Here we go again!!!

A lot has happened since my last report of my Race in New Zealand in March - well not a lot really - Just big news of Baby #2 set to arrive December 2016 - and my rekindled love/hate relationship with being a pregnant triathlete.

I'm not even sure what I want to say in this first post, but I'm already emotional just thinking about it.  Yay for pregnancy hormones!!! 

I started this blog 2 1/2 years ago after the birth of my son, to bring a voice to my unexpected struggles while trying to get back to being a competitive triathlete.  It was hard.  Much harder then I expected.  Both physically and emotionally.  Now I'm struggling during pregnancy, and wanting to bring a voice, some hope and some new resources to those who can resonate with my stories.

The beginning 12 weeks of this pregnancy were not fun.  I felt hung-over every day, all day, without the fun the night before.  Although that has gotten better, my diet has not been up to the par I expect from myself, and my decrease in exercise is bumming me out.  (Future blog post about the expectations we put on ourselves as moms:) )  My energy has also gotten better, and I find the more active I stay, the better my energy is throughout the day.  I was able to walk/run up until about a week ago, now the run is only 4 minutes of my 30-40 minute session - so I started swimming this week!!!  I haven't swam since my race in March, and although I look pretty funny doing wide legged flip turns, I have a small bit of time where I don't feel SO pregnant.  Plus just being in the water is, I think, good therapy for anyone.

So that should all make me very happy! Right???  Don't get me wrong, when I have the patience and time to look at my life and get my attitude right, I can't complain, I've got it pret-ty good.   But it's really hard sometimes to 'Be OK' with getting bigger.  And with Baby #2, it happened a lot sooner than with my son.  I know my body is doing the good work of growing an entire human in my body.  I get it.  But it still bums me out when I can't reach my bike handle bars anymore, or my 2 1/2 year old runs faster than I can - dead serious.

I have to remind myself every day that this pregnancy will soon be over and I will miss it:)  I have to remind myself every day that it's nice to slow down for a 10 month+  'season' and enjoy not having to train and race.  I have to remind myself every day that I simply need more rest while being pregnant, working and taking care of a toddler.  All of this will pass all too soon.  But it's a daily struggle to feel beautiful.  I feel like a barrel and my boobs just wont stop growing.  seriously.  they're huge.  And I can't help but think what they will be like when nursing before the start of a race next summer :)  I'm sure it will turn some heads.  Every other pregnant woman I look at looks ADORABLE, with a fabulous belly, but I still feel like I look like I gained 28 lbs and people can't tell if I'm pregnant or not.

Some of you that know me are probably rolling your eyes thinking I look great, I'm an athlete, I'm active.  But it's all about how we see ourselves.  How we feel about ourselves.  I quietly struggle with my physical self in a very emotional, internal way, and it's hard to overcome that sometimes.

Then something like this happens - while getting dressed at the gym this morning, a woman passes by and tells me I look adorable.  Brought the biggest smile to my face.  I rubbed my baby, gave her a quick squeeze, and got on my way.  It's another opportunity for me to Win This Day, and be the best woman, momma, wife, sister, daughter, friend, triathlete (if I can' still call myself that - idea #2 for future post), I can be.  So if you see a pregnant momma, tell her she looks beautiful.  She might cry, but you just made her day.

There is a community that has just begun here in the Twin Cities, called the Mid Drift Movement.  I encourage you to check it out and watch their quick film.  Their goal is "to change society’s unrealistic expectations of what a mother’s body should look like and to embrace motherhood’s physical transformations."  I can't wait to work on this myself as the months go forward, and I look forward to spilling my guts about my struggles and triumphs as baby's Birth Day get closer, and then, how in the world I am going to train and race with a newborn and a toddler next summer?  I have no idea - but I'm going to Tri!!!

XOXOXOXXOOO!!!

 

Race Report - IM NZ 07 March 2015

Well IM NZ is in the books and I couldn’t be happier, or sadder.

Travel went well, except for a ‘little’ hiccup in MN that almost kept us from getting on the plane, and more probably from the entire trip altogether (I’ll spare you the details, mostly because I’m trying to strip it from memory, but HUGE thanks to cuz D), our air travel to NZ went pretty well.  T did great, slept on the long 12 hour flight from CA to NZ, and did the 4-hour car trip to Taupo without too much fuss.  I wasn’t really able to move around or stretch much during the flight, but stayed hydrated, and basically just tried to go with the flow until we got to our final destination for the race.  Got a quick run in on the day we arrived as well.  Got up early on our first full day.  Assembled my bike to make sure everything was OK.  I took off my rear derailleur this time because I thought it would be prudent for such a long flight – note to self – make sure you know how to put it back on correctly – Because as I was getting the bike together I just wasn’t 100% sure I did it correctly and ended up at the closest bike shop to ensure my bike was A-OK.  $50 later and a day in the shop was well worth it.  Pre-race week - Got my swim/bike/run workouts in for the most part.  Skipped my last run before the race because it was very hot by the time I had a chance to do it, so figured it was better to rest.  I felt like I did a good job ‘relaxing’ before the race, but I was also on vacation in an amazing place with another family, so I felt like I had to ‘do’ something at least one of the days before the race, so on Thursday we all did the ‘craters of the moon’ walk.  It was hot and I was pretty tired by the end of it.  Should have skipped that, but I skipped my run instead and just let the stress that I may have used up too much energy roll off my back.  Registration went well.  Bag/Bike drop went well.  Got my bearings wrt where my bike was in relation to swim in/bike out/bike in/run out.  A girl I met during one of my swims was right next to me on the bike racks, and she let me borrow her pump, so that was set.  Just needed to get special needs and race stuff together and show up.

