's always wise to get in some good beer drinking practice.

Friday night we packed our tri buckets (the kids decorated my tri bucket earlier in the week and were very pleased with the results.  We happen to have a wide variety of random duct tape, and a plethora of stickers, so decorating was a snap), filled our water bottles, and got John to help us get both bikes on the bike rack AND close the garage door while they were on said bike rack.  Done, with inches to spare.

Dark and early Saturday morning we ate some breakfast, packed the car, and headed to Delaware.  Put some air in the bike tires (Jeanne says my Wal-Mart tire pump is a piece of crap.  I say stop putting so much air in your tires - it works fine for my bike), picked up our timing chips, and rolled in to the transition area to set up shop.  Water bottles on the bike, shoes out with socks rolled up inside, bike helmet with glasses inside, bike gloves, and a baseball hat and my number on a race belt, for the run portion.  My bucket was used to carry all my crap to the transition area, and then doubled as a place to sit and put on my shoes.  It was easy to spot during the race - coming in from the swim I could see the paint splatter duct tape on the lid, and coming in from bike I just looked for the giraffe.  As Aunt Maria said "it should be easy to find - I don't think Space Giraffes are a common theme."

We had to clear the transition area for a while for the kids tri - they did a 100 yard swim, 2.5 mile bike, and like a half mile run I think.  We were trying to figure out if it was something Dexter could do next year - he said a few weeks ago that he wanted to do a tri, as well, and I told him he needed to actually train for it a little bit.  I think he could manage, if we put helpers in strategic locations to talk him through the transitions.  Now to see if he can actually swim for 100 yards...

We hopped back in to transition around 8 to put away things we didn't need, put on our water shoes,

grab our goggles and earplugs and swim caps (also the very first time I have worn a swim cap that was a real swim cap.  Mine is stretchy and cheating.  The one for the race was... challenging.  I wore it over my own cap, though, so it was easier.)  And then we headed down to the water to wait for our wave.  We found Carla from Fair Hill down by the start - her son Xander was doing the race as well (he's 18, and ridiculously fast.  He finished second.  Not second for men, or second in his age group.  Just SECOND.)  And we found my dear friend Christin, who was there cheering for her running partner Frank and another friend from work.  She cheered for us the whole race, and somehow managed to be at EVERY single transition the entire race.  She's awesome.  Most of our race photos are courtesy of her.  The women's wave is in the water waiting to start here, and then the Race With a Friend wave (mixed genders) started last at 8:25.

We started the swim in the water.  I bumped in to someone once, but otherwise had a pretty clear swim.  I am quite sure I am incapable of swimming a straight line and added many yards to my swim.  I also let my swimming form go to crap when I am trying to swim fast, which is not really great.  By the end of 440 yards I was out of breath, breathing every stroke.  I need to do a better job of settling in and just swimming strong, instead of trying to go fast.  And also a better job of following the path to transition, as I ended up in the trees.  Glad I was wearing my swim socks.

My transition to bike was apparently slow.  I'm not sure what I can do to make it faster.  Actually, I already did one thing - I got some locking elastic laces so I don't need to tie my shoes any more.  I can just slip them on.  Gloves took some time, but I imagine I'd fall off my bike if I tried to put them on while riding.  Taking swim socks off took some time, but I'm not willing to go without them, especially after swimming in the Iron Girl lake and seeing how yukky it is.

Jeanne and I came out of the water about 20 seconds apart, but left transition together for the bike.  The bike was nice.  Ten miles, super flat.  We drove the course the night before so we knew where we were going.  We had some traffic hang-ups on one road, but otherwise it was smooth sailing.  We cruised along at about 17 mph - I was surprised Jeanne didn't leave me in the dust.  This was my first time riding on flat - we don't have flat around the house.  So I was impressed I could keep up.  Or Jeanne was just going a little slower for me.  I did learn during the race that maybe going all-out during the bike is not in your best interests, as (surprise!) you still have one more terrible crappy least favorite part of the

race remaining, and it's tough running on tired legs.  So in August - maybe slow down a touch, eh?  Didn't worry about fuel during this race - it was short.  But in August I'll need to carry an energy snack of some sort with me on the bike so I have some energy left for running.  I need to work on drinking electrolyte water some more before August, too.  My stomach is not a huge fan, and having an upset stomach during a race is not especially fun.

Bike to run transition is pretty straightforward for me, as I don't have to change shoes.  Bike on the rack.  Helmet off.  Baseball cap and number on.  Pull down bike shorts a bit.  Go.  Not sure why that took so long.  In August I'll try bike on rack, pull down shorts, and then put on hat and number while running to the "run out."

