Countdown to Ironman, Week 19: Taking My Inspiration From Some Amazing Teens

Better than last week's picture of me in my neon yellow balloon shorts, circa 1989, this is triathlon, new millenium style. I just got my jersey from Endurance Nation, and gave it a test ride/run brick since we were having such a mild day outdoors. I'm enjoying pushing the workouts on the Power Cranks, and I promise some gear reviews (including the cranks) coming soon! Looking at this picture feels good - I feel STRONG this year, and I am looking forward to really competing this season. I can't believe I'm almost forty-six, I still feel like a kid inside (until I catch a glimpse of my grey hairs that is!)

In other news, my kids' FIRST Tech robotics team that I've been coaching (consisting of six middle- and high-school-aged kids) had a big tournament on Saturday at Oregon State University. Of course, this meant staying up until midnight on Friday night still tinkering with the robot and the programming, even though we had to get up at 5:00 Saturday morning for the competition. Yes, this is an actual photo of my living room at close to midnight. The reason there's a striped bowling ball in there is because one of the tasks that the robot has to be able to accomplish is to push a bowling ball up a ramp.

 In their usual, skin-of-the-teeth style, they staged a big comeback, from nearly last place after the first three rounds to making it into the finals, and eventually securing a trip to the State Championships in two weeks. Whew! I was a nervous wreck for the whole day. I swear, I could easily do an Ironman with less effort than it takes to sit back and chew my nails while they compete. It's intense. Yet I am immensely proud of them! They designed, built, and programmed a robot. One that can pick up crates with articulated arms, rotate the crate into position, fill it with raquetballs from the floor, lift it on top of a scissors lift, and push it into the air. Anyone who bemoans the youth of today just needs to meet one of these teams of incredible kids (the competition was full of them) and see what they can do. I tell you, it gives you hope for tomorrow. BTW, the small cutie on the left and the tall goofball on the right are both my kiddos.

While I am definitely enthusiastic for them, and will be so excited to see what they can accomplish at the State Tournament, I'm also itching to dive into triathlon season. The first spring races are now only a couple of months away, and I think I hadn't realized how much I missed competing last year. I know I filled my time with lots of cool stuff, but I do really love the arena of competition and how much it fires me up to do my very best. I feel like I have been very very effective at using my limited time this winter, and I'm going to come out of the gate running strong. Just like our robotics team, I hope that the goal of competition spurs me to do my very best, even more than I think I can accomplish. I also hope that I can compete with the good grace, good sportsmanship, and overall positive attitude that they display at their tournaments.

Day 18 of Craziness? Check.

You know how I know I'm tired? When I'm at the pool coaching and I don't feel like swimming afterwards. That has only happened about three or four times in my life. Normally you can't get me out of a pool. That and the fact that I lay down on the couch for "just a few minutes" yesterday afternoon and my son woke me up two hours later. Good thing he did too, or I wouldn't have slept at all last night. I had no idea how exhausted I was. A friend on Facebook called that "gettin' some granny sleep". Granny? Granny? Hell, I might feel worn out, but that word is a little much if you ask me.

The State FTC robotics tournament this weekend was awesome but oh-so-overwhelming. Picture 24 teams of 6 - 10 kids each in a school cafeteria with tile walls and sound bouncing all around. For 10 hours or so. Some folks might handle that well, but my poor son and I are both noise-sensitive and I'm sure we looked like turtles who just wanted a shell to pull our heads into. Still, it went great. Our team ended up in 5th place overall, which sent us into the final elimination rounds where we were soundly trounced by the #1 team. Still, we definitely belonged there at the championships, and I think the team realized that. I'm so proud of the guys and all their work on their robot and programming. The competitions are so exciting! But this caps several weeks of non-stop competitions and work on the robot. My brain feels fried like a well-cooked rubbery egg.

And now we head into pure craziness. Tomorrow morning, we videotape our black belt test to send to our head Sensei. Am I nervous? You bet. This is another place where all those years of triathlon pay off. I know how to channel my nerves into positive visualizations of a great test where all goes well. I know that even if I don't sleep well tonight, I can still perform in my zone tomorrow. And I know that when it all comes down to it, my body comes through for me. So I think all will be well tomorrow.

To cap that all off, as I was heading home from Portland late Sunday night, hubby was about to get up at 2:30 a.m. to drive to Portland to fly out to Reno to start his new job. He'll be traveling frequently, and so just as my week of craziness is winding down, I don't get to see my sweetie. Wah!

Coming up in the next month: black belt test, karate tournament in Washington with Mackenzie, Asa's dance team competitions in Portland, Master's Association meet (state swim championships). Wow, that's all? I think I may need a few more naps.

How Triathlon Helped Me Be a Better Robotics Coach

Here I am, surrounded by robot parts, cords, cables, batteries, computers, team t-shirts, snacks, bolts, tools, and random pieces of electronic gear. The high school robotics team I'm coaching is off to the State Championships tomorrow. I could be really overwhelmed right now.

Oh okay, I admit I AM really overwhelmed right now.

But the reason I'm confident that we'll make it to our championship tournament intact and with all necessary supplies has more to do with triathlon than anything else.

