This was the absolute best part of the day, the ringing of the kindergarten school bell and Kainoa running as if the finish line sprint was happening! The rest of the day felt like I had been holding my breath racing from kindergarten to bike-run-swim, back to kindergarten, with not a minute to lose.
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A friend sent me a note last week that has become the theme for this week. She's a mom and totally gets where I was coming from trying to find balance in all things "Kainoa, sport, life". BUT she gets it a little better than I did and helped me make sense of it all. She told me to find harmony in it all. Knowing the love of Kainoa I have going on, she told me I'd never find a balance because balance means things are created equal, I have him at the top, weighing more on my plate. She explained how finding "harmony" would be a better solution for me and you better believe it's working out so much better.
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Today's goal in the life of this tri-momma was to harmonize Kindergarten and triathlon. On paper it looked like 7:40-1:40 Kainoa would be in school, leaving me 6 hours to tackle training. Training was 2.5 hours on the bike with hill repeats, an hour of run on the tready building into a solid pace and some strides mixed in for that added leg speed on tired legs, then 45 minutes of swim. Basically 4 hours and 15 minutes of training. Pff, that is not that much, squeeze it into 6 hours and it still looks "almost" like cake. However, today I found out what most elementary school parents never mentioned to me-6 hours is really like 5 hours because of school traffic. And those in triathlon know 4.15 hours is really like 6+ hours over time unless it's a brick, (today was not a brick). I found out after catching my breath, that finding harmony will be a work in progress over the course of this week, life perhaps.
By the time I kissed Kainoa goodbye, survived buses, children, school traffic, and got to the meeting spot for the ride it was 8:10. How in the ??? did I already use up 30 minutes of my 6hrs? Rode from 8:15-10:45 up, down, and over hills. It perhaps was my best effort on these hills. It's safe to say I was all "business" today knowing my time was valuable. Off the bike and into the truck, straight home without stopping, (only because the only light on my way home was green), instantly into run clothes, packed a bag for the swim, grabbed something quickly to recover, refuel, recharge me from the ride.
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11:55 on the treadmill and running! It took an hour and 10 minutes to get from the bike spot to home, changed/packed, eat, drive to the gym, get on the treadmill! It wasn't supposed to be a brick as the run sort of needed a little break after the ride to get A LOT out of them. Well, a break that was too short to do the post ride recovery was TOO long to squeeze into this day because I was literally running out of time!
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7 minutes after shutting off the treadmill I was at the pool, in a swim suit, and jumping in the water! Seriously it was a run/swim brick! It hurt like crazy in more ways than one but I was so determined to DO ALL MY WORK TODAY. My watch alarm was set for 1:30, leaving me exactly 10 minutes to get to Kainoa's school in time. My swim was to be 2-3k nonstop. Our masters is 3x a week 3,000 yards, coach is helping me bump up my swims on Tues/Thurs and this is the start of "becoming a better swimmer". Well as you can guess, BEEP BEEP BEEP was heard underwater mid lap of 1,000 yards. I made 1k. The girl in me that is working so hard to improve wanted to stay, the mom in me that wants to be there for her son as much as possible wanted to get out, and in the middle of HARMONIZING, I got out and discovered 1k is more than no k. And that this 1k on a Tuesday is more than most nonexistant Tuesday swims. Watch out for the day I fit in, (harmonize), ALL my swim, I might really become a mermaid!
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I did not even put on a towel, I literally got out of the pool and ran to my truck in a swimsuit, drove the 6 minutes to the school, parked, threw on a shirt and shorts, and ran to parent pick up with 18 seconds to spare. And there stood Kainoa with the biggest smile you ever saw! I smiled back the biggest smile, harmony.

Today I discovered 6hrs is really 5hrs of possible training time on the M-F that
Kainoa is with me. It looks like a lot of bricks will have to happen for this harmony happening. Tuesday was a very good start, well not exactly the fact I parked my son into a tree in my mad dash to be on time, but nonetheless a very good start at harmonizing kindergarten and triathlon. I know as the weeks grow I'll discover tricks to save time, like always ride from home rather than drive to a meeting spot. If you're wondering why I didn't just do the swim later in the day, it's because later in the day was directly home from school, home work, karate, play with my son a little, make dinner, shower, bedtime story, bed, (those parts of a day make my day).
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Tomorrow though has me doing my best Math ever and still not being able to add up a way to fit a 5hr ride into a 5hr school day. OF COURSE I know 5=5 but unless I literally start the ride from his classroom door and finish it at his classroom door it's just not going to happen. You see, every Wednesday at every school on the island the day is an hour shorter thanks to budget cuts. The 6hr school day on Wednesday is always a 5hr school day. I'm wondering if I start/finish my ride from the school parking lot just how much I would embarrass Kainoa?? I'm so thankful for this life and perhaps it's not ideal when your "job" is sport but it really is the most beautiful harmony I could ever imagine having the opportunity to live.
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Oh, and I have the best ending to this story. When I picked Kainoa up from school, he said, "Mom, I tried really hard to get all my work done but I didn't finish it". If I know my son, when he said he tried, I KNOW he tried. His day sounded a lot like mine. We did the best we could and together we will only get better at getting it all done in a single day...
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Loving me some harmony in the day,
Bree