Goal Achieved – Truly wanted to do my best at being relaxed and not getting hung up on things I couldn’t control.  Certainly with a trip that long with a toddler, something is bound to go poorly, and things definitely did, but we rolled with the punches and I think I achieved this in my book.  This will serve me well for the rest of my racing (and mommy) days.  This was actually a huge achievement for me.

Learning point #1:  Make sure to know how to 100% reassemble your bike, or know that you will take it into a shop and have a plan for that.  My situation wasn’t a big deal and was remedied fairly easily, but would have been nice to not have had to take it in for that full day and the 2 extra stops we took into town that day.

Learning point #2:  Don’t feel like you have to ‘do something’ when on a bucket-list vacation race.  Sitting on the beach three days in a row in the shade watching your son have a blast is still ‘doing something’ J

Learning point #3:  Although I do feel like I was much more laid back and calm about things in general on this trip, I felt like I could have been more organized.  I did have checklists of checklists, but I felt like when we got to NZ I didn’t know where anything was and I wasted a lot of time searching for clothing/tools/race items etc.  It added a layer of stress.

Saturday 3/7 – RACE DAY!!!!!

Got up early no problems.  Actually slept really well.  My husband covered 100% of the logistics with the kiddo for race day (and pretty much almost everything kiddo related up to now), so that really took a layer of stress away from me.  Had my coffee and breaky and we were on our way.  The race venue was really easy for parking and maneuvering around the course, certainly compared to other IM race sites we have been to.  Race morning went pretty much as expected.  We had about 15 minutes before race start to get in the water for warm-up so a quick good-luck kiss from the hub and I was off.  I did some drill/swim/drill/swim as planned. Tried to move up to the front of the pack, started getting a little elevated heart rate as things were a bit more congested, and then the gun went off.  I didn’t think I was that stressed until the swim started.  Immediately, I wanted to quit and decided never to do another triathlon again J  Man it was packed.  I felt like I couldn’t get a breath.  There was no such thing as form for the first  half mile.  It was bad.  I felt like I couldn’t race the first part to get ahead because it was so congested.  Still pulled off a PB at 1:03 – so happy with that.

Learning Point #4:  If I’m going to go hard at the beginning of the swim, get in the FRONT, and get going, then settle in.

Transition to Bike went as expected, I’m never as smooth as I plan, but still better than most, but I could stand to practice that a bit more simply by racing more.  Then the bike.  Oh was it cold at the beginning.  I felt like I just couldn’t warm up.  My hands were so cold that I felt like I couldn’t really shift or brake effectively.  But as the rain subsided and the sun came out, things got better.  About 90 minutes into the bike I felt as though my ‘line’ was fast approaching and got a bit nervous, but I seemed to pass through it as I came back into town at the turnaround and saw supporters.  That gave me an extra little boost to get through the second loop.  Nutrition – My plan was working fine….except I really had to pee….and I had a hard time peeing while riding.  So I just kept plugging away with my electrolyte/nutrition trade-off.  I really started to get some bad cramping, but it really felt like it was from having to pee so bad.  I was afraid to back off my nutrition too much as I didn’t want to get behind, but I did feel as if I was hydrated and full of calories.  I never got ‘wonky’, so I really don’t think it was my nutrition, but that’s something else to test the limits on wrt my keto-adapted athlete approach.  The roads were crap.  My seat was actually OK, but my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off when I would come up out of the aero position – which proudly wasn’t often. The wind was a tough mental game.  I kept on taking myself to my many 5-hr trainer rides and one 6-hr trainer ride.  I just got it done.  Not happily, and pretty much decided I never want to do another IM Again J  but I did it.  I pulled a 6:30, which was longer than expected, but I wasn’t really affected by it. 

Learning Point #5:  If you have to pee on the bike, and can’t physically do it, take the 2 minutes it takes to stop at an aid station and go to the porta-potty.

Learning Point #6:  Trust your keto-nutrition and take in fewer calories during the race.

