Friday, November 14, 2014

This Blog has Moved!

Hi all,
If you have arrived at this site, please know that I am now writing at a new address.

Please feel free to peruse the archives of my thoughts on writing and life here @ Ironmatron.

My new blog is @

jojogetback.blogspot.com

It's been nearly a year since I've written. There are reasons.

First, I became sick of writing about training and racing. I could not think of a new thing to say about it. I became boring--even to myself. Part of this is because I was quite burned out of training and racing. So, I stopped training, and subsequently stopped writing about training. I did race a bit anyway. My conclusion is that racing isn't fun if you are not in shape to race. Racing without having trained is just very, very painful. There's little reward.

Second, I stopped blogging because I decided to teach again. I took four and a half years off from teaching. I didn't miss it at first. I didn't miss it, actually, for several years. But then… I did miss it. I missed the act of teaching, but it was more than that.  I also missed having a profession and being a professional. I missed immersing myself in a craft. I missed having a reason to read the cheesy YA books I love. I missed the rhythm of the work week. I missed drinking coffee as I drove to work. I missed saying, "I'm a teacher."

Because that is what I am.
I also love to run and read and do triathlon and train and garden and write and take care of dogs and my kids. But I think I was *meant* to teach. I'm good at it in a way I will never be "good" at those other things. I missed being very good at something and I missed being respected for being good at something. I missed that a lot.

So I went back to teaching.
And when teaching you don't want a blog out there that reveals you--a blog in which you have used foul language and admitted to resorting to unsavory urinary practices while racing and in which you indulgently and obsessively self-analyze.

You can still access that blog if you have permission from me. If you want permission just leave me a comment asking for it. But that blog is just archived writing now.  The IronMatron has retired.

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This blog will not just address my adventures in training and triathlon-ing--but that's basically what it will be about.  I'm sure it will be self-indulgent and overly self-revealing in some ways--just as the IronMatron's blog was, but I'm hoping it will not be quite so raw and…exposed.  I suppose if I don't want to be raw and exposed I simply shouldn't have a blog. But I miss the tri-blogging community. I miss getting and giving support from people who love to do this crazy endurance stuff like I do.  Most of all, I miss thinking and writing about ME. I love writing and thinking about me. You know? I'm 44. One of the gifts of being middle-aged is that I'm so over pretending I'm not completely self-absorbed. It's a waste of energy trying to deny it, so I'm choosing to embrace it instead.

Plus, now that I'm teaching again I need a way to procrastinate grading papers.  I love teaching, but MAN do I dislike grading papers.

So.

I'm thinking about all the awesome racing I'm going to do this summer!
I'm really, really excited to do some racing, and to do it when I'm IN SHAPE. I am extremely sick of being out-of-shape. It's hard to feel superior in any way when you are as slovenly and lazy as I have been over the last year or so.  See, I'm self-absorbed AND I enjoy feeling superior. It's a winning combo.

Right now I'm in that awesome planning stage. Everything is possible! I'm not tired or sick, and the calendar months stretch out before me, so innocent and naked, just waiting to be filled up with hours and hours of training.

Of course, the job part does make filling that calendar up with training a bit challenging. I simply don't have the hours to train that I used to have. Also, working makes me tired. Also, I have a long commute. Also, I still have those three awesome kids and four awesome dogs and that one awesome husband.  Also, we are moving from one town to another over the next few months.

But in those very few hours that I have left, I plan to TRAIN!

Actually, I've already started training. But my efforts are a bit on  the pathetic side. Apparently when you take two years off from serious training it is not easy to just--you know--get right back at it. I remember in the days of yore completing 8 hours in a week of training was very light--a recovery week even. Now eight hours kills me. KILLS ME. I need hours more sleep and I start weaving, by Sunday, with fatigue. I'm hoping this gets better soon.

The two races I am most excited about are:



Yes, that is right! I am racing Boston in 2015. I qualified over the summer very surreptitiously.


AND THEN, I'm racing with Ange and Andy and a bunch of friends. I'm really excited for this event. It begins with a 1.5 mile swim, then it moves to an (approximately) 95 mile bike from South Berwick, Maine to the base of Mt. Washington, and concludes with a run/hike up Tuckerman's Ravine.

Doesn't that sound fantastic?!

I can't wait.