The Best Day

Luc is in the back with the Shrek Green shorts on........

Today Mary had a good day. Fever gone, mojo on high. Workouts complete. Day at the beach with my son..... fan-freaking-tastic. I love this kid, he's so much life wrapped into one little guy with amazing blond hair.

Each time we get to the beach he looks for someone to play with. He typically finds the one kid digging a sandcastle alone and he walks right up.

"Hi my name is Luc." He says, "Can I help you build a castle?" He's always well received. Usually the kids ask him to bring water from the lake and dump it in the hole.

In not too long of a time there will be 20 kids digging, building, laughing so hard their sides hurt.

Yesterday we were in Walgreens and Luc stopped. It was a Sports Illustrated magazine and Michael Phelps was on the cover.

"Mom he's so cool." Luc said as he studied the picture.

"You know Luc...." I told him, "When he was your age a lot of people would tell him he wasn't smart enough. They told him he couldn't do anything." And I told him that because at 7 years old, Luc has been through the same. Even as we did find the right school, the right classroom, the right support...... there is still talk of what he can not do as opposed to what he can.

He thought about it for a moment.

"Can I be like Michael Phelps?" He asked me. I smiled.

"Of course you can." I told him, "Except you can be something even better. You can be Luc Eggers." He smiled at me and gave me a hug. And then I reminded him that I was always going to be in his corner. I reminded him that whenever someone tells him he can't, I will tell him three times louder that he can. I promised him that no matter what he could always know that I believed in him. That I would always believe him. And that he would never ever be alone in his efforts to achieve his dreams.

Then he changed the subject.

"Mom remember not too long ago you didn't finish that race." He of course was referring to my IMLP DNF. "Remember you got hit in the head." Oh how I wish I would forget Luc, how I wish I would forget.

"I remember." I promised him.

"Is your head much better Mom?" I told him that it was. "Are you going to race again?" I told him I was. "Is that why you are going to Texas?"

"It sure is Luc." And I realized now more than ever how much our kids learn from us. He saw me get knocked down and he needs to see me get back up.

Sport is the greatest metaphor for life. We keep watching these Olympics and we keep watching the impossible become possible. Through hurdles or 200 meters. People who realize a dream against all odds.

Even some who don't realize a dream. The runner who tore his Achilles. Luc told me that he should go get some rest and try again. Just like I did that time I had to wear the boot. Wow, I thought, that was back in 2005. For a kid who is labeled with learning disabilities this kid sure remembers stuff.

Which means he remembers what I do when I fall. Which means he's watching and he's learning that when he falls down, he should get back up. He's seen me have great races and he's seen me have really bad ones. He's seen me walk and he's seen me....... G-A-S-P....... DNF.

Luc brings me out of myself in so many ways. As I have previously mentioned I just went through something really really hard. What I wanted to do was get into bed, pull the sheets over my head and disappear. What I sometimes wished for was a truck to run me over.

Sometimes I feel like there is this cloud of sadness following me.

But what does that teach my son???? That teaches my son how to allow life to swallow us up. That's not me and that's not what Curt and I will ever teach him to do.

Last night Curt and Luc drove me to teach yoga because I wasn't feeling well. At first I resisted..... I can drive myself..... and then I thought about what that could teach Luc. Curt told him Mommy wasn't feeling well and this was something we could do to help. No it didn't cure me, but the gesture said so much about being cared about, being cared for and being loved.

Luc will learn from that too. He will learn from every single thing we do.

So they can keep labeling him. Just like they kept labeling Michael Phelps. They can keep telling Luc what he can't do. I will keep telling him what he can do. And I will shout it louder and I will say it with more meaning. Because I mean it. And I believe it.

They can shake their heads and tell me that this little boy with a speech delay and a fine motor skill delay will amount to nothing. They can hold that dream and their insistence on being right.

Luc will keep walking up to kids on the beach and turning it into a great big party. He will continue to look up to people like Michale Phelps and even..... to his Mom and Dad. Luc will keep putting one foot in front of the other. Luc will keep moving forward.

