Oh me oh my look how much time has gone by!

I always curse at my fellow bloggers when I have nothing new to read every day or so. Then I realized that it has been over a week since my last blog post huh make it two weeks.
Life has been busy I guess with what well not much. We are back to our four member family which is great but sad at the same time. The kids have been great always a little whining spreakled here and there but in general fun fun fun. MAC is now speaking to me I would say 80% in french which is super cute. He is making so much progress. MEC is the little lady funny and stubborn, my mom nicknamed her "Miss I do it".
I have finally found a good training plan which helped me get my training back on track and thus my life. I now understand why so many people say that succeeding in triathlon will help you succeed in anything you do. Even for someone in decent athletic shape it is imperative to follow some kind of training consistently. 3 activities require someone to make exercize part of their life, In other word to put together a plan. Personnaly this is what I have to do to fit in all the stuff I want to do, to be productive at work and to workout with a purpose.
I also realized that a beginner olympic distance training plan is just a bit more than what I'm doing right now which means that if I focus my training it isn't unreasonnable for me to do my first olympic next year ;) or wait another year ;)
To finish the training part of the post, I went to swim at the Cove two weeks in a row. Last friday morning I diligently woke up at 6am to go swim and although I felt a little smothered when I first started and when I encountered kelp I was able to swim 0.5 miles. Tonight I went back and I didn't feel smothered at all and did again a nice 0.5 miles I believe that it took us about 18 minutes. I was also able to focus on my technique rather than my breathing. The fact that the cove was absolutely glassy helped a lot. I remember the first time I went to the Cove with T and the waves were soooo big!
Tomorrow I will get a trainer for my bike and thus won't have any excuses to weasle my way out of my mid-week bike training.
For memorial day week end we went and relaxed in Lake Havasu City where we visited some friends. It was glorious, we hung out by the pool and totally relaxed.
This is the end of a very very boring post ;)

Oh and before I forget I have to add a little food. I made a yummy delicious bread pudding with some leftover challah bread I made over 2 weeks ago. Not only was it delicious but also brain dead... This recipe just won the easiest-best dessert prize.
Now this is the end of a very dry post....

Sooo guilty

I was lazy today, well it is the last day I can use the excuse, I am not training to stay with my parents ;) They are leaving tomorrow morning which always leaves me in a funky mood.
The day didn't start really well since my dad took off with the kids car seats not used to have them in the car so we missed their swimming lesson:( Anyways I was tired don't ask me why since I really didn't do squat all day. A little reading, a little cleaning (gotta get used to it again ahahah) a little cooking.
So tomorrow my alarm clock will be set at 6:15 for an am swim...
The weather has also been less than optimal. It's mid may and I am wearing jeans and a sweater... Oops I forgot May gray June gloom arghhh I need nice blue skies.
My next triathlon is in 8 weeks yikes it is coming up fast! Ah well I'm there to have fun right ;)

Mama....

Mom's I realized are meant to spoil. I spoil my kids and I get spoiled by my mom in return many different ways. I don't know if it is because we only see each other 7 weeks out of the year in bulk but she always is buying me that little top that I really like but shouldn't buy or that pair of shoes.
She also has a mission when she comes to my house; To help us! This means that I haven't started the dishwasher in a month and I haven't done laundry in as many weeks. My closets are never that full and neatly folded.
Today we went to UTC to buy my dad some jeans from Gap, MEC some leggins as she loves those and only want to wear them. I got spoiled with a pair of shoes I was eyeing at Nordstroms.

I spoiled myself with a top from Anthropologie (that store is evil) paid with left over gift card.

I had to resist the temptation to get the cutest tunic which would have fitted perfectly with my dark grey leggin but which was out of my price range of the moment ;)

So today was light shopping. Yesterday I went to my GOTRibal POW WOW and it was fun. Three great speakers were there and it is fun to learn and chat with another women.
After that I met B and his cousin at a little sushi place tucked in the lounge of the Crowne Plaza hotel. The settings was a little different but the food was delicious. Unfortunately a pretty loud abnoxious table of drunk people behind us made any discussion a little difficult.
I took the day off workout and I will try to go for a run tomorrow with B but I may just stay and spend sometimes with my parents. They are taking a flight back to Paris early monday morning.
It will be nice to get back to our little unit but also sad to see them go.... Life is full of those bitter sweet moments ;)
Finally on the cooking front. I am giving the Challah roll another shot, I made banana bread with chocolate chip with the kids and I am trying a new porc loin recipe for a nice dinner... Stay tuned on the food snob channel

Rolling up my sleeves...

