Another bike ride

The short story:  got up at 6:30 and was out the door by 6:45 and managed to hit a little less of the shift change traffic today.  I rode what had been my 45 min route when training for Pewaukee (home to Militia, back to Shamrock, around Sterzer, back up nasty hill on Algoa, in/out of Wakoda, to Tania's house and home).  It is about 7.8 miles give or take.  Got it done even though my knees have been hurting this week.  Did a short/brisk walk with husband and kids yesterday (probably a mile or so).  Still trying to maneauver to get up to the CMC Hulen Lake swim tomorrow night. 

Longer story:  I'm not sure it if PMS or post-race blues or what, but I'm having a hard time getting my head in the game on multiple fronts.  Pretty much since mid-July, I've been wasting an insane amount of time on runner/tri blogs.  This means that I'm not spending nearly enough time doing WORK.  Since I work for myself and my husband is laid off, this is NOT a good thing. 

I also am having a bit of a battle in my mind as to where to go now with this new obsession.  I like that having races out there to work towards keeps me from just sitting on my butt.  On the other hand, I feel like it is wasting money and time to sign up for races when I risk another LAST PLACE finish and will never be competitive.  Do I keep going to events and just work on beating myself?  Or is there a point to trying to squeeze in a couple of more sprints this year?  Should I instead just keep working on getting in at least a few workouts every week and lose some weight and begin working on jogging (since right now the last leg of tri's is pretty awful with my insanely slow walking)?

My sister is doing the Lake Geneva tri and I find myself jealous of it.  I can't really justify slogging all of my crap back to WI to do another race with her when I really don't get to race "with" her as I am so slow I have to do it by myself regardless.  We are planning on going to KC to visit my grandfather (97.5 years old) and aunt (just retired) on the 20th and the Jackson County sprint tri is the next day (although we haven't really decided if we are spending the night yet).  But I fear my husband will think it a waste of time and money.  It was all good to do it and prove to myself that I could finish a race and the SMSG race wasn't expensive or far away (and he was still working), but I'm not sure where he stands on this subject and, given my own indecision, maybe it isn't worth fussing about.

But there aren't a lot more races this season.  Maybe I need to be sitting and doing some goal setting and thinking to next year.  I have pretty much decided on a couple of 5Ks that are coming up.  I figure I can always walk them in a pinch.  Certainly will be easier than doing them after a swim and bike leg. 

Sorry for the splattered thinking post.  Guess that is how I am feeling right now - splattered.  Maybe another day or two will go by and it will all sort itself out in my own mind.