Because no one in the world can tell him that he doesn't have enough guts. No one in the world can tell him that he doesn't have enough heart. And no one in the world can tell him that he will never amount to anything.

If you've ever met this kid then you know exactly what I mean.

When we decided to have a baby...... we had this idea in our heads about how it would be and how it would change our lives. It absolutely did in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Luc gave new meaning to my life. He has made it full of rich beautiful color.

Luc has taught me the most valuable lessons in the world. Things I did not learn in a classroom, from a lecture, from a book or from standing on a podium. Luc taught me the meaning of life. The meaning of love. And the meaning of family.

Go LUC!

mary has a bad day

"Amy Mo!" (she's on the LEFT)...and I in May at the Weekend at Placid Training Camp, I know..... is it really possible that I am really this pretty? Yes..... yes it actually is!

Stop the presses, put down the java, and please sit down.

I had a bad day Wednesday.

Yes, the queen of sunshine positivity..... allowed herself to slide under the proverbial bus. Not the real bus. The pretend bus. Serves her right, damn positive all the time..... ha ha!

I won't go into details because who wants to read my daily regimen? It's boring. I will say that I had a fever, I felt like ass and I had to something I hate to do..... I had to move around some workouts.

GASP!

I know, I know.

Since working with Coach T he's got me sold on a basic week. Think of it as the framework and while the framework doesn't change much, sometimes what's inside does. Mondays are always active recovery. Tuesdays are always long runs, Wed sweet spot rides..... yes there is more but that's the jist. I know that every Tuesday morning I am running long, and the focus of the workout changes. I know every Wed I am riding hard and longer.

Stability gives me comfort. My body also knows what is coming. And I hate to move things around. But this week it was a must. Even with a fever I managed a 30 min spin and a 30 min run. Don't call me a hero because that likely shouldn't have been done at all. But you know us tripe type A athletes, we like to "be as productive as possible."

So things get moved..... big freaking deal. Life happens.

Not only did I have a fever of 103..... I knew I'd have to see the doctor if I didn't get it down quick. I submerged myself in the Lake and got it to 102. Because we all know that cool water will cure the source....... and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you......

While at the Lake my friend Claudia told me about how great the weather in August was..... In Hawaii.... form where she just returned. I was convinced she was a RR plant. Not that I am complaining.

On the way home I realized that every single road around my house, every road to the main road had a sign on it that read..... FRESH OIL ... LOOSE STONE. Didn't we just have a conversation about this?????

Son of a gun they surrounded me with it. Except.... where's the Fresh Oil? All I see is loose stone!!!

Making matters worse I received the bill for my big ambulance ride at Ironman Lake Placid. What's more expensive than the race? The $579 ride back to town. Next time I won't ride through town, oh wait, I retired from Ironman. Next time won't happen. I won't get hit again!

It was a bill because I neglected to update my insurance information. We have completely new insurance. I remember laughing at my medial card..... what
Lo-SER needs to update this?

This LO-SER apparently.

Another look outside the window and there is still just loose stone.

Onto my computer and I see Michael Phelps is rumored to be dating AMANDA BEARD. A closer look revealed this was just a rumor, but not before I decided it was for sure my time to get struck by lightening.

In the grand scheme of life..... this bad day is pretty mild. Believe me, I had had days much much worse. So what shall we do? We get back up tomorrow and continue on. Wallowing in the loss of today is pointless. Besides..... I made some shifts and it all fits in. BFD.

Time for a lot of sleep. And a lot of Tylenol!

Back To School...... BOO HOO

I was reading a terrific post of Kerri's and she mentioned school starts in 5 days. Ha ha! I laughed, we don't start till Sept. I felt bad for poor RR's kids because they start in the beginning of August!

Ha HA! I laughed. SUCKERS!

Until I read the date. August 25th???? That's not next week..... I have the whole month of AUGUST left to play.......

Shit. It is August 25th. Which means I have one week left after this one.

Shit. Not only is my little man in second grade..... how the hell did that happen?????? I am back to school myself. And man I love school weeks 1-3 and I hate it the rest of the way. But I have three years to go and RR is doing a great job of convincing me..... actually planning on me coming to teach at the University of Hawaii.