Packing up for a triathlon can feel like packing for a six-month Arctic expedition at times. Between the necessary gear, clothing, food, and hydration, it's a lot of stuff to remember. Fortunately, many years ago I created a Triathlon Checklist that lets me pack with confidence. I know if I just use the checklist, I'll arrive with everything I need to have a great race. So it was a natural step to do the same for our robotics team. One Excel spreadsheet later and we have a fool-proof item-by-item checklist that makes sure nothing gets left behind.

My years in triathlon have also taught me many other things that come in handy no matter what the endeavor:

• The race is often won by the most tenacious, not the flashiest
• Gear and money aren't everything
• If you get so nervous you can't sleep beforehand, use positive visualization to see yourself accomplishing everything you want to do
• Get to know your competitors, they are often as nervous as you and usually are really great people
• Having fun is the name of the game, so look around and enjoy what you are accomplishing

Whenever I try anything new or difficult, I am grateful for the lessons that triathlon has taught me. I know how to win, and how to lose graciously. I know how to pick myself up from a crash and keep going. I know what's really important is to enjoy the journey to the start line, not just what comes afterwards. Triathlon has been a gift in my life that just keeps giving.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to stuff robot parts in bins!

Amazing!

The bad news is, I missed my run on Friday and my swim on Saturday. That's because the robotics team that I coach was busy all day Friday (and actually up until 10:30 Friday night) getting ready for their big competition. And Saturday morning we were up by 5:30 to head off to the tournament. We didn't straggle back home until Saturday night at almost 11:00 pm, which made me grateful for good endurance since this was certainly one very long day.

The good news is..... OUR TEAM WON THE TOURNAMENT. Yep, that's what I said. Even though they're a very young team (mostly middle schoolers in a high school division), and even though it's our rookie season, they did it. Totally amazing, they completely blow me away. This means that we'll be heading up to Portland for the state championships next weekend.

Which also means I'll probably miss next Friday's long run and next Saturday's Master's swim. But I think I can live with that.

Sunday Snap: Killer Robots

I start this week off being so proud of my son Mackenzie (he's the blondie in the back of the team line-up) and our whole robotics team. They did AWESOME in their tournament this weekend, which was their first ever using the bigger FTC robots. They designed, built, and programmed this bad boy in the last 8 weeks and it performed really well. They ended up coming in 7th overall in the tournament, which was a big surprise.

Mackenzie was one of the two team "drivers", the robot operates autonomously at the start of each match (following the programming that the team did ahead of time) and then is driven by two drivers from the team, one who controls the wheels and one who controls the attachments that can score points by removing batons from a dispenser and placing them in goals. This is tough stuff people!

My entire write-up of the event is on my Blue Skies Blog here with lots more photos and descriptions. If you have a kid or know a kid who has a mind for engineering, I can't say enough good things about the FIRST program for robotics. This is Mackenzie's 5th year, and my 4th year as the team's coach and it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience each and every year. Our country and our world will depend on the minds of our young engineers. Encouraging them is a top priority.

Jonesing For A Swim

I needed to swim tonight like a junkie might need a fix after a week of going straight. I love biking, I like running, but swimming is my habit and when I get as stressed as I was today, I need my fix dammit. So although my to-do list was ten feet long and growing, I took the time to get in the pool and now I feel almost sane. By 6:00 am tomorrow morning, we'll be headed for the airport to Atlanta to the FIRST World Robotics Festival. We've got five kids, two robots, a ton of spare parts, research project presentations, pit table decorations, team t-shirts, trading cards and give-aways, and of course the kids' iPods, Nintendos, laptops, books, and other assorted paraphenalia. I don't think Hannibal carried this much stuff across the Alps, and he had elephants for pack animals. We only have a couple of parents to do the job. Wish us luck, and cross your fingers that the hotel has a good pool. I'm gonna need it!

A Trip to Seattle and Some Amazing News

We took a short trip to Seattle this week for my sister's birthday. It was beautiful there, reminding me of what a lovely city Seattle is when it's not raining. The snow-covered Olympics and the glassy blue Lake Washington greeted us as we spent a day wandering around the Woodland Park Zoo. I got to run with my sister - it's great to have a little sis' who is active and fun to hang out with. An hour's run gave us plenty of time to catch up, and was the first time I've run more than 4 or 5 miles since my ankle sprain. I had to walk up the steeper hills due to some lingering tenderness in my Achilles tendon, but otherwise was fine!

While we were there, I got this amazing phone call from the woman in charge of Oregon's FLL Robotics program. She told me that the kids' robotics team (that I've been coaching) was nominated to go to the FLL World Festival! They'll be competing with 84 other teams from all over the world (of the 10,000 FLL teams worldwide) in Atlanta, Georgia in mid-April. This will be just an amazing opportunity for my kids and the rest of the kids on our team as well. We are so excited!

It's not looking like this will be a year of triathlons for me. In fact, it's looking like it will be an extremely light tri season with everything else we've got going on. Maybe that's okay though. The last time I took a season off was 1999 when I was pregnant with my daughter, and after 9 years maybe it's time to have another little break.