A New Start

Last weekend I took the plunge again into the world of triathlon. It was an Olympic distance triathlon which is about 25% of a Ironman triathlon. Yet I was scared because my life has changed alot since my last Ironman.

I had fun! I did my normal performance and just enjoyed the experience of being in my body and trying to do something challenging. It was good being back in the triathlon world. I have felt so far away from it recently.

I have been contemplating doing a 1/2 Ironman this year but again was afraid. Today I took the plunge and signed up for the Black Diamond 1/2 Ironman in Enumclaw on September 27.

So now I'm trying to figure out my goals.

I have been listening to a podcast called Outside In Weight Loss and the one I listened today had a section on wanting to get back to your "old" self. That this is not only impossible but that it isn't truly the goal. Because even though in August 2007 I was 25 lb lighter than I am today and stronger and faster but that's not my goal. I may want to get down to that weight and have that feeling of strength and speed again but that I do not want to be in that t aspace that when under stress I fall back onto my poor eating habits and use that as my stress release.

I know these past two years have been very stressful. Just to review here is everything that Cate and I have been going through:

1. From June 2007 - April 2008 trying to work with Steph to become a mom and more and more taking on the primary caretaking of E'llee
2. October 2007 - Hit by a car and having to take a month off of training because of an injury
3. November 2007 - Start of remodel trying to get house emptied out and ready for a major remodel
4. December 2007 - We get rid of stove and most of kitchen stuff to prepare for kitchen remodel. We end up living without a kitchen and stove for almos
5. December 2007 - May 2008: Fighting with remodeler to get work done until he finally quit the job in May 2008 after we had paid $100,000 to him and only have about $20,000 worth of work which we later found that all but the foundation had to be redone.
6. January 2008 - May 2008 - Cate's nephew Matt moves in with us and stays for an unnegotiated 5 months in a house that is torn apart.
7. April 2008 Steph runs away to Canada and we tell her she cannot return and we start the adoption process of E'llee
8. April 2008 - June 2008 - Struggling with Steph's ambivalence of feeling about us adopting E'llee
9. July 2008 - Present - Ongoing CCB struggles to get $$ back.
10. Feb 2009 - May 2009 _ Remodel