Give me something to dream about when I am riding sweet spot rides in the garage in the dead of winter in the middle of a 10 credit semester.

Summer can not be over. IT CAN NOT BE OVER!!!! We've been hanging at the beach. We've been riding bikes. I get to be 7 years old again and especially now that I am back to physical health I am treasuring every single second.

Today we spent the day at Roseland Water Park..... we have so many things to do around these parts!!! It's a small water themed park and we had a blast! Water slides, water slides and more water slides. I am a water slide fanatic and so are the guys.

But today it was just Luc and I. Screaming, laughing, getting sunburnt. Practicing body surfing in the wave pool. Our eyes beet red. We were in the wave pool so long that Luc's "Thumb Toes" have blisters on the bottoms of them.

And here he was on the way home...... to which I always think "I WON!"

Realizing the end of summer makes me sad. I am a summer kid. Luc is a summer kid. Curt is a summer kid. We love being barefoot and we love being in the sun. We love all that involves water and we love to live on the wild side of water.

I know these days won't last forever. I fear they won't last forever. The days of crawling into bed with us because he's afraid of thunder. The days of riding his bike, stopping and calling back "I love you MOM!". The days when upon leaving the park he says "Thanks for taking me to Roseland MOM!"

The days when he tells me I am the coolest Mom in the world. Someday 18 years old will come. Some day college will come.

I just don't want it to come too soon.

I have always loved summer. I always will love summer. I don't want it to end. I want an endless summer where there's always a bit of sand in our shoes, where there's sunburnt noses and where there's late nights and early mornings. Where the sun is always shining and the pool is open for swimming. Where swimsuits are the uniform...... and we are always running out of sunscreen.

And when there are races which in our world are much like family reunions.

But wait...... there are still plenty of races to go, fun to be had and dreams to be caught.

So you threaten me fall, you threaten me school, you threaten me little yellow school bus. You come rolling down on me all you want but one thing will remain..... I will make sure summer stays here just a little bit longer.

Where we are at

I am slowly recovering form the week of swimming. How about Snowy in the triathlon???? I predicted her to be Gold and Fernandez to be silver. I had a feeling Bennett wouldn't medal because I think London will be her time......

On Sunday I got to return to the long stuff. Well.... and I smile to myself when I think of this..... the 70.3 long stuff. On tap was a 3 hour ride and a 30 minute run. We made a day of it.

My husband went and kicked some bootie at the Sodus Point Triathlon in the morning while Luc and I ate at Cracker Barrel and practiced on his new bike....... then the guys met me down at the Lake while I took a ride.

I rode form home to Canindagua (and I will never spell it right.), rode the new Finger Lakes Triathlon bike course and then transitioned into a 30 minute transition run around the trails and the pier of the Lake.

Wonderful. It was so wonderful.

I love the changes to the bike course. I was surprised that I did as there is a great hill in the beginning that separates the men from the boys. This new version skirts the hill but the roads are awesome. One of those situations where you are ascending but feeling like you are descending. With the Lake in your view at times, corn and trees and fields all around you...... you gain the feeling of quiet serenity and the feeling of smooth and fast.

I felt happy to be riding for more than 2 hours again. Nothing special was on the agenda..... just steady wattages and enjoy.

The hard work starts next week and I can't wait for it.

Transitioning into the run was no problem at all. Most days I do every run off the bike, which is something I recommend to anyone looking to improve their bike run combo.

I got excited to race. I haven't done this race a in a bit and it's the big hometown race. I know how to race it and I can't wait to race it. It means I have to be in top form, swim bike and run..... and believe me I am getting there. The workload is steadily increasing and I find myself with an elevated heart rate in the excitement of hearing a starting gun.

Wow.... it's been almost a month. Since the DNF, since I have raced. Next week I am running a half marathon, which will be new for me. I typically don't road race in summer, that's what spring and fall are for. A road race in the summer, a really pretty one at that!

And just when I thought I'd taper and rest a bit for this one...... I should have known better. Coach T just simply has me run long twice that week. Run twice long I shall.

Today as Luc and I spent the day at the beach down in Canindagua as shown below....

