Preliminary Race Schedule 2015

Black Cat 20 miler March 2015
Boston Marathon April 2015
JCC sprint tri May 2015
B2B bike race/ride June 2015

? Musselman July or Lowell Olympic
? challenge Maine olympic in august
sprint or half September

Friday, March 23, 2012

A day in the life of a mom of 4 ( + puppy)




1. Wake up to daughter at 2am coughing in face- need to escort her back to bed, rub vicks vapor rub on her chest,cough medicine and restart humidifies

2. Go back to bed

3. Husband wakes up early and feels wife needs to know how beautiful it is out so wakes her up, I think it was before 6a, I guess time to get up

3a. Puppy up, needs to go out and pee and poop, mommies job, take plastic bag out to pick up shit

4. 2 loads laundry done, 5 beds made, 4 kids dressed, 7am

5. eggs and toast made for kids, fruit cut up, tea made for mom, time to get kids in car to go to school ( only 2 of them)

6. Drive 2 kids to school

7. Go to starbucks for 5k meeting with TriROK peeps and bring my two older sons who I bribe with scones and who read for pretty much the whole time ( love my boys) 1hr 45 minutes

8. Race to get to sons friends house to pick him up at 10:15am to drive to Hyde Park to go to SkyZone ( indoor trampoline place with 3D dodgeball) Drive takes over 1hr to get there, 3 boys fighting in car, almost killed them

9. Got to SkyZone at 11:50am signed in and jumped for 1 1/2 hours with the boys, cheered them on in Dodgeball

10. Rushed home to bring 8yr old son to therapy in Salem at 2:50pm, had cousin meet me at doctors office to pick up other 2 boys to bring to friends house. Had cousin pick up other two kids at school because I'm at meeting with son.

11. Have husband take 8 yr old home after therapy to get violin to go to lesson at 4:45p

12. I leave office to return rent a car to pick up my car of which needed 4 new tires, an alignment, inspection sticker and oil change ( UGG)

13. Get home at 5:45p to make dinner for 5 people, take the dog out, unpack 5 boxes of new pool furniture, change a lightbulb, feed the dog, cut the meat up for my kids and now sit down to write this blog at 7:49pm. You can guess that working out did not happen today and got moved to tomorrow which will start the whole process over again.

I need a beer.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Kids in Sports- So many questions





Ok, I have so many questions and finally have a few minutes to put some thoughts down on my blog. I would love anyones feedback but parents especially would be great.

So, I have 4 kids who are all very involved with sports, music, etc... Each child plays between 1-3 sports at any given time but typically each sport only takes up 2 days a week, sometimes 3. They are never forced to play but are highly encouraged to be active. When your kids are younger you have town soccer, t-ball, swim lessons, nothing too major and certainly nothing that takes up too much of your childs time. As your child gets older the committment to each sport especially if they love it and are good at it at the same time can increase. So whats the limit? 2 days a week, 3 days a week? At what age can your child decide that one sport is what they really want to do? Do you encourage your child to play a sport year round?

So these are some of my questions and here are some examples:

1. Oldest son currently plays club soccer which involves two practices a week and a game. We decided to not have him play town soccer because we didn't want him playing 5 days a week. Instead he plays basketball two days a week and he has piano lessons once a week. The question I have with regards to my 10 year old is that he is a very good soccer player and club requires you to play year round. You play fall/winter/spring with a 6 week break in the winter and then June-August off. My opinion is different then some people, I don't feel that my child is playing too much soccer, he loves being with his friends, he only plays 3 days a week and he is able to cross train with other sports. He loves soccer, he is injury free and with the continuity of playing consistently he has gotten so much better. Some peoples opinions are that we are getting are kids involved in year round sports too soon, increasing their risk of injury and burnout. I don't disagree with this statement but if you can control some aspect of your childs life, i.e., if he doesn't want to go one day he doesn't go, if he decides he wants to take a break you let him, etc... you allow the child to be part of the process of making the decision of playing their sports but at the same time making sure as a parent that you are making sure your child isn't overtraining, is getting proper coaching, fueling his or her body appropriately so that they can excel physically as well as mentally, I think this is fine.

I think what is also important is that you make sure that the child is doing what they want to do not what "the parent" wants them to do. The, " I am living through my childs life" comes to mind with a lot of people. I also feel that you support your child and make sure that your always positively reinforcing what they are doing will always be beneficial.

2. Scenario #2: young daughter- age of 7, is currently swimming on a club swim team, swims 1hr 2-3 times a week, usually 2 but if their is a meet coming up she will swim 3 times in that week. Her swimming is very periodized where she has her build weeks and her recovery weeks, she also plays club soccer 2-3 times a week and basketball once a week. Club swimming requires a year round committement with some time off during the winter and about a 5 week break at the end of July through till the beginning of the school year. My husband thinks that my daughter should take off the winter and just swim fall and spring. I understand where he is coming from but I also know how difficult it is on the body to build up so much fitness take off 3 months and then spend the rest of the next season rebuilding what you have lost. Now, that being said my daughter is only 7 and is not training for the olympics or anything but she is very good and she absolutely loves swimming with her friends. Whenever she needs a break I let her stay home, she has never asked to not go I usually have to be the one that calls her coach to tell her she is taking the day off, I know my daughter I want her to swim ( if she wants) for a long time, I don't want her to lose love of the sport.

So my questions are:

1 Should kids play year round sports, if so at what age is it appropriate?
2. Should kids play more than 1 sport at any given time?
3. At what age do you think its important for your child to consider specializing in a sport so they can focus on just 1 or 2?
4. If your child is really good at a sport and you know they could really do well do you encourage them in the sport, do you let them dictate to you what they want, do you allow them to just walk away if that is what you want?

We all want to do what's right for our children and fitness and activity is very important but what is the limit?