Yesterday I was Good Tired. That physically stuffed 'tired' after exerting yourself is actually a positive sort of tired. I was beyond 'zingy zing zing' , but I still felt good. (I am struggling for a way to describe it, and given that you'll either 'get it' or you won't, there is not much point labouring the point. So to speak!)

Today, however, I am Bad Tired... as in totally-stuffed-from-doing-nothing tired. I just basically stood and sat around a pool all day for a primary school district swimming carnival. It was hot. And it was about 6 hours long.

It was a good day in that Ali came out of it as Senior Girls Champion. (There are about 8-10 schools competing in it.) She won 4 of her individual races, came second in two, and together with her school teammates, won the senior girls relay. Not bad for a part timer. She's been gifted with a lovely natural swimming style (none of my genes that's for sure) and she's always been pretty strong. And I guess the year round once a week hour swim squad helps - though heaven knows she'd do really well if she cared enough to train seriously. (She's not 'record breaking' good, just annoyingly naturally good.) She doesn't want to train any more though, and that's ok. The once a week squad she does is great for her fitness.. and winning races is just icing on the cake. I'm not that partial to the concept of getting up at 4.30 am to take my kid to early morning swimming squads 4 or 5 days a week, thanks anyway. I'm not about to talk her into it, though if she suddenly came to me and asked me to, I daresay I'd do it.

Zoe swam well in her 9 yrs 50m freestyle. No placing - though I can't help thinking her lap time in the junior girls relay (they came 3rd) might have gained her a place had she swum that hard in her individual!! I am not the sort to cart a stopwatch around, so that is pure conjecture in my head, but they all seem to swim that much harder in a team event! The relays are a hoot to watch.

Naturally I am very proud of my swimmers. Plural. Because despite being totally and utterly chuffed when your kid wins stuff, I still maintain that the most important thing is to take part, as long as you do your best.

So I wasn't that impressed with the kid in Zoe's relay team who, once she got to the shallow end, kept half stopping and touching the bottom!! (How she didn't get them disqualified I don't know.) Her mother goes "Heh... she ate too much for lunch". Well, duh.. Now that doesn't help the kid to do her best does it? And frankly I don't care what she does for her individual races, but for a team, you do your bloody best, and at age 10, going on to represent your school because you were the 2nd fastest junior girl swimmer and having to touch the bottom? That wasn't good enough. A slower kid who can do the 50 m without tippy toeing on the bottom should have got a guernsey instead IMHO.

But anyway back to me! With the kids doing all the exertion, how come I'm so bloody tired?! (And how come I am not looking forward to the same thing again next Tuesday for the next level?!)

My quadriceps are niggling at me... as if I'd taken them on another 35 k ride today. (They just hate me for yesterday, I know...) Just second day syndrome I guess.

The thought of cooking dinner was beyond me, so I went and got pizza. (Just what I don't deserve on top of a day of no physical exertion.) I've done a conditioner nit-check comb through 2 x heads of hair, and that's just about done me in. At 8.30pm, I'm seriously considering going to bed, which is just about unheard of for me...

I have a range of jobs I should do tomorrow, ranging from the usual laundry, mowing the yard (and trying not to do my back in - but I have to as it's gotten ridiculous..) and a heap of netball stuff. I have my swim squad in the afternoon/evening, so that will have to do me for exercise. (On top of mowing.) So perhaps going to bed and facing it all tomorrow is would be the most sensible move.

I am aiming for an early morning get up on Saturday morning for the community bike ride... and I am trying to figure out how to farm out all three kids for several hours on Sunday so I can go on a special BUG (Bicycle User Group) ride. Despite being ok now with leaving them home alone a couple of hours at a time, I can't quite bring myself to do it for several hours. Several meaning maybe 6 or 7 in this case by the time I drive about 30-40 mins to the starting point.

The Triplet Captain is still away... he's just informed me he'll be back Friday next week. I won't hold my breath, though this time I will kill somebody if it gets pushed back like it often does. (Likely someone from his work responsible for getting the stupid project over there in the first place, but don't start me on that right now...)

I might be finally doing my bit with regard to training rides, but the kids aren't, so that following weekend we'll have to be doing something of decent size. He is also frustrated over there in KL not being able to do any riding either. (He isn't the Weakest Link in this bike riding family though.)

So, me = Bad Tired. No point staying up fighting it. Should chase the Tweenager and the Teenager to bed as well. (Which will wear me down even more... it is always such an epic task. - thank god the 8 year old is still so good in that respect - one out of three ain't bad?) I don't think I could bring myself to go to bed while they are still up. Imagine what time they would take themselves off to bed then! The time will come, I am sure, when I will end up doing just that.

Labels: daily, kids