The Rest of the Story: Sandman Race Report

I should have written this before, the day I got home from the race while I was still tired from it. I have been taking the week off. I think as I mentioned before I had been sick right before the race and my nurse practitioner had asked me not to. The deal was that I would take one whole week to do nothing after the race and well, that is exactly what I have done. Nothing. No strength training Monday or Wednesday, no Sunday swim, no brick on Saturday and no run on Thursday morning. Truly I've done zilch.
So, now that I'm writing the race report, I hardly feel like a triathlete. It's funny how fast you forget all of those long workouts. Here are some photos. OK lets see if this helps me remember.
Yep, this is my favorite part of the race. Daisy was so excited to see me. Her dad had miscalculated my swim time (I was too fast) and then had gotten distracted, so she, Redfish and Mr. Preschool missed me on both my transitions. I hadn't really thought about missing her or wondered where they were, I was too busy concentrating on my race. But all of a sudden, there she was! She and Redfish were so excited to see me. And, she just started running. I held her hand and we ran together to the finish line. It was really nice to show her one of the many reasons I do triathlons. Because she was running with me, of course we got all this attention. Actually, I don't think I've ever heard a crowd cheer so hard for me. Wait, it must have been here they were cheering for. Anyway, she got to truly sense what it feels like to cross a finish line (regardless of your place). And I think, and I hope, she found that inspiring.
We talked about how the next time I volunteer at a race, she'll come help too. I think she is finally ready. And next spring, she'll do her first race (and no, I won't be running across the finish line with her then.
Actually, I've never published a photo of either of my kids. So, here is her official internet debut. I guess she's old enough for that too. Not much of a race report. Sorry. I guess I waited to long.

Photo available at Triduo.com

Unempty Pancakes

I was checking in on Ironmom, a blog a used to read alot, but recently I just haven't had as much time to check blogs. I guess the Near West End News, my other blog, has been taking up most of my computer time. Anyway, Robin has a great post on kids eating healthy, and I just love her pancake recipe (although I can see myself adapting it to use soymilk since that is what we usually have in the house).
She has a really good point about what we teach our kids to eat. My daughter can't stand lemonaid, Kool Aide, snow cones, icey pops and the like. She thinks they just taste wrong. My son, who sampled lemonaid at a young age is much less choosey, and will drink anything, well, maybe not soda.

Anyway, here is the recipe:
Robin's Non-Empty Pancakes
1 cup raw milk (ours is goat's)
1 cup yogurt
1 1/2 cup whole grain flour (sometimes I combine oat, spelt, wheat, coconut flour, whatever I have available)
1/4 Cup Ground Flax Meal
1/4 Cup Hemp Seeds
If I have time, mix everything above together and let it soak for 12 - 24 hours to ferment a little bit.
Then, the next morning, I mix in:
6 eggs
4 Tbs coconut oil or butter
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbs Raw Evaporated Cane Juice (Sucanat)
1 tsp sea salt
Sometimes I make them with bananas and pecans or blueberries or huckleberries in season. These also make great rollups with peanut butter and honey for a middle of the day snack. If I have the time, I'll mix up a double or triple batch and freeze a bunch so the kids can get pancakes any day of the week. It's both more nutritious and much more cost-effective than breakfast cereals.

Sandman Triathlon Race Results

I love haw Kale Running actually emails your race results to you in a summary format, and just hours after the race none-the-less. It just simply rocks!

Well, I didn't blog about this race beforehand at ALL, because not only did I stay up all night with 2 kids with the stomach flu this week, but I also had it myself on Friday night. YUK! I was so tired and wiped out I didn't know if I'd make it to the race. And, on top of that, I was already fighting an infection and on antibiotics. My nurse practitioner said not to race. Wanna hear something really funny? She said she thought I was over training. He he. She obviously doesn't know what a slacker I've been recently. She had herself convinced. Anyway, It's alot to pack up the kids, drive them 2 (or more) hours each way, and stay in a strange place. When you don't feel your best. It's even scarier to do that when you've been medically advised not to.

Plus, I just can't stand it when folks start a race and don't finish and I was worried I'd do that. And I REALLY can't stand it when someone says they are going to do a race and then don't. Well we've all done that once or twice (including myself) but I still can't stand it.

I ended up having a great race. It was a beautiful (but windy) day. Perfect weather. I had a PR by almost 4 minutes over last year. And that was significant for 2 reasons. 1. My run was 2 minutes slower and 2. The race management decided to be lazy and only put out 2 buoys. One at the start and one at the finish, instead of the 5-6 they normally have. We were told we had to go around them both. Only one problem was that I didn't know that the second buoy decided to go for a swim in the Atlantic. I kept waiting for a large swell, and then I'd ride it to the top and look for the buoy. I never found it. I was told we'd be disqualified if we didn't go around them both, so I decided to go looking for it for a while. I figure I lost about 50 yards swimming on my wild goose chase before I realized that it wasn't going to happen. I had never had waves come crashing down on me like the did today. You just couldn't really get out there past the breakers. I'd see this giant shadow, and think I was close to a boat or something and then...BAM a wave would crash over me. It was the weirdest thing.

I'm getting carried away. This wasn't supposed to be a race report, just the results, with the report later. Photos and details about my fantastic favorite finish will be posted soon.

Anyway, here are my results:

I came in 5th out of 15 Athena's in the Under 40 division. I had the second fastest Athena bike split in my division as well, thanks to my new bike.

Total time: 1:54:17

Last years time was 1:57:53.80

Swim was 1,000 meters (or more) 21:17
T1 2:20
Bike 14 miles 48:09
Bike average 17.4mph
T2 2:15
Run 40:13
12:58 pace per mile

The First Real Day of Preschool (No Mamas Allowed)

Redfish left for his first REAL day of preschool today -- No Mamas Allowed! I'm not sure why it is such a big deal, but for the first time in a long time I have the house to myself. It is a exciting feeling, but a little scary! You should have seen him, so proud as he put on his back pack!

At his school, they want the kids to feel empowered and let them do the "leaving" so drop at drop off the kids hop out of the car and walk to class on their own (with a little help from teachers). It is such a big kid thing to do ....on the first day of school!

And tomorrow he'll be 3, he's growing up so fast.


Here are some photos from this morning.

Back to School

Redfish started school today. Am I allowed to say that even though I didn't leave him? Actually, since it was the first day, we weren't supposed to leave, but still he had a great first day of school. I think he fell in love with 2 of his 3 teachers already.
"Mama, I LOVE her name!" he says to me, 2 seconds after I finally persuade him to leave the classroom by enticing him with the playground.
"Which one?" I say. "Elizabeth," he says.

After the 30 minutes of classroom time, we played on the playground for an hour and a half. He still didn't want to leave. The only way I got him out of there was to let him bring a piece of the playground with him. He finally settled on a pine tree pom pom, when I told he couldn't bring a giant tree branch stick that he had become attached to.

We'll see if he goes running out of the car when he goes back for his first real day of school on Wednesday. The teachers take them out of the car at carpool so that the kids are doing the leaving, not the parents. That will make for an awkward good bye, but I bet he'll go running into class, even on the first day. He is so ready! No one can tell he is still 2.

I think this is going to be a good school year for both the kids. Daisy has an excellent teacher, and she loves first grade. I'm going to have some free time, for the first time in 6 1/2 year. I can't wait to clean the house!