Melissa, Ryan, Keira and Soren: 3 Races in 1 Week!

This week was crazy busy. I had 3 races this week, one tri, a 10K, and a 5K. Boy, are we all tired now.

On Monday, I had a short swim at the gym followed by going to the Novi Sports Park to let Keira and Soren play. They had a blast as usual.

That evening, I had an easy run at Maybury while Ryan biked the trail. This was my last workout before my tri.

Tuesday was a fun day. Ryan needed me to bring a few things in to work for him today, so we headed into Dearborn to meet him for lunch at Bellacinos. At home, we played outside for a bit.

That evening, Ryan didn't have scouts and got in a ride. We were also able to go to the pool as a family.

Wednesday was the day of the Triceratops sprint Triathlon at Island Lake. In order to make the day go by faster, I had set up a playdate with Cortnie, Averie, and Ella. A loud thunderstorm hit as soon as we arrived. We had hoped to play outside, but instead hung out and played inside their new home. Storms were forecasted for off and on all day, so it made for a legitimate thing for me to stress about in regards to my race. That afternoon, my mom arrived, and the time leading up to the race passed relatively quickly. It ended up being a beautiful evening, and the weather held out until late at night.
I did a full race recap on the Team Compex website.
Here are some pics of the race.
Valerie and I before the race with Marathon Bars

This is the start of my wave of the swim. I am in the middle of the shot, the swimmer closest to the camera. Wetsuits were not permitted for people competing for awards.

Exiting the water after the swim. The course felt LONG!

Running out of the water to my first transition.

Finishing up on the bike. I felt great on the bike, and averaged 18.8 mph

Exiting the second transition to start the run. The run was tough due to the heat, but they had lots of water stops.

Sprinting to the finish.

Me, Cristina, and Monica after the race. Monica started after me, but caught me right before the finish and pushed me to the end.

Cristina, Me, and Valerie

It was a really fun race because I am really improving and can focus on racing instead of just completing the distance. I also had many friends competing and that made it a lot more fun to see them before/after the race and on the course. They really pushed me a lot, and I had a PR with a time of 1:25:51, and also placed 5th in my age group. It was pretty hot, so PRs were rare, especially since the swim course was long compared to the race in August last year. It just shows how much work I had put in over the past year.

On Thursday, we went to Linda's school so that Keira could attend the magic show with her cousins. She was not interested in the magician, so she spent the time of the show in the daycare room with Soren and Lleyton. She did join the group after the magician left for storytime and playtime with her cousins and the other children at summer camp.

Cristina and I went mountain biking at Maybury today. It was a bit wet still from the storms last night, but we had a great time. I was able to try out my team Marathon cycling gear, which is pretty comfortable. Ryan was able to do his Thursday night road bike ride tonight as well.

On Friday, we did a little shopping with my mom before she had to head back home today. It was so great to have her come up and help out at the race and so I could go biking. We had a great time. We went to Maybury tonight so Ryan could ride with Rob. Ryan and I both have the Tree Farm Relay coming up soon, so we both enjoyed being able to ride with our respective teammates for the race. I watched Keira and Soren on the playground while Ryan rode, since I needed to be resting up for tomorrow's double race session. Soren is peeking through a hole in the playground.

On Saturday, we had a busy morning. I got up early and went to Southfield HS for the Midwest Corporate Cup Relays. I have been racing for Ford at this event for almost every year since 2000. This was my first year racing in the 10K, and I had also signed up to do the 5K. I ran the 10K fairly fast, but I was a bit conservative since I knew I had the 5K coming up. I don't have my official times, but I ran around a 7:45 pace, and I think I was the 3rd female, maybe 4th overall. The race started a bit late, so I didn't have as much time in between races as I initially thought. I started the 5K slow, but just felt myself remembering how to race a 5K, and the speed just came back to me. I got to the first mile marker and couldn't believe it was already there. I finished up with a decent time and a 4th place female, and a pace of 7:22. I was very pleased with my morning, because not only did I get to race and do well for Ford, I was able to get in my ever so important miles for my marathon training. I did some bar sampling to the Ford team.

Ryan led his ride out of Northville this weekend as well. There was a bit of extra traffic and road closures in Northville due to the Solstice Run taking place, but they still had a good 64 mile ride.

That afternoon, we had a lazy rest of the day and went to the pool.

Sunday was a typical Sunday. I was the only one from the Primary Presidency in attendance today, so I was pretty nervous. Fortunately, since we were light on adults, we were also light on students. I had one whole class who was absent, so I was able to use that teacher for help with another class, and I had several people help with little things here and there. Soren went into Nursery for a little bit, but started to fall asleep so Ryan took him out. Of course, he didn't fall asleep, and spent the rest of church walking the hallways.
When we got home from church, Ryan and the kids curled up on the couch to watch the England vs. Germany World Cup game, where England was robbed horribly of a goal and lost. We also had some severe weather roll through. Just as I was carrying Soren up for his nap, we heard the tornado sirens so I brought him back down. We just got hard rain and thunderstorms, but there were funnel clouds sighted several towns south of us as well as to the east of us.