tri fit family: Xterra Portland, Hagg Lake

I have been racing hard now for 6 months, first with the xc mountain bike series and now Xterra. My body is feeling fatigue and mentally, I think if is tough to continue on at the pace that I have been going. We've been venturing to different races at least 2 out of every 4 weekends of each of the last 6 months and sometimes even more.
This week, I got clear about what it means to be a stay at home parent. The light went on for me this week as I was feeling overwhelmed, like I was failing at most everything in my life and unsure at how to remedy it all. I realized that don't give myself credit for what I, and other stay at home parents do. I absolutely LOVE being home with my kids, tending to our home and preparing yummy food, but what I realized this week is that I have not even been acknowledging my duties at home as "effort". Yet those duties are the bulk of my every day. Instead, I pile on part-time jobs, volunteer activities, training schedules and a pretty extensive travel schedule and when I get overwhelmed I wonder why?

People ask me all the time how I do what I do. I've responded by saying that I can do all of this because I don't work and am home with my kids. But I DO work, and I work hard. My kids are with me all day, every day this summer. I do all the bill-paying and book-keeping for our personal finances as well as Trevor's Stone work business, AND I have worked full days on Wednesdays for a local Organic Farm WITH my kids in tow. Some days flow so well, and I succeed in fitting in a work-out and something productive around the house. Many other days my daily plan is diverted or delayed, and like today after spending the afternoon in urgent care with Keller after he crashed on his bike, I get nothing done at all.

Having come clean with myself and the expectations I put on myself, I was overcome with a sense of relief. I barely trained at all last week, allowed myself to sleep in, missed a couple of swim workouts and put NO expectations on myself for my race performance. At this point, I had already qualified for both the Xterra National race and the Xterra World's so not only did I not NEED to compete in Portland, I didn't have to expect myself to do very well.

Keller's 9th birthday was Friday, which meant party mode! Breakfast in bed, friends at the pool and snow cones in the park. So much fun to be had that race prep just had to wait. We returned home from the pool near 5pm and I swear that I heard the basil in the fridge calling me to turn it into pesto. It would be brown by the time we returned from our trip......so I just had to take care of that! We had a lovely pesto pasta and sausage dinner and I froze the rest. We packed the car fairly quickly, as we only were going 2 hours away and for one night. We ended up not leaving home until nearly 8pm, and upon entering the Hagg Lake area drove past our camp spot and clear around the lake. Tired and irritable, we somehow managed to stay calm, re-trace our steps and finally arrived at our camp around 10:30pm.

After an incredibly restful nights sleep, I woke at 6 and ate my breakfast of yogurt, granola and fresh fruit with Mat and Liz outside of our van. From this point on, time sped up and I don't think that I was productive in any way at all except for the chit-chat. So many friends and family to see and say hello to, but in doing so, neglected readying myself for the race. At about 8am, Karen DeWolfe arrives and gasps about this 8:30 am start that we have. WHAT??? 8:30??? I have absolutely NO idea that the race started so soon. I, having not taken the time to view the pre-race packet for details assumed the race started just like many of the others at 9. Frantic, as I had yet to have my coffee, set up my transition area, put the number plate on my bike or warmed up at all. I went into crazy Mel mode, spoke to no one, chugged a delicious cup of coffee and rushed over to transition only to have forgotten my bike shoes and helmet. UGH! Well, I got a good warm up here, sprinting to the van for those things and getting back in time to join Lizzy in a 5 minute out and back on the bike. Just as we returned back, the race director was beginning the pre-race meeting. The transition area was clear, except of course for myself, Liz, Karen and Mat. We all looked at each other, struggling to slather on the Glide and get into our wet- suits. What are we doing??? Well, we made a fine example of what NOT to do, when preparing for a race. I sprinted to the bathroom one last time and then down to the lake. Frantic to get my wetsuit on and get the details of the race as the director yells 3 minutes till the start! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????

Needless to say, the swim was pretty crazy. My heart was racing from the start and my wetsuit felt restrictive around my arms and chest. I gulped a bunch of water, and the coffee in my gut wanted OUT. I felt like throwing up and seriously contemplated quitting. UGH!! So disappointed for putting myself in this position yet again. Having not managed my time well nor paid attention to the details of the race I set myself up for failure in the most difficult part of my race, the swim. I pulled myself together for a bit and actually swam very well between the two buoy's, and the bulk of the distance. Small steps, AGAIN, were able to get me to that shore and on to my bike, my happy place today.

My legs felt great and so did my bike! I have been riding my full suspension 26in wheeled bike for the last few weeks, and getting back on my King Kahuna 29in hard tail felt amazing. This bike is so fast and handles really well. I was feeling in control around the corners and over the bumpy meadow sections, and was able to keep a really good pace. The Hagg lake trail is really fun. It is up and down and all around and did I mention Fast? Some of the course markings were lacking in some areas which left me at times confused about being off course and I even blew right through a turn. Lucky for me, Shane Kroth, the race director was in the right place at the right time and was able to get me back on course fairly quickly. Phew! I came back into transition feeling strong and received word that I was in 4th place.

trying to pick my way through that run

I left transition feeling strong, but was reminded just how hard I pushed it on the bike at the first climb. I managed to keep my legs moving and was able to pass quite a few people. I enjoyed the pavement section where you could see other runners ahead, and pushed myself a bit. I think my track work-outs are paying off! My new Saucony race shoes felt great until I came to the grassy, rutted, and off camber section. Geez, this part was really hard. It was slippery and difficult to gauge where to put my feet, and I twisted my ankles a couple of times. The second lap was fun as I knew that I was nearly done. I came into the finish and saw that my time was 2:21:35, six minutes faster than last year!

Xterra friends are fun. Another race, another memory and we grow closer!

Liz, Mel, Karen and Shelley. The ladies of Team Dirt

Although I had myself a tough swim, the rest of the race felt great and I improved my time on both the bike and the run. I MUST get myself a swim coach if I want to do well at Nationals and World's. We'll see where I get with that one.....

The rest of the day was filled with fun in the sun with friends and family by the lake. Corvallis had quite a showing, with Karen, Liz and myself all finishing in the Top 5 overall!