Settling in...

The kids are back in school. My sprint is done; CF ride and 1/2 Marathon are on the horizon. It's nice being back in a routine. My sprint was a truly awesome experience. I was slower than HECK (9 full minutes slower than last year?!) but really enjoyed myself. The swim started out a little crazy. They had the first-timers in their own wave, so when my wave went off, everyone knew what they were doing. There was less swimming around near-drowning people and more being swum around, and I probably drank half the reservoir on the way to the first buoy because the water was so choppy. But somewhere around the halfway point I really started to enjoy it and and remembered again why I like triathlon. I enjoy doing all 3 of these things, in a non-competitive manner. More on that later. The bike ride started out ... not so good. I crashed. For some reason, they have us mount the bike on gravel, about 5 feet from good solid blacktop. I spun out on the gravel and really ripped up my right arm pretty well. My whole right side is bruised too, but it wasn't that painful so I was up quickly but had a race director person check my bike. The last thing I wanted was to leap back on and have there be something wrong that I didn't see. So I lost some time on the bike with all that drama, but the ride itself was good. I stayed between 19-23 most of the ride. The run was awesome. Slow as heck (32 minutes?! guess I only get sub-30 with track work!) but I didn't have that weird leg jello feeling and ran comfortably the whole time. It was great! Sylvie and I had lunch today and we both agreed to opt out of TriBabes next season. We'll stick with our swim classes with Anna Scott, our bike rides together (and spin classes in the winter) and our running. We can do this without having to get all serious about it. Boulder is such a weird place because 9 out of 10 athletes are really intense about it, and I need to remember what my priorities are (have fun! stay fit!) and stick with them!

I am always ready for new running shoes in August, and I try to get them early enough to wear them for the 1/2. I went for Newtons this time, on the advice of pretty much every runner and triathlete I know. I wore them for about 2 hours this afternoon and my calves hurt. But that is normal, as I adjust to the different foot strike. They are very loud shoes - no mellow white for me! I also got a cute running skirt (my first running skirt!). The weather today, cool and drizzly, was perfect for a recovery run. Since my watch broke, I'll go by the route and guess I did just over 3 miles - nothing big. Just to stretch the legs. I've been biking the kids to and from school each day and taking Ole on nice long walks. I'm going to the noon yoga class tomorrow and I hope my sore arm will be OK. It'll be a conversation starter, anyway!

The kids are all very tired but very enthusiastic about school. Apparently they are studying India in Ted's class and he was talking about a river that goes all around the world. Hmm. Sam is busy writing books (the newest edition: Baby Poops Up - The Final Flush) and Mae needs more work on her letter sounds (oops). Everyone is happy and tired. Life is good!