Back to Being a MASS-HOLE

The podium for W40-44 at Timberman. (I think we all look younger than 40, or course.) I love this picture because Ange and I are both on stage! I also lurv my pink compression socks. (Thanks, Jen!)

I left Maine on Wednesday and headed home to Massachusetts. I left on a beach day. We've been experiencing a heat wave here in New England, and it was in the 90s when I left and the high 90s when I got home. Depressing to leave on a day like that. Really really depressing.

Still, I was also relieved to go home. My mom (God bless her) was super ready to be rid of us and our messy, sandy selves. Also, the last few days on the beach were tough. It was very hot and so naturally we wanted to be in the water all day. The rip currents were extremely strong this week, though.  I witnessed two of nineteen rescues on Tuesday alone. On Monday night a whole family got swept out. It was after five pm, and the lifeguards were off duty. Beach goers had to go in to save them. (One of those beach-goers was my brother-in-law. He saved one of the boys in the family using a boogie board he found on the beach.)  It was terrifying. Then, on Wednesday night well after dark, a few teenagers got caught in the current when skinny dipping. Again, no lifeguards. They were saved by fully-clothed EMT's with flashlights.



My point is only I had to be on high alert when watching the kids in the water this week. It was exhausting. They were literally in the water all day--and my six-year-old son, Noah, is a total daredevil. He kept darting under waves and emerging way too deep. It was very hard to manage.I miss the beach, but it is a relief to not be stressing that my bambinos are going to be swept out to sea!

Since I've been home I have been playing catch-up. My instinct is to "catch-up" on my workouts, too. I haven't been able to swim for a week because of the rip currents in the ocean, and I have been shortening and missing workouts left and right since Timberman. Now that I am home I am ready to FOCUS! The problem is, the kids are still not back in school (not until Tuesday!) and so I have less time than I would like to work out (like, ummm, no time except the crack of dawn time!) I have gotten in two pool swims in the early a.m. I am a little slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww in the water right now, I must say. It was fun to see all of my swim buddies, at the pool though. I missed them!

Also, you can't  catch-up on workouts. I know that. My training has been what my training has been. I have an Oly in two weeks, and I can't cram the necessary training in in the next two weeks to insure I will race well there. As WE ALL KNOW, it just don't work that way.

Wouldn't it be nice if it did, though?

In the final weeks of September I am signed up for four races--one Oly (Lobsterman) and three sprints (Dover, Maniac, and CELT.) I am not quite sure what possessed me to sign up for four races in two weeks. I must have been high? Except I don't get high... so ummmm.... I must have been jazzzed up on too much caffeine? Or maybe it was my alter ego who signed up? Anyway... I think four tris in two weeks is an insane idea.

Still, I may do it.

But probably not.

My friend Mike (Platt--of commenting fame) wrote this to me this morning:

You are an enthusiastic racehorse, and enthusiastic racehorses will run to their death if left unguided (believe me, I used to be one).The better you become at running and biking the more damage you can do to yourself.  Let your coach guide you so you do not race yourself into the ground.


It is an apt observation and good advice.

In the past it may not have made sense to me--that the better you get the more damage you can do to yourself.

But it is true. You can race on memory--memory that exceeds your current fitness. When you are a seasoned racer you can block out pain in a way you could not when you were less experienced. In short--you can get more out of yourself after years of racing, both when you have done the training, and when you have not done the training--and that can be dangerous. It can be especially dangerous if you are a racehorse who would run to her death if it weren't for her coach trying desperately to reign her in.

So, in short. It may be I just race Lobsterman. Jen has told me that Lobsterman is enough.

And then it's time to rest.

I had a whole crazy schedule of races I wanted to in October and November, but alas, my body, my mind, and Jen have all told me NO. It is time for the yearly rest of a month, and I will be taking that rest starting right after my final race in Septmember.

Sigh.
It is fine that I will rest because I will be busy.

Ernie (our Boston Terrier puppy) and Hazel (our yellow lab puppy) are coming home a week from Sunday.

This is Hazel.
We don't have a picture of Ernie yet, but here are my other puppies: