Train-n-Tri: Mother's Day Gifts

This Mother's Day I did something I have never done before. I gave myself a gift.

Yes, I got a gift from my husband. I had sent my guy an email saying, "This Mother's Day I want a tri bike, or a subscription to Triathlete magazine or my drip system fixed"....and I am not out riding for joy because I got a tri-bike and I spent a half hour watering some plants tonight, so you know what I got from my guy. I got gifts from my three kids also. I call them kids, but two of them are now "officially" adults, but they are still my kids, and one is still "officially" a kid, but thinks he is an adult.

Anyway, they gave me some new gardening gloves and clippers, a winchime and a clean kitchen.

I appreciate all of these gifts.

But this year, I wanted something special...for me!

Not for me, the mom, but for me the person. I love being a mom, but sometimes women, and I am generalizing here, lose themselves in being wives and mothers. For years, I focused all my time and energy on my children and my family.

I don't regret one single minute of it, but now I don't need, or want, to spend every single minute on my kids or family. I have time to spend time on me.

And in exploring who I am and what I like to do I have narrowed it down to this - I love writing, so I am a writer; I like gardening, so I am a gardener and Master Composter; and I like Triathlon, so I am a swimmer, cyclist and runner.

But am I?

I have biked enough miles, including a couple of century rides, that I think I can call myself a cyclist. I have some scars on my arms from crashing on my bike because I forgot to clip out.

I am calling myself a cyclist.

I've put on running shoes and managed to run, jog, walk and hobble through a marathon.

I've made it through a few half marathons.

My coach has more running written into my training plans than I can keep up with.

I am calling myself a runner.

But am I a swimmer?

I want to call myself a swimmer. I can swim in a pool with no problem. Thanks to the Master Swim lessons for Triathletes with Coach Tony, I know what I am suppose to do to be an efficient swimmer. I am practicing.

At my last triathlon I swam 1000 meters in a lake and not once was I scared. I swam and kept my mind busy thinking about my swim form.

But the thought swimming in the ocean has freaked me out.

I want a lot of space for my dreams, so my gift to myself was to take a step forward in getting rid of my fear of ocean swimming.

I went to an ocean swimming clinic at Seal Beach this Mother's Day morning. We swam out to the halfway mark of the pier and back in. The group did this three times before we swam from the pier across the water toward the jetty and back.