Soccer Mom . . . . Triathlete

Race Face . . . .

This weekend I truly merged my roles as "soccer mom" and triathlete. Liam's team played in a nearby tournament on Saturday and Sunday. I needed to do some workouts . . . .

Saturday we started with an 8:00 AM game. Unfortunately it was a loss AND it rained (insult to injury?). Once the game was done, I went on a 10 mile run with another mom, Tina. It drizzled off and on and felt good. My foot was sore, but otherwise held up fine. We played again at 2:00, so we arrived back in time to get cleaned up and fire up the grill for lunch. The boys won the game and put us in a spot to make the top two teams for the playoffs on Sunday.

Our Sunday game was another early one -- 9:00 AM. Upon arriving, I calculated that we could nab second place with a win by four or more goals. The second game on Saturday included a goal for the other team that didn't actually cross into the goal -- I didn't want that to be what kept us out of the playoffs. Our guys played great and we were right where we needed to be and then the other team scored! We needed one more to put us back into second and one of our guys made it in the final minute!! Talk about nail biter! The only factor left was the last game between the two undefeated teams -- as long as they didn't tie, we'd be in the playoffs. At halftime, they were locked in 0-0 tie, which continued until the last few minutes when the WV team finally scored. I was at home riding the Eagleman course on CompuTrainer and awaiting a call from the coach to let me know whether the team was in the playoff. I was never so happy to cut a workout short -- although I did get 27 miles in before we had to head back for the game.

Our team did a good job, but just couldn't make a goal, so West Virginia won 4-0. We were happy to have done so well and as I know so well, runner up isn't too bad either. Best of all, we all had fun!

Updates

Today I ran 8 miles. I'm thrilled that my foot is doing so well -- not pain-free, but no where near the pain I experienced prior to the shockwave treatment. I don't think it hurts while I run, but afterward I feel a little pain. Three weeks until Eagleman -- which means my 13.1 mile run there will most likely be the first time this year I run that far . . . . I need to keep in mind it is a training day . . . I can race in July and August . . .

This week I had my metabolic testing done at work. I discovered that I didn't lose my base even with my reduced training. More good news :-) Finding time to train is still my biggest issue this year. My swimming is greatly reduced and most of my biking is when I ride to and from work. I'm hoping to keep riding 1-2 days each week. Heading up those hills on my 18 year old bike with an extra 15 lbs. from my backpack certainly makes the weekend rides on my tri bike fly!

Speaking of which, yesterday I got to ride with Bill for the first time in ages! Ahhh, time to reorient to the little things like when he rides ahead to the intersection and tells me to go though -- he forgot that he's supposed to say "clear" and "stop" instead of "go" and "no" -- which sound identical as I approach. He did wave me through one stop sign until the last second when he yelled "STOP". Oh, this will be a fun training season . . .

The boys are doing well. I'm finally catching up after their birthdays a few weeks ago. Conor is done with soccer on Saturday mornings, but we had his opening day for baseball yesterday. Liam has soccer today . . . it is one event after another, but I enjoy it. So, off to do errands until soccer . . .

I'm Back . . .

The good news is that my foot is doing extremely well! The shockwave treatment has been a godsend. I started back running just after Easter and have about 40 miles on the books in the past month.

I ran the Captains 5k race yesterday and finished in 24:31, which was only 27 seconds off last year's race! I finished a surprising 3rd for my age group and was thrilled with how my foot felt.

I stopped posting in Myrtle Beach when I couldn't upload any pictures and I didn't want to spoil the birthday surprise for my friend Roland. Now that I'm back in action, I promise to keep up-to-date.

The Eagleman half-iron race is on June 10th, so I have a lot of training to do, but my goal is to go and have a nice training race to get ready for later in the season.