The run?  Blah.  It was pretty terrible.  Trail run on grass and trail, with a little bit of road.  Two miles, out and back.  We were really slow.  We were really tired.  I was glad Jeanne was there so I didn't stop running.  I don't like to stop in front of people I know.  We rallied the last half mile or so and finished decently strong.  But that was a sucky run.

So.  Lessons learned?  Swim in open water some more (going to the lake for a week, so I've got that covered).  Bike slower (Seriously.  I don't know how to bike slower.  I have all-out, or nothing.)  And clearly I need to run more.  Which SUCKS.  I hate running.  Also, this triathlon things is kind of fun.  Chatted with some nice folks, enjoyed the competition, enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment after finishing.

This is the first year we floated Camp Grandma past Erin, since this is the first summer she is potty trained.  At first she was not having it.  Then last month she decided that sure, she'd go to Grandma's house and play with all the toys, all by herself, and not have to share.  So we set it up for this past week.  I took Erin to Grandma's house on Tuesday, stayed for a few hours while she napped and swam in the pool for a bit, and then I went to Jeanne's house.  So I could be closer than five hours away in case she lost her mind.  She was a sad sad kid on Monday night before we went, as she was scared and didn't want to go by herself.  When I got her up from her nap on Tuesday I think she was starting to see the light.  "I like being at Grandma's house by myself, Mama.  Dexter doesn't talk to me and keep me awake at bed time."  See?  I told you, kiddo.  It's nice here by yourself.  She ended up being mostly ok.  She called once in tears because Grandma brushed her hair.  She called once crying at bedtime because she was sad and she missed Mama.  That was kind of a tough one.  But she made it through, had a fun trip to Geneva to play with Aunt Maria, and overall had a great time at Grandma's house.  She told me on Saturday night when we got home, "I am good with going to Grandma's house now, Mama.  Because I know how to do it.  And because I know I am brave."  That's my girl.

Erin played with all the toys.  And Jeanne and I slept in, and did some shopping, and got a pedicure, and went to a winery, and visited both my old barns in Cazenovia.  Oh, yeah, and also we did some tri training.

Wednesday evening we did tri practice at the location of the Iron Girl.  500 yard swim.  9 mile bike ride.  3 mile run.  Right there we just did, more or less, what we did for a race on Saturday.  But this was just for practice.  John thinks we're nuts.  He may well be right.

Tri practice was ok.  It was weird swimming and seeing the tall tall weeds slipping by under me.  And the fish.  Kind of weird, but ok.  I swam with better form, kept up my three stroke breathing the whole time, and it was fine.  We biked a little bit slower than we did on Saturday, but still had a nice speed.  I tried electrolyte water and energy gel, with mildly upset stomach.  And then we ran.  Three miles.  On a road, at least.  And fairly flat.  It was not terrible.  Certainly not fun.  But not terrible.  I kept a fairly steady 10 min/mile pace, which I previously thought was unsustainable for me.  So I was happy with that.  The bummer thing about doing tri practice is that sure, you just did the same distance that you did at a race on Saturday.  But nobody gives you a medal when you're done, and you somehow don't feel the same elation of I JUST DID A TRIATHLON!

Thursday morning we went back to the park and rode the Iron Girl bike, plus an extra couple miles.  So 20 miles on my bike.  Which I have done exactly once before.  I was ok til about Mile 15, when my butt got really uncomfortable and my feet went numb and my hands went numb.  I did energy gel and electrolyte water with no ill effects, so that was cool.  And I realized that flat bike riding is tough.  Because you never get a break.  I ride hills, only hills here.  Going up sucks, but at least I get a break going down.  When everything is flat there's no break.  Never a time when it's easy.  It's tough when you're riding 20 miles.

Friday Jeanne had to go back to work.  But because I am a glutton for punishment, or am crazy, or didn't want to have to hang out with Dom all day (kidding!  Just kidding, Dom), I rode my bike to the local park.  And swam, and ran, and rode my bike home.  16 miles on the bike (on the Erie Canal, which was kind of cool).  Two miles running around the lake.  20 minutes panicking and hyperventilating in the lake.  That lake, man.  Lemme tell you about that lake.  Clear as can be.  You can see EVERYTHING.  And you swim along.  And get to a shelf in the lake.  And suddenly there's NOTHING.  Nothing beneath

you.  The lake is so deep you see NOTHING.  I was petrified the entire time.  I'm gonna guess that doing a tri in the ocean is NOT on my bucket list.  Nope.  Nope nope nope.

