Less an athlete, more mom

I realize that it's no one's fault but mine that I don't make more time for workouts. I'm certainly not trying to say that women that do find time to workout are less mothers than I am, they've just found a better way to balance family life and triathlete life than I have thus far. We finally had a few inches of snow when I woke up Friday morning so I decided to skip the workout, get to work early and then I'd be able to leave early and come home to take the boys sledding. Well, by 11am the snow was almost all melted, then my afternoon that had looked clear on Thursday was booked with a meeting from 1-1:30pm and then another from 2-3pm. The second one was cut short, but still, I didn't have a chance to leave as early as I had hoped, despite being at my desk at 6:15am. It's just not worth skipping the workout, even with the best of intentions. I figured I could fit in at least one run over the weekend and you can probably guess where I'm headed with that recap. Saturday I was meeting up with a friend from high school that I haven't seen in over 5 years. We were supposed to get together for lunch about noon and I was going to run in the afternoon. He called a little before 11:30am and said he was running late, he'd call me. Well, I wasn't sure what time it would be so I put off the run, we didn't end up getting together until 3pm and by the time I got home it was time for dinner, baths, bed, etc and the run didn't happen. Then this morning we left for church at 8:45am, I had a Sunday school teachers' meeting after service and then we met my parents for lunch and an afternoon at their house. We didn't get home until 5:30pm and again here we are at almost bedtime, so a workout did not happen today, either. A more dedicated person would have found just 45 minutes for a quick 30 minute run and shower, I'm sure. I, however, am not that more dedicated person. I spent every minute of the past 2 days with the boys (except the hour I was out yesterday afternoon visiting with my friend) and to me it was time well spent. Given that we've got another one on the way, I don't see myself adding regular weekend workouts for many years. Unless they happen very early in the morning, and I admit that after getting up at 4:40am five mornings a week, I try to sleep in on the weekends until about 6:30am when the boys get up.


It was funny this afternoon at my parents' house. My old bedroom is still full of many of the knickknacks from younger years, including some swimming and sailing trophies and various medals from cross-county, track, Special Olympics and a few random things like a US Army National Scholar Athlete award that I won in high school- I was pretty proud of that one. Anyway, the boys love wearing the medals that I have at home and they were very excited to see all the medals and trophies that grandma had to show them. Matthew's convinced that I was some sort of champion swimmer and runner and of course, grandma fed right into that enthusiasm. It was flattering to hear, as unfounded as it was. I kept telling Matthew that those medals weren't all for winning but as long as I did my best, that was good enough. I was pretty good at the high jump and javelin in track, I have a few medals from our regional championships in those events. I was, however, a pitiful cross country runner. As I've mentioned before, I don't think I ever ran faster than a 10-minute mile in all four years of high school cross country, but I did my best and I look back on my experiences with the team fondly. My Special Olympics medals are important to me, not because of the medals themselves, but because of the memories they bring back when I see them. I coached track, soccer, volleyball, swimming and competed in Unified Sports in softball and bowling. The spirit that those athletes took into, and out of, every competition inspiring and my years of involvement were such a great experience and I look forward to getting my kids involved with Special Olympics when they're old enough to compete in Unified Sports.

I guess that's enough rambling for one evening.

Pregnancy status: 16 weeks in; 168 days to go. So far I've gained 7 pounds and I'm still averaging 5 days a week working out. I'm planning to get more swimming in now that my maternity suit has arrived!