A summary of the Week

The girls have been in camp for a week and, clearly, they like it a lot. One can determine this by several things, including the amount of time they spend talking about it, the number of times they ask if they can come back next year (even though they still have 5 weeks of camp to go) and the ease with which they go to bed in the evenings (this last one is an important grownup reason). Number one on the list of things they enjoy: Swimming. Their camp has poolage, and they have lessons in the morning with free swim in the afternoon. Both my girls are water children (they come by it honestly), and would spend all day in a pool or a lake or an ocean if we didn’t specifically tell them they had to come in because they’re suffering from hypothermia.

Wifeness and Karla are headed to see the Matriarch this weekend to help get her settled after her surgery. Sorry I didn’t write about this in advance; she just had a knee replaced. The procedure went well, I gather, but it’ll be a few days before the swelling goes down. Wifeness, ever the dutiful daughter, is there to do what she can to keep the house running so Nana can rest her leg like she should. Karla went to help as well, but also to see a cousin who’s been doing energy work on her for her illness (though having some time away from the young ones was a happenstance not inconsequential in her decision making)

Karla went with me the other day to get my one expensive piece of triathlon gear for the year: A wetsuit. I realized the wisdom of owning one last year, when I ended up having to do breaststroke for a full ¾ mile during a race because the water was too cold to do a crawl stroke without my lungs seizing up, but I told myself I would not spend the money unless: a) I made a commitment to continuing to race triathlons, and b) I was convinced I could get some weight off and keep it off. I made the decision to keep racing last year after the first race. I enjoy the competition and I get a lot out of the intense training that is necessary to do well in endurance events. Now that I’m doing them, I feel like I’ll do them forever. The weight came off last year and, although I put some back on over the winter (actually, it was during the end of soccer season, while I was prepping for my speaking gig in Charlotte), but I have done surprisingly well at holding since and, now that I’m training full on again, it’s starting to melt off. I decided I could spend the money with confidence. I haven’t had a chance to go try it out yet. That’ll come next week, when I have some time during the day.

Training is progressing. My swims are solid at ¾ mile lengths (the length of my longest event this year). I have to test myself in open water soon, but I feel like I’ll be in the middle of the pack in any race I run and that’s good enough for this year. The cycling is still good, although I’m annoyed I haven’t improved quite as much here. I was already a little better than the middle of the pack on the bike, but I haven’t taken the time to put the miles in like I should and my climbing has suffered a bit as a result. I did a very hilly 50+ mile ride Wednesday to work on that problem. I’ll test myself on the local race’s course next week. That will tell me more about what I need to work on. The run remains the biggest challenge for me. I was doing a decent 5k time in the spring, but I stopped running when the end-of-year school routine kicked into high gear, and so I’ve taken a couple of steps backward (pardon the metaphor). I’ll be happy if I can do the 7.2 miles of the local race in less than an hour this year. Right now, my pace is a little over that.

How’s your did your week go?