Saturday we passed on a group bike ride in favor of sleeping in.  And then Erin and I drove home to see how the boys survived without us (they survived fine.  Dexter had Lego camp all week, and a swim meet on Saturday in the outdoor pool.  He swam four races, and totally ROCKED his backstroke - he came in fourth.  Nice!)

And then Sunday I did another 20 miles here at home, on my nice old hills.  Still could not feel my butt or my feet after 15 miles, so I think I need some more butt on the bike time, for longer rides.

Could I do Iron Girl tomorrow?  Probably.  Maybe.  It might not be pretty, though.  So I've got five weeks to work hard and see if I can make it easier on race day.  Gonna be a long five weeks...

On Ants and the Best Restaurant in the Universe

Yesterday after I ran, Erin was in the driveway poking at the dirt with a stick.  And then she said "Look, Mama!  Ants!"  And lo and behold she had poked her stick right in to an ant hill (we have zillions of them).  The ants were, rightfully, pissed.  So we looked at them for a while, and watched them moving dirt and sticks, and Erin smooshed a few with her shoe and decided she only likes ONE ant, not lots of ants.

I continued stretching until I heard "Oh, dear, Mama - I have ants on my SHOE!"  And she did.  On her shoe.  In her shoe.  On her leg.  It was fine, I brushed them off and cleaned out her shoes.  And then she decided she'd had too much nature for the day and she wanted to play inside.  We double checked her shoes to be sure that she wasn't bringing any ants inside, because it makes Daddy mad when ants get in the house, because then they eat the food on our kitchen counter.

And then Erin said - I don't want to get ants in the house, and have them eat all our food.  Because then we wouldn't have any food to eat.  And then we would die.  And I don't want to die, Mama.  I want to be a grown-up.  So I don't want any ants to get in the house.

So there you have it.  Ant logic.  From the three year old.

Today during snack I asked Erin what she wanted for dinner (we settled on our "we're the only people here on Wednesdays so we're having pancakes" Wednesday standard).  Dexter chimed in his choice and then I reminded him he wasn't having dinner at home because he had basketball practice.

And he said:  I am imagining having a conversation with Daddy.  At the best restaurant in the entire Universe.  McDonalds.

That's high praise, right there.  Because for Dex, it's not just a saying.  It's FACT - he truly believes McDonalds in the best restaurant in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

Dexter has exactly THREE more days of First Grade, and then we're filling up our days with camp and swimming and some more swimming and holy crap that's a lot of swim team practice...

Berry Cute

Erin's on summer vacation, which means she gets to hang out with me.  A lot.  And do some fun stuff, but also just get to tag along to places Mama has to go.  Like Newark, to the bike shop.  Twice.  Which is not all bad, as the bike shop is one block away from the most amazing donut shop in the universe.  She also gets to make multiple trips to Fair Hill - to the office, to the field, and maybe if it's not raining tomorrow to Olympian Boyd Martin's farm to take some pictures at a clinic we host.  She doesn't mind - she gets to sit on cross country fences, and see a horse or three.

Lunch outdoors at Klondike Kate's in Newark, before picking up my bike from the bike shop.

She also gets to come to the strawberry farm to pick lots of strawberries.  She actually PICKED berries this year, which is a first.  Before she just stole them out of my basket.  But today she picked her very own berries.  Zero went in to her basket.  But plenty went in to her belly.  She likes picking berries for about 10 minutes or so.  Which is, honestly, 10 minutes longer than I like picking strawberries.  I just like eating strawberry shortcake enough to make up for the fact that I hate picking strawberries.

Of course no trip to the strawberry farm is complete without a good amount of time spent on the playground, with the gigantic strawberry slide.

Erin being a T-Rex

Although it's not officially summer vacation yet for Dexter (June 14 is the last day of school) we've been letting it feel a little bit like summer this week.  No homework allowed us the chance to pick up a pizza and take it to the pool for dinner on Tuesday.  Both kids had a lovely time, although Erin turned in to a Popsicle after about 30 minutes of hard swimming in the big pool.

Wednesday was Dexter's "Portfolio Picnic" at school, so Daddy got to go to school to have a picnic with Dexter and his classmates, and see some of Dexter's writing.  He also got to go to Erin's swim lesson that morning to watch Erin swim, and to stay and play with her for a while after.  It was a good morning for Erin - she was the only kid at her lesson so Ms Dana practiced some of the skills she needs to do to get her yellow wrist band.  She swam across the width of the pool (she gets a little nervous in the middle, but she can totally do it) and she learned how to tread water - she has to do that for 30 seconds.  She made it 10 seconds on her first attempt - I'm guessing by the end of the summer she'll have a yellow band.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Field Day at school.  But tomorrow it's also supposed to rain, so Field Day may well be moved to Monday instead.  We're winding down to the last little bit of busy before it's finally time for summer vacation, and camp, and swim team in the outdoor pool, and the lake house, and lots of book reading and hanging out and doing nothing.  I foresee plenty of mornings in our pajamas, coming soon!

