Its tough sometimes

So, its summer, kids are home, life is hectic but good, kids are doing a few camps but otherwise they are home. We are doing lots of swimming and playing outside and hanging with the dog. I'm trying to coordinate my remaining training for Mont Tremblant with the kids around and its getting tougher. Some days I have to ride my bike on a trainer while my kids are playing next to me or run on the treadmill late at night just to finish because we had 7hrs of swim meets to attend to and basketball games. I'm not really complaining, I have a great life, however I'm not quite sure scheduling an ironman in the summer is or was such a great idea, its so dam hard logistically trying to figure it all out, how I can get it all in. For example:

Two weeks ago I was starting my two week build and I had a 5hr bike f/b a 50 min T run scheduled, I got my cousin to come over early so I can leave on my bike ride so I could be home in time to pick up my kids from camp, which I scheduled for them to get out at 1:30p so we could hang for the rest of the day. Well, who knew that two flats later and no way of getting home because I ran out of tubes and C02 was going to happen. I called my awesome cousin who drove from Salem mass to retrieve me in Groveland, Mass, it took 1hr 15 min to get me and another 30+ minutes to get home, so only 2 1/2 hrs of biking got in because I had to go get my kids, I needed to fix my wheel and we had lots of basketball to do in the afternoon.  See, I have no flexibility in my schedule, if the ride didn't get in from x time in the morning that was it, I tried to think I could hop my trainer later and treadmill but I'm so tired by 8p with the kids I just want to go to bed.

Example #2: Swim meets, 7hrs a day of regional swim meets at MIT for my kids, how does one get in training when you need to be at an indoor pool all day, well, you get up at 4am, you run or do an early morning swim in the ocean crossing the heavenly gods that nothing happens to you in the ocean alone because its too dam early for the lifeguards to be out and its prime shark feeding time ( Well, thats a bit exaggerated, however early morning is known for fish feeding), anyhoo, its just not optimal anymore for me to get up that early, it takes forever for me to get my mojo on and by the time the workout is over I'm sure if I was able to perform it at a reasonable hour I might of actually hit my numbers. However, you do it because you love it, you do it because you have a goal in mind, you do it because, well, it makes you feel good, it makes me feel good.

Example #3: Today, I had a 40min swim, 1hr 30 min bike, 45 min run and 15 min of TRX to do, I squeezed in my swim early this morning then ran off and did errands and cleaned the house came back and picked up two kids at noon. Fed them lunch, cleaned up and it was time to pick up child #3. Ok, trying to figure out how the rest was going to get done I waited for my awesome cousin to come over and she was going to watch the 4 while I went downstairs to my girlie cave to get some workouts in ( I don't usually leave anyone in charge of my 4 kids so working out in the house is the only option). So during said workouts you have kids screaming, coming down to yell and fight around the bike and treadmill, one needs to stop treadmill workout to make sure kid in time out is staying in timeout, etc... You get the picture, chaos ensues, oh, and dog pooping in front of said treadmill during session not so great. I guess the kids forgot to take him out and he ( the dog) was pissed at me too.

Well, ironman is almost here and I feel like I did the best I could with training, I think I was able to get in about 97% of all my training, however missing some of the workouts always freaks me out and I get real nervous about that, but I'm healthy, I feel good and getting to ironman healthy is half the battle. I will be traveling with my kids and husband to this ironman ( ought to be interesting), so we'll see how it goes. I have one more race this weekend to see how things are going and I will continue the taper until August 19th. From now on when I choose my " A" races they will be scheduled in October and November and March through the end of June, its just too hard.