Orchestra

Cambrie has really been enjoying playing her cello lately.  She has just started taking lessons and has already learned so much.  Her orchestra had a full schedule this spring with trips to Nationals over spring break, and then another round of regionals and state where they have been performing incredibly well.  As a treat, their conductor has arranged for a whole series of concerts so that we are able to hear what they've been performing in their competitions.  It's been awesome seeing her work so hard and loving this new passion.

Playing hooky for some spring snow

I returned from Texas to find that my mom had arrived while I was gone!  She brought her skis and so the two of us played hooky while the kids were in school and went up to Keystone for one last spring day of skiing before the end of the season.  My legs were shot after the week I had with Jocelyn and I couldn't handle anything but groomers.  Bumps and trees demolished me.  We also had to strategize our runs with the snow conditions throughout the day.  In the morning we needed south facing slopes because they were soft enough to ski on.  In the afternoon we needed the more protected north facing slopes because the sun was turning everything to mush.  By the end of the day we were skiing in slushy snow cone conditions.  It was a gorgeous and warm day, perfect for a quick mom/daughter trip.

Easter

My flight from Texas landed around 10:00 on Saturday night. The next day was Easter.  It was going to be a late night for Jeremy and I to prep things before bed and I just really hoped that we had all of the supplies we needed to celebrate Easter the next morning.  The Easter bunny arrived and left a trail of clues for the kids to find to their Easter baskets.  They were getting older and smarter, so I guess that means that Easter bunny needs to get smarter too.  

The kids found their baskets hiding next to a new PacMan arcade game consul!  Our basement is turning into quite the fun zone.  

After a great sacrament service with a lot of musical numbers, we came home to finish celebrating with the family.  We watched a few episodes of The Chosen before going out to the backyard for the kids Easter egg hunt.  We didn't have any wind to contend with this year which meant that finding the eggs was tricky.  Moki got into the fun and found and opened all of his eggs.  It was just as much fun watching him hunt as the kids.  Cambrie had to do some serious climbing to find all of hers.  

Jeremy and my mom made sure that we had all of the ingredients we needed for our Easter feast.  While my mom and I baked, Cambrie set the table and made it look so beautiful.  It was a super tasty feast.  

I felt very blessed that I was able to be home to celebrate this glorious day with my family.

Training with a pro

From Oceanside I flew directly to Houston where I was going to train with Jocelyn for a week. She routinely goes to Texas for multiple week training sessions and as I was asking her about the logistics of it all one night, she invited me to join her.  She stays with the same family every year, the Quinns.  This is an incredible family.  Mom, dad, Tavish (15) and Callan (13) all do triathlons-a lot of triathlons.  Their house is filled with medals, trophies, plaques, training gear, fuel and bikes.  I counted when I arrived and they own 20 bikes!  The mom also owns a youth triathlon team which means she has everything she needs to host her own race.  It was insane.  It also meant that the family 100% understood the lifestyle and didn't mind our comings and goings or training schedule.  My typical training week is roughly 10 hours of training.  Once or twice I've made it as high as 15 hours.  When I asked Jocelyn what she had in store, she let me know that she had 35 hours of training lined up.  What?  Coming right off of Oceanside and having Texas just a week later I knew I had to choose my training sessions carefully so I didn't hurt my body.  I also knew that this was a really cool opportunity and I wanted to see what I could do.  

This is what our typical day looked like: Masters swimming 6:00-7:00. Eat breakfast.  Nap 8:00-10:00.  Eat lunch. Bike 11:00-4:00. Eat. Run session (I kept mine to 20 min but she went longer).  Yoga/strength/PT sessions.  Dinner.  Bed by 8:00.  The recovery and eating sessions were just as important as the training sessions, and I had time to do that!  The weather when I arrived was a toasty 90 degrees.  It was a great opportunity to get used to the heat and humidity.  A storm front moved in the last half of the week which meant that I had a great opportunity to get used to the crazy Texas thunderstorms.  It also meant that after after having some amazing outdoor rides we were back on the trainers.  It was probably a really good things though because I was having a heck of a time keeping up with Jocelyn!  