A New Parade

On Sunday night the weather forecast for Memorial Day was 100% chance of rain, heavy at times, pretty much all day long.  The big Kennett Square Memorial Day Parade we usually attend was cancelled.  So we figured we'd be hanging out inside all day Monday, and not parading.

And then the ever-knowledgeable FaceBooks told me about a previously unheard of parade in Oxford.  As well as where to park.  And we woke up Monday morning to no rain, and completely updated forecast of NO RAIN, and even some sunshine.  So we discussed some flexible thinking with Dexter, discussed how it's not healthy for your body to hold its pee for 15 hours straight to Erin, and then headed to Oxford.

This was a much shorter parade.  Without the Boy Scouts handing out flags at the beginning.  Without horses, or guns, or floats.  But it had a couple marching bands, and some old cars, and more fire trucks than we anticipated.  And also we were home before 11AM.  So I do believe it was a success.

Here's a link to a super quick video that Google Photos so kindly made for me this morning.

Flag waving practice by the small one who is too big to want to nap, but still too little to NOT be grumpy when she skips her nap.  She's pretty fun these days...

Daddy had to do a quick fix of Dexter's flag - it's been hanging out in the garage since last year and needed a little re-stapling.

Yay!  Parade!

Parade Watch 2016

Erin wants YOU to have a Happy Memorial Day

Waving flags at cool classic cars

Love Erin's "What's coming next?" expression.

An impressively long line of fire trucks, considering they were all just from Oxford.

Aaaaand DONE!  Parade over, quick walk back to our car, easy drive home.  This is a parade I can support.  We considered going to the West Grove parade on Saturday morning, but it started at 9 and Erin slept until 8:15.  So we had no shot of making it there.  Maybe next year.

Aunt Maria took the kids to Applebee's for lunch.  Ms. Dianne, Dexter's MT, is coming here at 3:30.  Maybe we'll do some swimming or some sprinkler running this afternoon.  And that's pretty much it!  Memorial Day 2016, done.

Aunt Maria has been here all weekend, so we've been having a fun time with her.  On Saturday our little pool got set up and filled, and left to sit and warm up a bit before anyone decided to swim in it.  Saturday afternoon the kids went to the DE Children's Museum - they had a "Be an Aerospace Engineer" program there, so Dex went and built a Mars lander, and then got to test it from the top of the huge climbing structure.  He did an excellent job of building his, and had a successful landing.  John has pictures, but hasn't shared them with me yet.  So you're picture-less.  Erin and Aunt Maria played and slided and touched fish and crabs and had a lovely time.  And everyone ate ice cream.  Saturday evening was kind of our only shot at roasting marshmallows, so John built a little fire in the fire pit and we had s'mores for dessert after a hot dog dinner.  Erin was super brave and actually got within 20 feet or so of the fire.  That girl.  She REALLY dislikes fire.  So she didn't have a s'more, but she had marshmallows and chocolate and crackers, all on their own.

Little Miss Chocolate Face

Dex still enjoys his marshmallows WHITE, but sticky.  It's a fine balance.

Waaaaay back there is Erin.  She wants to be sure she doesn't get too close.

On Sunday we did a lot of pool-ing.  Our pool in the morning, which Aunt Maria said was still really cold.  Erin lasted about 15 minutes, though, so it couldn't have been THAT cold.  And then the YMCA pool in the afternoon, along with picnic dinner there, under the pavilion, while it rained.  They finally asked us to leave so they could close the pool down early.  I got a good glimpse at what my summer will entail - sitting in two inches of water at the baby pool, while Erin fills cups and buckets with water.  Cuz she won't get it.  Cuz it's "too cold."  Dexter and Aunt Maria had a lovely time on the slide, and diving in the diving pool, and swimming in the lap pool.  I have no photo evidence of this.  Because I was sitting in two inches of water with Little Miss It's Too Cold.

Here's a Link to a quick video of Sunday morning in our pool.

In our pool.  Aunt Maria eventually was numb from cold.

Erin got tired of the pool, and went to help Daddy wash the car instead.

And then she washed her own car, at the car wash.

Erin drawing aliens on the driveway

Erin at the YMCA pool

Cold little Erin Duck, eating cold pizza and Boy Scout popcorn for dinner.  Oh, and gummy rings from the candy store.