When Mommy is away, what happens?

Okay, so I left on Wednesday to go to a triathlon camp, I am one lucky girl to be able to do that ( not denying it), I made sure before I left I did:
1. clean the entire house, change everyones sheets
2. Finished a total of 20 loads of laundry for the week by Wednesday and put all the clothes away for them
3. Went food shopping to make sure they would be completely stocked
4. fed and cleaned all the animals and their cages
5. wrote out all the kids itineraries, cooridinated rides/playdates, cooridinated my mother in law and babysitter to make sure everyone was on board.

This is what I need to do before i go away. Do you know what my hubby needs to do to go away, Zippo, NADA, Nothing, a big fat 0.

When I came home this is what I found. ( I got home at 1am in the morning)

1. No food in the refrigerator, maybe a little milk, but no real food. You think someone could of done a bit of food shopping so that with April vacation I didn't have to take the entire brood in the morning to get food at the food store.

2. Laundry that was attempted to be done but found all of my clothes in my kids drawers, so it took me tons of time to go through all the rooms to reorganize the clothes, get them to where they needed to be, plus there was still a ton of laundry in the laundry room. Now I'm sure your saying that at least someone did it, well it wasn't my husband doing it it was his mother and all I ever ask is to just put the laundry in the baskets and I;ll put them away, it took over 2hrs to figure everything out, it isn't worth it.

3. My husband says to me last night, " Do you know where Alex's toothbrush is", I say, " In the bathroom", he says, no it hasnt been. He says, " Can you go out and buy him one?" I said, " you mean Alex has been using someones elses toothbrush for 5 days and you didn't go out and get him one, I mean really, its a fucking toothbrush. Why do I need to buy a toothbrush, why couldn't you just go out and get him one.

4. The cats were basically shitting on top of their shit and their was no food in their bin. Couldn't someone smell it, didn't anyone care.

5. The guinea pig cage was overflowing with crap and my boys room smelled so bad that I was surprised they could sleep in it, do you think someone would of done something, NOPE.


Anyway, you get the jist, its so great to beable to go away, I'm so fortunate but sometimes the crap I usually have to deal with when I get home puts a bit of a damper on the fun I just had. It also sucked that I couldn't get in a small recovery swim yesterday and I'm going to try to get on my trainer today but with the kids home from vacation and no-one really able to sit it really sucks. Life goes on.

Triathlon Camp, Clermont,Florida

Its been a while since I last posted but I've been away training in Florida with some amazingggggggggggggg people. Did I say amazinggggggggggggg, people. First of all I got to travel with Maris who is fast becomming one of the funniest people I know and a really great friend thank goodness she could put up with all my many ( issues, GI, etc.....) as a roommate in Florida, God love her.

We got to Florida on Wednesday and settled in quite nicely, it was sunny and hot which was so different than the weather we have been having in Beverly, we had dinner, relaxed, put our bikes together, it was great. We definitely were a bit nervous going into this training camp given the amount of talented people coming to the camp, we were just hoping to hang on and learn something and make some friends.

Thursday morning was day 1, 3800 yd swim, 2 1/2 bike, f/b a 30-40min T-run. Everything but the run went well for me, it was so hot, I definitely wasn't used to weather and I got crushed on the run, I couldn't get my HR down and I felt miserable. I was able to recover with some good food, water and a glass of wine and a great nice sleep. Maris and I would set the great expectations to go to bed early but always stayed up chatting and laughing and then realizing that we just screwed ourselves of about 1-2hrs of sleep. Oh well, it was great to just laugh and be funny. I also got her hooked on American Idol, we both new that Paul Macdonald would be voted off, so funny.

Thursday was the first day that we met some really great people, Tim and Cait Snow, Pat Wheeler, ( Jesse wasn't there yet), Jaqui Gordon, MIchelle Sinclair, Molly, Charlie, Duffy ( who by the way is probably the most hysterical person I have ever met), Kevin, Rick, Ray, Kelly, Shaun, Sindy, Bryan, the people who didn't come until later were, Courtney, Jessie, Mary and Barbara.

All these people were amazing, so unassuming, very approachable, very easy to talk to and ask questions, it was great.

Friday was the long ride f/b a 30-40 minute run, this ride was soooooooo much fun, first of all it was pretty much all of the New Englanders 2nd ride outside, the weather was perfect 75-80 to start to 90+ to finish, good wind, some rollers at the beginning and end of the ride but otherwise fairly flat. The group got split up at the beginning separating the elites/pros with the age groupers, however, that being said, our little group of 7 women and men held a great average of 18.5mph for > 100 miles that day and for 45 mintues of pace riding where we each took a 5 minute pull we averaged > 22.5mph, it was awesome. Everyone was great, there was no heros, nobody being the superman out there, we all laughed, peed in the bushes ( I swear Shaun I didn't see the bathroom house) shared our beverages when someone ran out, it was really great teamwork. This was also a time when we all got to know each other better, long rides tend to do this to you but up in New England when you ride single file because of the road rules you don't get a chance to really talk but here in Clermont they found us a great bike path to ride on and we could double up and play around with positioning so everyone got a chance to chat with each other, that's when I realized that I wished that all these girls could come back to Beverly with me and ride and train, that all of us were very similar in personality and temperment and that with so many people everyone got along, how cool is that.