We had a couple of fun opportunities pop up. We were both invited to go speak to Amie's triathlon team during practice one afternoon.  I talked about how much better I do when I race for fun instead of racing for a specific placement goal.  This sport is about enjoying yourself!  I also was able to meet with Tim Floyd who has an endless pool and does stroke analysis.  For the first time in 20 years I had someone look at my stroke.  I need to strengthen my core to get my hips up.  My right arm is slipping a bit, and I'm bending a bit when I breathe to my left.  We had four master's training sessions with him so it gave me a lot of opportunities to work on fixing those things.  I loved swimming with the masters group.  They were so friendly and it was a nice change to be in an organized group again.  I even made some new friends and met a new pro, Maja Nielsen.  When we weren't training we were hanging out with the Quinns.  They love games and I learned four new games that week.  The whole experience was just incredible.  

About a year and a half ago I started to entertain the idea of going pro.  It didn't happen last season and I was starting to have some reservations if it was the path I wanted to take.  I learned a few things in Texas.  Number one is that I am awesome and can handle a training load like that.  I actively trained for 27 hours that week, not including the stretching/yoga/recovery hours!  Go me!  I also watched Jocelyn as she called her family, set up flights to Europe, strategized what races she was going to need to do in order to get her Kona slot and PTO points, and realized that there are too many sacrifices for that kind of life.  I want to be good but I don't want triathlon to consume me. If I get invited back I will absolutely go because it was such a fabulous experience, even if I was completely exhausted by the end of the week!

Oceanside 70.3

Oceanside 70.3 has been on the schedule for almost a year.  I have always loved escaping to this race as my own personal spring break.  Some years it has coincided with my kids' break and then we can all travel together.  This year I was traveling alone.  The weather we overcast and cool, but honestly the palm trees and sea breeze made up for that.  I have been an emotional wreck for at least a month.  Life has been so heavy and I have not been handling it well.  I could literally feel myself healing as I sat on the shore and watched the waves.  

  

When I travel by myself I have the flexibility to be impulsive.  On a walk near the pier I looked up and saw the house from Top Gun!  I remembered that there was a whole restoration project last time I was here and I decided to check it out.  It wasn't a museum like I originally thought, it was even better.  It was a fresh pie and soda shop!  Naturally I picked up three pies (apples, cherry, and blueberry), and a cherry soda.  As I sat sipping my soda in the rain I thought that this was going to be a pretty fabulous weekend.

Traveling by myself also means that grocery shopping/eating out is a little different.  I stopped by a local pizza joint that first night because it just sounded tasty.  As I sat on the patio I looked around and saw that I had definitely found the teenage hang-out zone.  Kids were everywhere chilling just like I remember doing.  When my pizza came out I was shocked that it was 22" of insane goodness.  I didn't want to look like a loner eating a 22" pizza by myself, so I drove down the road and parked where I could see the sun seat.  I sat in the trunk of my car eating a pizza picnic all by myself.  But look at this sunset!!  It was worth it.

Since I've traveled to this race before I am very familiar with the course and where is convenient to stay.  My Airbnb was right on the run course near the swim start and race finish so perfect for race day.  It is a complex that my kids would have loved to explore.  The only complaint I had was that my room smelled like old ladies.  That's ok.  Old ladies are nice.  Oceanside is also the hub of Smashfest Queen.  so many women live in the area that it made perfect sense for us to get together for a pre-race lunch.  There are enough women on this team that I still haven't met all of them and I'm only now beginning to recognize familiar faces.  Even though they are new friends, it is uplifting to talk to them and hear all of their stories.  It's even better when I see them on course so we can cheer each other on.

Another pre-race meet up which was so cool, was running into Carly!  We swam together for years growing up but since went our different ways.  This was the first time I've seen her since I graduated nearly 20 years ago.  She was in Oceanside racing with her team and I just loved seeing her again.

Race morning was chilly.  It was supposed to be a fabulous day by the time we got to the run, but after swimming in 54 degree water and riding our bikes in 54 degrees, we were going to be cold.  I tried staying warm by getting to transition as late as I possibly could and then running until it was time to start.  