It is not my nature to whine about things and not do anything about it. I also make sure to not listen to my evil voices too much.
Yes I can't train for an ironman today and even not a half ironman but who cares! The only reason I do is because I see other people do it and then it is a game of if they do it then I should be able to do it! STUPID.
Yes I arrived 26 out of 40 of my age group for my first triathlon which wasn't optimal, then a friend of mine added how did I do in the full time (8:30-6) working mom, with 2 kids, no family in town category ;) It is true who cares if I'm slower than most did I have fun, did I sacrifice too much for the training? The answer is yes and no. I made some choices and I stand by them. Lets not switch the stories when we want to feel inadequate ;)
Another fellow triathlete and mentor reminded me that she is doing triathlon for the love of the sport and not for how she staks up to other. I have tried to follow her advice because to be frank who the hell cares besides be if I ran 3 miles in 27 minutes or 25 minutes! The only thing is I want to look back and be able to say: "I did the best I could in the situation"
So enough about feeling inadequate and miserable because I run slower than my husband. Just keep going because little by little we become less little.

On that note Solana Beach triathlon here I come!

Glass half empty ...

Arghhh today is one of those days when I feel inadequate, when I feel a part time everything and I can't be good at any.
Part time mom: I hate when I introduce myself to someone and I ask them what they do or what does their wife do and they answer me she is a full-time mom! Maybe it is true I am not a full time mom. I can't go to 95% of the school events such as mothers day tea at 4pm just when I have my group meeting, or even the mothers day breakfast. I showed up this morning and was pretty proud of myself but of course I was there 30 minutes too early still about 15 minutes late for work!
At the school fundraiser I don't bid 200$ for the art created by the kids and I only buy 20$ worth of raffle tickets. How can I compete with the parents who spend 500$ in rafle tickets and win 3 baskets out of 8!

At work I feel like I don't do enough. I can rarely attend the after work happy hour because frankly I rather be with my kids, or the paint ball because again it would take my whole saturday! I have to leave at 5:30pm-5:45pm when all my collegues either don't have kids or have stay at home wives.

Finally in my training I feel I'm not making progress or I won't be able to do great because I simply don't have 5 hours to ride on the week end. I can only fit 45mn - 1h00 workout per day!

Am I left with the option of being mediocre at everything! I know I know this is the negative voice talking and I will try to get her out of my head but it isn't always easy. Enough of this self pity! Now that all these negative thoughts are out of my head I can focus on debugging my application and be productive!

Back to the roots

Still no triathlon training posting because I have been really really lazy. I planned a run on friday night and was hoping to be able to go with B, but since we were going out on a date in Encinitas he decided he would go run on his own ;( I was contemplating a swim at the Cove because I really really need to get back in the water before Solana Beach Tri, but I didn't have enought time to get down there, swim and then get to encinitas on time.
So instead I went to the happy hour at work, didn't eat nor drink anything but I chatted with friends.
The evening was pleasantly spent with some friends who are about as busy as we are which means we don't get to hang out with as much as we'd like to.
Today I really wanted to go for 20 miles bike ride. Of course I forgot we had brunch scheduled with some other really cool friends, then the weather was crap. Then I read about this lady who got in a bike accident and that cooled me down somewhat. Finally I had to go do some grocery shopping and gave up on the ride. I am planning on going tomorrow though.
Instead I cooked all afternoon. First we are running out of strawberry and thus I bought 4lbs of them and made another batch. MAC wanted banana bread I think he wanted a little diversity from the awsome chocolate cake and orange cake his grandmother is wipping out left and right. So we made banana bread. Then since I don't really want to go out for mother's day I decided to have a nice breakfast at home and decided to make bread. So I started making Challah bread.
Finally we had a nice dinner, filet mignon, caramelized onions with seared polenta yum yum.
I have to say, with all the events of the past few weeks I have been wanting to go back to the root. Go back to live a simple life, a nice one I may add but yet simple. I would like to grow more of our vegetable, make more of the food we eat buy less consumable. My sister says I am ready to live in Norway or Sweden....
Anyways it is good for me that I love cooking, creating and baking so much. I just gotta get back on my bike. Training starts back on monday with a swim session at 6:30am.

Another guy I know raced with me on sunday, I don't think he expected me to get as close to him as I did. Now I want to keep in his shaddow or beat him... but for that I really have to improve my swimming, and biking! At least it is motivation.

What else...

As you may all have notice, triathlon has been put on the front line lately but a lot more things are going on in my life.
On the reading front, I just finished (a year after starting very unlike me) a book about an amazing woman "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi. I would highly recommend it. I always find it interesting to learn about other way of life, usually way less cushy than my own upbringing. With recent unpleasantness at home, I picked up one of my feel good book, Good Things. This book makes me fantasize about living in the woods next to a lake. I will always have the image of the beautiful house, we stumbled upon while fishing on a lake in Montana. I know it may be funny to a lot of you but even though I was raised in the middle of Paris, I have a secret wish to live in the country somewhere. Anyways if we go down the path of fantasy, I wish I was a more rugged person. I wish I was more adventurous and back packed around the world. Even when picking triathlon I feel like I chose the more civilized version of the sport instead of the more adventurous one which are the XTerra event.
I have also been enjoying the sight of our kids with their grandparents. One of the benefits is to witness the amazing progress of MAC in french. He will now speak to me in french when before he would solely answer me in english. MEC is still a little bit small but she sprinkles french words in her sentences. So going to the beach is now going to la plage.
Lately we have been cooking a lot as usual. My mom being a cake machine with the help of her helper who wants orange cakes and chocolate cakes every other day!
On the training front I gave myself a week of break which I'm enjoying and I am preparing myself mentally for a somewhat structured training program. I read a lot about other triathletes and I came to the conclusion that at this stage of my life training is one of the other thing I do. The things I really won't give up for a triathlon, spending quality time with my husband after the kids go to bed, spending quality time with the kids,cook healthy and tasty meals, work, paint maybe. However I know that I still can accomplish a lot with the time I have and that puts a smile on my face so I can't weasle my way out of training!
On that note, with pandora tuned on my "Travis station" I will get back to my code which is screaming at me.

