The most wonderful time of the year

Triathlon season is upon us. Actually, triathlon season started last weekend, and I had planned to do a race, but the freakishly cold weather scared me off. So I am substituting that race with a different one tomorrow instead. This kind of messes up my schedule, because I'd planned to do one race per month all season. But now I've skipped May, I'm doubling up in June, I have replaced my July tri with a road race and my September race with a gran fondo... so my season is quite messed up right from the start.

We'd planned to go to Belle River tomorrow morning as a family, since it sounds like they have some nice facilities there; but about an hour ago, Mallory puked her guts out all over her bedroom floor. (The carpet. Of course.) Right now I'm thinking the best case scenario is that I go alone in the morning, and the worst case scenario is that right around 3 a.m. I start puking, too.

If not, then tomorrow is my chance to ease back into the sport. My only goal for tomorrow is to be comfortable and strong because I want to put in a good showing at Tomatoman this year and I want a race under my belt before then to work out any kinks. I am not feeling underprepared, necessarily, but it's not lost on me that the late start to spring this year means I am probably further behind than I was at the same time last year. So it's kind of foolish for me to be targeting a race that's only two weeks off - it's not like I can accomplish that much more before now and then. I should be targeting something at the end of the summer. Oh well, there's always next year.

Speaking of kinks, I have added this photo of Liam (which was taken last weekend) to this post because did you know that snorkels are legal in triathlons? You don't often see them being used though. The positive to them is that they keep you more streamlined if you don't have to turn your head to breathe, and if you have problems with neck kinks then they can allow people with limited mobility to race... but the downside to that is that there is no lane line on the bottom of the lake in an open water swim... you kind of have to watch where you are going, and a snorkel would make it hard to do that. Anyway, time to get my gear packed up - even without the snorkel, there's a lot to remember.