At the last minute they moved the swim from a beach start (good, I've never really liked those waves), to a pier start.  It meant the swim was a lot more protected.  I wasn't nervous getting in.  In fact I was about 500 yards into the swim when I finally realized that it was race day and I needed to get going.  The training lead up to the race had not been great.  There were so many interruptions with illness, injuries, appointments, kids, and mental health that I had no idea how the day was going to go.  There were zero expectations and I was there to have fun.  The swim was fun.  I enjoy that part of the day.  Onto the bike I took the time to put on gloves, my vest and arm warmers.  It took time but I was very comfortable on the bike.  The plan was for me to PR the bike ride since that is where my fitness was.  I was supposed to attack the hills and the final stretch back to T2.  I didn't feel awesome on the hills.  I felt ok but not like a powerhouse.  I finally felt good on that last stretch back though.  It was the first time I've enjoyed that section and I felt like I was flying.  I wasn't worried about my placement so I hadn't been counting ladies on the bike.  It didn't feel like there were a lot of uber bikers out there so I thought my position was still ok.  My run was what I was most worried about.  I haven't been able to run much since Christmas because of some bursitis in my knee.  Talking with Dan before the race he basically told me that I had about 12k of good running in me, so I needed to decide when to spend that 12k.  I decided to focus strictly on my cadence and see what happened.  It's a two loop course, out and back, so I divided the run into four sections.  I finished the first section feeling good, then the second section.  I was counting the ladies in front of me at the turn-around.  It's tricky with the pros but I thought I was just outside of top ten.  Not bad, let's see what I can do with the rest of the run.  The third section I had to focus to keep my form in tact but I still felt ok. On that fourth and final section I knew I was golden.  I cruised into the finish chute feeling great.  I couldn't believe that my knee didn't bother me at all.  At the finish line I met Logan (Carly's husband) who had been tracking me and said that I was in first in my age group!  What?!  I couldn't help it and jumped up to give him a huge hug.  I wanted to look at the results again to see if anyone came in just behind me and there was one girl.  But I took 2nd in my age group and 6th in the female category!  Are you kidding?  That is one of my best placements ever.  I also PR'd my run so it was a pretty good day!  

I stuck around for the awards ceremony to claim my plaque and was just feeling incredibly proud of myself.  Sometimes the body knows exactly what to do. 

Swim 28:50, T1 6:04, Bike 2:54:33, T2 3:21, Run 1:37:25, Overall 5:10:13

One final game

Cambrie has been playing soccer for years.  It was her first sport passion.  But as she's grown she's learned that she has other passions: art, drama, cello, French, and her job.  She tried out for Legacy's team this spring after having such a great experience last year, but when she didn't make the JV team she decided that it was the perfect time for a change.  Daxton and I went to her last soccer game with the C team and enjoyed ourselves.  

I admit that I was sad to hear that her soccer days are done.  No more freezing games, no more soccer tan lines, no more carpools and game days to juggle, and no more cheering her on after a spectacular play. While I'm excited for the next chapter in her life, I'm still going to miss this view.

Free in France

This trip for Cambrie has been a year in the making.  Legacy partnered with EF tours and put together a trip to Paris, Normandy, Mont-Saint-Michel, and a handful of smaller French villages.  To prepare for her trip, she has been studying French every day-I mean ever day.  I think she is currently on a 450 day streak on Duolingo.  She didn't know all of the kids on the tour, but she was really excited to go with Matthew.  I was grateful that she had one solid buddy over there with her.  While she was gone we didn't get very many updates, which was bittersweet.  It meant that she was fully engaged in what they were doing, but I wanted to see her smile during her adventures!  They were gone for nine days and it looks like she enjoyed every minute of it.  One of the first things she told Jeremy and I when she came home was that she had wanted to live in France before the trip, but now she was 100% going to make that happen.  I love looking at all of the pictures she took.  Most of them are of the architecture and art, which makes perfect sense.  But I cherish the few with her bright smile and personality shining.  Here is a photo dump of her incredible trip.

She came home looking so chic!