Race week end

Saturday, was spent with the family running errands and trying to relax. I do have to admit I took several trips to the computer to check the weather to make sure that nothing was cancelled.
I felt pretty confident about the race and since I just wanted to have fun I decided to leave my garmin at home to not pollute my head with pace.

I prepared my bag way in advance and almost forgot my helmet who was on top of the high shelf, I pumped my tires and got everything ready. In the evening I made a risotto with wild mushroom, we had some red wine, and we finished with some poached pears and ice cream. Since we had to get up at the crack of dawn we went to bed early.
I woke up excited, my poor husband a little less. Off we go with a PB and J in hand. The trip was pretty uneventful, we found parking got everything out of the car and walked towards the transition area which buzzing with people already.

I first got directed towards the wrong wave and then a little confused I bummed into RD. Thank goodness, sometimes I really wonder how in the hell did I move all the way from Paris to San Diego on my own, managed to get two masters degree and raise two kids as I see myself revert into a 5 year old. So here I am under RD's wing, we managed to push off some bikes to create a crammed spot for mine, then get the chip, the marking, do the walk through, kiss my husband, hook up with the other GOTRibal girl and TM my swimming buddy, go to the bathroom....

It is 10 minutes before the wave start. Since we didn't really know how I would handle the swim we decided to start at the back of the wave, of course for a little bit I kept bumping into swimmers and so had to wait a little. It was great to have TM besides especially to keep me on course. I took a few breast strokes during the swim mainly at the turns but manage a steady fairly relaxed swim. I was able to run out of the water, smile at my husband who dutifully was taking pictures and off to the transition area.

I didn't even get lost in the see of racks and bikes. On the way I saw RD coming out of transition. I tried to put my shoes standing up but I would admit that remembering NS story of her first race I sat down and was also smiling at the idea that this was it. Me Sophie I was doing my first triathlon! Onto the bike, I kept a steady easy pace and just enjoyed myself...

Came in transition 2 had to put back a bike on the rack since everything was a little wobly. Slipped my sneakers on and opted for a no socks option, I started to run. I felt so sluggish and since every one was passing me I really thought I was going slow (~10min/miles - 11/min/miles). Very early I started feeling a blister coming and I forced myself to get into a groove and to not stop. I have to admit that running without music was especially hard and a little boring. As I started my second lap I got into a groove and was able to pick up the speed a little and as I was nearing the finish line and heard my name called out multiple times I pushed into a sprint and crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face. There was a lot of marking on the road which helped while running....


I quickly bumped into all the gotribal woman, got a delicious muffin two glasses of water from my husband and was sooo happy. TM told me that I finished in about 1:15:34 which was way better than the 1:25:00 expected.
After a few pictures and hugs we left to go see the kids.

Lesson learned: I will wear socks next, I can push a little harder next time and I managed to ride at roughly a 14:30 miles/hour (including the 2 transitions) and run at 9:11min/miles pace. I also learned that triathletes are fast!
After a shower we took the kids to swimming lesson and then we had brunch at the beach grass cafe followed by a nice nap!
I had a blast and thus I've already signed up for my next two races. The Solana beach triathlon end of July and the US Women series in October.
Both of these are going to be challenging, the first one has an ocean swim and the second one is a little longer!
I would like to thank my husband for his support and enduring my constant babble and bragging about my triathlon prouesses, TM for being my swim buddy and who always answered my email promptly, NS for being my "mental coach" and help me redirect my vision of what a triathlon should be and finally all the GOTRIbal women who really made me feel part of a warm and welcoming group.

Finally I spend the most part of monday waiting for the split results:
Swim 11:16 Bike 36:40 run: 27:33 Total 1:15:34
My next goal is to get close to 1:10:00 and still have fun!

One more check mark

Today I participated in my first sprint triathlon. The distances were .25 miles, 9 miles bike and 3 miles run. I finished in 1:15:34 which I think is better than I expected but since I decided to enjoy myself and not worry about times etc... I left my garmin at home thus I have no idea of my pace in either bike nor run. All I know is that I had fun, that the run is still the harder bit. That is maybe due to the fact that I ran it as an idiot with no socks wanting to save 30 seconds on my transition time ahahah.

It was great to see B's face at every corner which made the finish line of this race a great experience whereas the end of the Carlsbad was pretty daunting!

Anyways I set my base and will now try to improve my times and I am planning my next race maybe Solana Beach in July and then the all women triathlon in October...