It is what it is....

Man I HATE that expression.....

Well, its that time of year when time is a hot commodity. Tuesdays consists of Annika's gymnastics workout with her team, Cameron has his weekly timed math tests on Wednesday, followed by his timed spelling tests on Thursday, oh yeah and Annika's tumbling class at her gym again on Wednesdays....lets see what else, oh yeah, I am supposed to work too, wait Cameron's indoor soccer is in there somewhere! Oh yeah, I need to ride?

Don't get me wrong, I love it...my kids staying busy with what they love to do. Yeah I loved soccer as a kid, but gymnastics wasn't my cup of tea, but to see my pumpkin-head back handspring and flip down the tumble track is great, and the laugh she has the whole time she is doing it is even better! You can see her bust through her shyness and be so confident in herself...nothing like it.

As for me, it just means figuring out when to ride, which as you can guess means less sleep and A LOT more discipline! Serious will power when you are beat (this time of year I need a Monster to get me through the afternoons/evenings with those two!!). Good example was tonight..

Gym ends at 7:30, of course Annika has to go nuts with Ally on the trampoline before we get out of there at 8:00...already passed bed times on school nights....wait, Cameron has to finish some more pizza (yeah yeah, but with so little time, what can a guy do...I am a guy after all, pizza has ALL the food groups....as my Dad would say, its got tomatoes doesn't it?) run through Cam's flash cards one more time then we get upstairs...

Now my kids are angels when it comes to bed time, but after 2hrs of tumbling and trampolines and bars, etc that little fire plug of mine is NOT ready to sleep.... so we read one of her princess short stories, followed by Cameron reading me one of his books and finally lights out! Its 8:30...

I get dressed in bike garb and head out to the garage and my road bike....its actually my road bike on a trainer but the road bike hasn't left the trainer since probably last June or so...I have an old 27" TV with a DVD player out there to make life as comfortable as possible....pop in a Spinerval DVD and I am off to "drop the hammer"...man that does sound as dorky as I thought it did, but hey its a great interval workout for an hour....

So about 9:45 I am off the bike....I want to puke....gulp down some Clif Recovery and here I am. I won't be able to fall asleep for probably at least another hour if I am lucky, but It is what it is.

Tomorrow a.m., its up at 05:00, then I will drop the kids off at school(s) and ride in from Hazel/Aquatic center, a 22 mile ride on my CX on the dirt along the Am. River bike trail....EZ...spin back to the truck after work and repeat the night before w/o the interval workout.

Its crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way...most people think my performance come mtb season suffers because of my hectic weeks on with the kids. Miles do go way down, and it used to stress me out. Last year I fully accepted that riding took a back seat on "on" weeks and I got in what I could...last year was my best year ever on the bike. Its true what they say, it is 90% mental. The 10% physical is brutal though, but it is what it is.... That's what Ruck-a-Chucky is for :)

As for me, I will get the last two CX races in the Sac series and start thinking about MTB season, April and May are going to be hard to recover from (Sea Otter 4/18, Coolest 24hrs May 2-3, So No Mas 100 May 16) seeing as I will not even be 37 anymore by then, whoa!! (Sorry Scott)

Hoping Sunday I can hit the single track with the kids, the ride while I run and help Annika up some of the bigger hills, Cameron is never to be seen until we get to the turn around! He's smart enough to figure out his gears and flies uphill, more than his old man can say!

When time runs short, get a ride/run in, whatever it may be because you will never get that day back to train...it is what it is!

CHEERS!