So I did my last olympic race of May and survived. It wasn't a happy experience, but I did get third in my division (isn't that a shocker?). Many people have told me that they are concerned about me doing olympic length triathlons and that I don't seem happy doing them. That is true when you look at the last two that I did -- they were not good experiences. However, they were also in May, which was a very busy month for me. I have concluded that these two races were aberrations. I shouldn't have registered for them at all. There was just too much going on in this month to take on two long races as well. The three olympic length triathlons I did last year went much better and were much happier experiences, and that is also why I think these two in May were just a bad choice on my part. Because so many people have been concerned though, I have decided to do one more olympic length triathlon in the fall and see how it goes. If it goes badly, or I am just not having fun, I will not do them anymore and concentrate on sprints.

When I talked to my coach about this whole thing, he said that it isn't about finishing the race and being miserable while doing it, it is more about pushing your physiological limits and getting faster in whatever medium you have chosen. He said that I should do fewer workouts, but they should be more intense and work on speed. As I get faster in the sprint triathlons, I can then move on and do an olympic length again and see what happens -- if I get faster during the sprints, I will get faster during the longer races too.

The guys have started their swim meets for the summer -- every Tuesday and Thursday night. Poor James is so exhausted that he is still asleep this morning at 8am! He never sleeps that late, but last night they didn't get home from the meet until about 9:15pm. The guys are doing very well in their races and it seems like Elias and Benjamin are doing particularly well. Andy is doing ok, but is so concerned about being disqualified that he is going more slowly than he could. So far, he has a number of 4th place ribbons and a couple of seconds. Benjamin and Elias both have several first place ribbons already. I hope Andy doesn't get upset.

Brigid is doing well these days. She is much happier now that she has quit working at KMart. I am amazed that she made it as long as she did. I wouldn't have made it that many months working at the K -- I would have slid into the pit of despair almost immediately. I know that she is going to be looking for another part time job, but I figure she cannot get much worse than KMart, so I am not worried.

Brigid had a cyst removed from her back on Monday and it went smoothly. I was annoyed because the nurse wouldn't let me in the room to watch. The cyst was about the size of a shooter marble and Brigid ended up getting several layers of stitches, all of which were done with that absorbable thread, except for the three big ones on the outside. They were huge and a little bit messy.

Ron is going on travel this Monday and will be gone until bedtime Friday night. I am not looking forward to this. Not only is it going to put a kink in my workouts, but this means that I have to handle both swim meets for the week by myself. This could be alright for the home meet, since it is at our regular pool, but the meet on Thursday night is across town -- literally about an hour drive from my house. So the meet will end about 8:45pm, and then I will have to get the boys into the car and drive home, and you know they are going to be so tired that they will be very unhappy about everything. I am dreading it.