I thought about how lucky I am to live where I live. I have open roads, I have 2 lakes and a thousand pools within my reach. I have tracks, trails, hills and flats. Anything you need from your doorstep or pretty darn close.

To have the treasure of 2 Great Lakes which I consider to be clean..... what a gift.

To be feeling good again..... what a gift. To have this sport to call my home...... an absolute gift!

It's not over till you hit the wall

Here are some phunny ones phrom the Phelps Philes..........

SportsCenter ad #1

SportsCenter Ad #2

Michael and his dog Herman

I don't know about you...... but these games came at the exact time I needed them to come. I just went through something pretty awful.... not my DNF..... something I will write about later..... and I don't know about you but things like this inspire me.

It inspired me to watch the women's marathon and to watch a 38 year old mother from Romania take a chance on herself.
It inspired me to watch a man they have nicknamed "The lightning bolt" become the fastest man in the world. And to watch a little less known young man in his first Olympics hold himself with poise and class as he ran himself to the bronze medal in that same race.

It inspired me to watch a woman who is 41 years old on a relay with girls who could be her daughters, swim to a third silver medal.


It makes me wonder if there are better swimmers out there. Maybe there is a better swimmer than Michael Phelps out there. Maybe a guy who was told he couldn't..... and listened. Who now sits behind a desk and looks at a computer all day long and wonders what if he just believed in himself.


There are so many stories and they don't all need to involve your dog having cancer or you enduring the most catastrophic thing on earth.

They all have one thing in common. Trusting what is inside of you.

Sport is a safe field to do that in. No one gets killed. Nothing really horrible happens if you don't win, and simply nothing really special happens when you do win. Yeah you get the medal, maybe some endorsements, you are a national hero....... but it doesn't change the world. It doesn't change who you are inside.


Sport is safe.

If you can do it on the field you can do it off the field.

Someone recently mentioned to me that doing an Ironman is like putting a card in your back pocket. When you come up against something hard in life, whatever it may be, you can always reach back and feel that card. The one that says you can.

Whatever Michael Phelps comes up against, he can reach into his back pocket and feel the eight gold medals that people told him would be impossible to achieve.

Maybe you have been told you are too big, too small, too tall, too short..... too fat.... too thin..... you just don't have enough talent.

No one can tell you that you don't have enough heart. No one can tell you that you don't have enough guts. The only one who decides that is you.

I am dreaming big. I set myself a goal and I am going to achieve it. Because of the many times I have been told I can't. Even by myself. Just like Phelps..... I will paste those words in the back of my locker. I will use that as fuel and I will build something even bigger.

Because I have heart, I have guts and I have the desire to achieve the goal I have set. I have the belief in myself that I can overcome, that I can make that reach and should it come down to a photo finish...... in whatever arena I am in..... I will take that final stroke and I will not give up.


Because it is never really over until you hit the wall.

Believing That You Can

I think by now that it is pretty obvious that I am the one who should be sitting there next to Rowdy Gaines commentating on these games.

After his epic swim last night Phelps told the reporter "You just have to believe that you can." (and then he said Mary that again was for YOU!) And that, right there is perhaps the greatest lesson of these Olympics.

Believe that you can.

Much of my life I have been told what I can't do. Maybe that's been your story as well. But I found what I can in fact do, in the pool as a youth and for the better part of my adult life, in the arena of multisport.

Sure my results have had their ups and downs. I have not had a solid 70.3 race in a few years. One of the greatest defining moments of my career ..... to myself.... was nailing my race at Ironman Florida in 2007.

And it was because I believed that I could.

I didn't win the race, but I won the race against myself.

Those kinds of challenges are what bring me back to the starting line. Yes I have won a few races this season, I have a had a pretty good season to date. But those wins, those seemingly good results were clouded. It was not my best.

My best is yet to come this season.

I watch these Olympics because I learn from these athletes. I learn that what is supposed to be logical, what is supposed to be impossible..... is possible. For a good bit of time, even to the wall it appeared that Phelps had been beaten. It came down to one one hundredth of one second. Phelps kept believing that he could and he did not give up. He literally swam through the wall. Call it luck..... I believe that was one darn lucky race for our golden boy...... but from start to finish, even though he had put himself in a 7th place hole at the first turn..... he believed that he could.