Anyway, the ride ended up with us getting a little lost but we made it home in time to do our T-run and then go out to dinner with the group. Again we all had a blast laughing it up and eating a ton ( sorry not completely in the Core) but just a great time. Both Maris and I were a bit " Saddle Sore" if you know what I mean and were a bit concerned about the next two days of riding but in the end another great day.

Saturday was our " long" swim, in the National Training Center;s 50 meter pool. It was awesome, the sun was out, it was warm, the water was great, it was awesome. We swam about 4600 meters in just over 1:15, so a great workout, myself, Duffy and Kevin, along with Michelle, Maris and some others were really picking it up at the end, I also taunted poor Duffy into sprinting the last 50meter to almost the brink of Puking- so much fun.

After the swim was the bike f/b a run, all of which was great. Today's bike was a recovery bike so their was a " HUGE" bet on the table on who could average the lowest watts, I beat out the King of recovery, Mr. Pat Wheeler and averaged a whopping 67 watts. So Pat, I'm waiting for my Power bar.

Saturday also took us to looking at our run video analysis, all of which wasn't too shocking on my side, my left hip is weak, I need to rotate more in lumbar/thoracic spine, my arms need to come in more, I need to look forward more and not down and my right trap is higher than my left ( which is because I primarily breathe to my right when I swim an we just got back from the pool when we shot the video). Anyway, lots to learn and take away from that video analysis.

Sunday was a 2hr bike in the early morning with Charlie, Maris and Duffy, nice and easy f/b a 1 1/2 hr run in the heat, all of which was successful and fun. We went back showered,c hanged and broke down our bikes for the first time in our lives, so proud of myself. Traveling home was really sad leaving our new friends and wanting to continue to train with some of the nicest people and coolest people in the sport. I also have to say that I had so much fun laughing and joking while training that it just reminded me again why I love doing this everyday, just great.

Maris and I got home late last night around 1am, so tired but feel completely satisfied, excited and motivated to have a great season. My life is really busy right now and I need to figure out how I will fit it all in but I will try to manage something. I need to make every workout count for something and I also learned that I need to remind myself that I can become a " bad ass" runner. This is the area I learned at camp that I need to work on the most, its r/t a lot of factors but I know now what I need to do.

So in closing I want to thank QT2 for hosting a great camp in Clermont, Florida, thanks so much for putting together the greatest group of people this weekend that was intense when it needed to be and easy when it needed to be and "FUN" all the time. I'll miss everybody. Keep training everyone and lets hope for a kick ass season.

Some Crazy things I saw today

Ok, this will be a short blog because I'm tired and I have to get up at 4:30am to get my bike and run workout in before work. Anyway, today was an interesting day, I saw a few things today that I have never seen before. They were:

1. While swimming at the pool today I heard a phone ring and saw a man two lanes down in the pool talking on the phone. Really, seriously, can't you get hurt talking on the phone near water. it's almost as irritating as hiking up a beautiful mountain or skiing downhill and seeing someone talk on the phone while doing it, it just doesn't fit.

2. While getting back to my car waiting for my boys flag football practice to end today a car sped past my car and chucked a turkey sub sandwich out their window and it smashed into the car in front of me. No joke, I'm not lying, there was pickles, turkey, mustard, mayo, cheese everywhere on the persons rear window and all over the roof. I've never seen anything like it before, so bizarre. Since it was my friends car I went out with my box of tissues and try to clean it but man it was a mess. Who does this, who chucks a sub sandwich out the window, really?

3. ok, so this isn't so surprising but at my kids flag football practice today ( 7-11 yr olds all together) in total there was about 7 boys wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts. The temps were about 39 with wind gusts around 15-20mphs, their hands were freezing, most of them looked so uncomfortable I couldn't believe they made it an hour. First of all I get it, I have a child who has sensory issues who most of the time if he could walk around naked he would, but at least he had on a sweatshirt over his short sleeve and long socks on his legs from his shorts, but these boys were ridiculous, I had to go to my car to warm up it was so cold, at least it provided me the opportunity to see the flying sandwich from earlier though.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber, just an interesting day.

SPAM and other things

Over the last few days my hotmail account has sent out probably hundreds of spam emails to my contacts and some have even received more than two. I have changed my password, called microsoft and depending on the rest of the day I may have to shut down my hotmail account for another email. I have had this email for years and have hundreds of saved emails and this really pisses me off. I am not nieve to think that this can't happen but this type of nonsense is a waste of my friggin time.