Now eyes will shift a bit as another amazing athlete takes center stage. 41 year old Dara Torres. Another athlete who has taught me so much over the years, but especially the past year.

Why is Torres in the position she's in? She believes that she can. And last night she had the fastest time in the 50 meter semifinals. That seeds her first. This is a woman who stays the hell out of her head and swims from her heart. She puts her head down and swims her ass off.

And that's what makes champions.

Logically this shouldn't be happening but yet again we see that logic isn't always what we should listen to. What we should listen to is that inner voice however big or small it may be that says that we can. That holds that ray of light. While logic can be piles on top of us saying we can't..... as long as there is the hope that we can........ we sure will.

Fresh Oil, Loose Stone

I don't know about you but I have a FEVER...... PHELPS PHEVER!!!!!!

Here is a terrific article on Michael Phelps in case you were needing anything more Phelps this week. As long as there are Olympics.... there will be pictures of this relay. I wish I had my house wallpapered in this picture! Did you see him and Lochte fighting over me in the pool last night? I mean they hit the wall, looked at the camera and Phelps said "That was for you Mary!!!"

Fresh Oil.... Loose Stone

Those are four words on the list of "things I never want to read" while out on a training ride. Other two good ones are "Pool Closed for Week."

UGH.

I am very fortunate that I live close to 2 of the Great Lakes so chances of me missing a swim in the summer are pretty slim. But there are days when I can't get there, and there are days when adaptations need to be made.

To swim bike and run faster you need to swim, bike and run. Sure there are things we can do to cross train and help make us a more rounded athlete. We can water run, we can do swimming dry land exercises. These won't replace the sport itself but I believe they can help when injured, or when in a pinch.

When you have a running injury I do believe that pool running can make the transition back to the road much easier than no running at all. Many people use it in place of a run to give their legs some recovery each week.

When I am in a bind and my pool is closed and for whatever reason I can't make it to the lake, I dry land train. It brings me back to the college days when this was the stuff we'd do on the deck every single day. I have great flashbacks.

The greatest dry land exercise we had to do were Badgers, and I can't do them at home unless my husband surprises me with a fastlane pool and a starting block.

To perform a badger you need to hang off a starting block. Calves on the top, shins parallel to the ceiling. A nice teammate can hold your legs for you. Unroll your body so your head is in the water. Cross your arms. Then curl up so your nose hits your knees. Then release your head back underwater.

Oh yeah, at least 200 of them. And no it's not waterborading.

If you don't have that stuff at home there are many other ways you can get something in if it's swim or nothing. I have the luxury of owning a Vasa trainer. A woman on my Masters team was selling hers and I got it for a STEAL! Best thing I own!

On the Vasa there's thousands of things you can do but nothing replaces the good old pull through. More boring than a dreadmill....... more painful than 4000 meters timed. But completely awesome.

You can also use stretch cords. Sure you can buy them for $30-40 online, but if you go to your local Target you can get them for $7. Visit a medical supply store and grab surgical tubing for even less. Even better visit the hospital and steal it. :-)

If you have an extra pair of paddles tie them to it. If not just hold but make sure you are not flexing your wrist. It won't matter except if you always use tubing that way when you are 60 you will regret it. So straight wrist.

Click here for a great dry land swim program designed by Gordo.

Click here for a some great Vasa tips from Gordo.

Click here for a great stretch cord workout from Gordo.

(why so much Gordo? He took the time to put it together, share it, explains it great and he's good to look at. The only thing better would be a demonstration by Phelps. Or Lochte. Or hey, I am also a major Aaron Piersol fan...... MISTER COOL!!!)

Dry land swim programs again are not substitutes for swimming. Dry land programs can certainly enhance but shouldn't replace swims. I use them in a pinch, in the fall and winter this is part of my functional strength routine.

So when you are faced with a day when the pool is closed, it is thundering and circumstance prevents you from breaking the surface, don't despair. There are easy things you can do for very cheap to keep those swimming muscles firing!!!!