In my life every minute is accounted for, I have something scheduled for myself or for my kids with not a ton of downtime ( I count going to the park playing with my kids scheduled time) but really spending endless hours trying to respond to my friends who are getting pissed and trying to figure out this problem sucks, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ANYWAY, I AM REALLY SORRY TO ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS WHO ARE GETTING MY EMAILS THAT HAVE NO SUBJECT, PLEASE DO NOT OPEN UNLESS I HAVE PUT SOMETHING IN THE SUBJECT TEXT, JUST DELETE AND PLEASE DON'T BEGRUDGE ME DURING THIS TRYING TIME OF EMAIL HELL.


On the other hand my workouts are going well, I was a bit under the weather this weekend and only got in my long ride ( just under 3hrs) but couldn't get my run in on sunday, just too tired and hung over with Nyquil. Today I felt better but acid indigestion right now is clawing is way up my throat. I haven't had this issue for a long time and most likely this is telling me, too much acidity in my diet ( i.e, diet coke, tea, etc...) I guess its time to make a change.

Today was a hard strength day f/b a 6 mile run. Tomorrow, swim/bike/run. I am getting nervous for the up and coming QT2 camp, these athletes are incredible and just being there is so exciting, my soul goal is to hang on and to learn as much as I can and come home a better athlete. I do need to check with my friend Maris to see what airlines we are flying, I'm a bit nervous if its Southwest, eeeks. Anyway, I have to figure out how to break down my bike and rent a bike box over the next week, we leave on the 13th to Florida. yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This is a real build week to get me going for next weeks camp so god knows I'm going to need the best rest, healthy food as possible ( hee, hee, like that is going to happen)

polar bear treadmill fall

I have frequently posted this on my facebook and find it extremely funny. Today I was breaking down the polar bears form on the treadmill, initially very straight up, then he got into an aggressive forward lean, then emotions took over and all form was lost. I bet more than one of you out there has experienced form breakage like this on some of your runs.

crazy kids

today was a day that unfortunately only got 1 out of the 3 workouts in and had to deal with a few meetings and some crazy kids. the above cartoons continue to show how much my children love each other and me. Enjoy.

Frustration, venting, etc....

I think every few months I write a similar blog and bitch about being unsupported and trying to do everything I possibly can to meet everyone's standards and everyones expectations of me and also trying to pursue my goals of being a good mom, wife, friend, coach and athlete. I often fail to meet anyones expectations, I usually meet about 1/2 of them and I get constantly criticized for wanting to workout and needing to workout almost on a daily basis. People have often stated to me, " stop bitching about being behind on your chores or food shopping, etc, if you just didn't work out so much you would have plenty of time to yourself and be done with everything you need"

Well, in response to those several people, I say, " SCREW YOU". I'm tired of people telling me that, its not that I don't have time, for goodness sake I get up at 4:30am to do most of workouts so I have time during the day for my family and to do everything I need to do, however, that being said, if my family would cooperate and put laundry in the basket and not on the floor, dishes in the dishwasher instead of the sink all the time, if they could actually hang a coat, put shoes away, actually help make dinner or maybe offer to grocery shop or fix a lightbulb or doing anything around the house that didn't involve personal gratification for themselves I think I wouldn't complain so much. Its hard to feel like you cleaned the same shit over and over again, it gets real old.

Now, after saying that a friend of mine said, " WEll, have you put your foot down, no TV if they don't do this, no dinner if they don't do that, etc..." Well, actually been there and done that. I've left dishes in a sink for a week and no-one did anything about it, laundry not done except my own and the kids and instead of offering to help someone just says, " how come I don't have any more laundry", " Why isn't there dinner cooked tonight", etc.....

I'm not saying I"m perfect, actually I'm far from it, I have lots to learn but I do try to make life easy for everyone surrounding me, probably to my detriment and its biting me in the ass and its hard to change people I have spoiled over the years. That being said, isn't it just common sense to just ask someone if they need help? Isn't it just common decency when your even a child when you see someone still working at 10p at night that maybe you might ask if they need anything?

These are just a few things I complain about they certainly aren't life threatening, I probably shouldn't bitch about them when there is so much other stuff going on around the world so far worse than I could ever dream of, however, its hard when you feel unsupported, its hard when you feel like you are all alone when you have these thoughts.

Its also hard to want to be the best athlete you can be and have no real support in that area, not caring about me getting in what I need to get in to do that, not appreciating that I try to not sacrifice family time for my workouts but there are times I need to and it comes with a load a complaints from everyone. I know I want to be the best mom and wife and all that stuff but I also want to do something that makes me happy, why is it so hard to do it, why do I have to work so hard to fit it all in? It gets really frustrating sometimes.

Ok, end of venting, life is just real busy right now and I want to do so many things that I can't and I'm sad sometimes. I know life does not revolve around me and I'm ok with that but sometimes I just need to vent about it.