Transition to Run went well.  I was happy with my ‘bag within a bag’ system.  Running with my visor, nutrition and race number in my smaller bag out of transition seemed effective.  My tummy was still a bit of an issue at that point, but still, it didn’t feel like nutrition, it felt like I was still holding on to some discomfort from not peeing for so long on the bike.  So I tried to take it slow, but was running a fast pace.  I seriously tried to run as slow as possible, but couldn’t go slower than 9:30 so just went with it.  I didn’t’ realize the wind was at my back J  Then at the turn around, I realized why it was so easy going out on that first loop.  So I did deal with tummy issues, much of the run.  I only took in water the first 18 miles and after that I started with coke.  At the end of the race I weighed exactly the same as I did at registration, so that tells me I had my hydration OK.  I continued to run the whole race – even when the wind was so bad I was literally leaning into the wind and winding my hands all around trying to stay upright – seriously.  I have never been in weather like that in real life before – it was crazy.  But as my husband reminded me when I was coming back on my second loop – I wanted a memorable experience – and I got it.  My left knee really started to hurt on the end of the second loop and had me pretty worried.  This same thing happened at my first marathon and I could tell it was because my inner leg muscles start to do most of the work while my glutes and hamstrings are tired and my knees start to knock, making my outer knee ones start to bump into each other – it really hurts, and I thought I might be done.  But I just remembered that the faster I get to the end, the faster it will stop.  I rubbed my knees and gave them some heat, and just kept going. 

Learning Point #7 – AGAIN, because it needs repeating, TRUST my keto-nutrition.  I could have taken in less on the bike, dropped my water a bit and been able to take in more sugar on the run to spread it out a bit.

Learning Point #8 – Focus on Run form, and strengthen bigger running muscles to help improve my speed and less time out on the course to injure my knees

Learning Point #9 – Since 9 is my lucky number, seems perfect to finish on this.  Find success.  PB Swim.  PB Run.  PB overall time. 

Felt like I never even really hit my line, but I approached it many times, and just got through it.  And I felt good enough to make it to the midnight finish with my husband.  Incredible.  What an experience.  As I approach the end of my travels in NZ, I can recommend this race, and certainly this country for a bucket list trip. 

Thanks for everyone’s support – I couldn’t have done it with this much flair without you J

Cheers,

Leslie

Deep Thoughts and Thank You

In The 6^th Discipline Post, I mentioned that little voice inside our head and visualization while training and racing.  As I trained almost all of my workouts in the dungeon that is my basement, on the trainer/treadmill, and swam watching that straight black line for hours…….I thought……a lot.  We focus so much on the training.  Am I getting faster?  Did I push hard enough?  What was my heart rate?  But as I tried to find my mental strength in that basement,  I had to find things to focus on to work on that mental strength.  Anyone who has ever done an IM can tell you, that if you show up 100% physically ready and not mentally prepared, the day will eat you alive.  I just talked with my coach this week for a little mojo boost going into race week and he reminded me that all that mental work I put in will serve me well on race day.  So I thought I would pass some of those deep thoughts along to you and encourage you, if you are short on time, to cut that next main training set short in order to get in one of these ‘workouts.  I do think that ‘training’ that mental strategy needs to be integrated into training in order for athletes to be as successful as they can be.  We all know the elite athletes do visualization of their sport – if it’s helps them be the best – it surely can help us.

Flawless execution of the basics –  Before $XX,000 bike that is 100 gms lighter than your other one, before $X,000 wheels, before extra light race tubes; If you don’t have the basics down – swim race start technique (Do you know what it feels like to sprint for 400m and then ‘settle in’ to a swim?), racing the ride (Do you let your heart rate go all over the place because you are focused on your speed and the other athletes passing you or are you staying steady, strong and focused on your level heart rate, getting in perfect hydration and nutrition?), being patient on the run (Do you stay patient on the front end of the run so you can crush the end of the race or do you rush to the end, only to end up walking?  Did you not practice your nutrition in training and end up spending more time in the porta potty?)  If you don’t have the basics down, the oober light equipment and the unrealistic pace goals you set for yourself will be of little help.

Focus on the process not the outcome – If your race time is the only measure of success for you on race day, you could end up sorely disappointed.  Did you really do all those months of training to only have a moment of happiness on race day?  I really hope not, because that was a lot of time away from family and friends for just a few moments.  The training IS the process.  Race Day should be a CELEBRATION of all the hard work put in.  It’s the part we love (don’t we???).  It’s why we get up at 4:00AM.  This also applies to training.  Not every day is our best day.  My swim this morning was crap – but I had a terrible night’s sleep (well, my kiddo had a terrible night sleep ergo…..) – so it was expected.  I also had a run set directly after my swim that I crushed because I was able to forget about my run in the locker room and reset my mind for my 2 x 1 mile sets.

Commit to the plan and process -  When training for an Ironman, you could be training anywhere from 12-24 weeks.  In reality, we sign up a year in advance to make sure we get a spot and start our training then.  So make a plan, commit to it, believe in it, and execute.  When it comes to looking back at your training and racing, if you are trying to learn from mistakes, but didn’t follow a set plan, how will you know what to fix next time?  If you don’t like your plan, or not quite sure if it’s right for you, ask someone.  Hire a coach.  We spend all this money on equipment, race entry and travel and then skimp on having a coach along with us for the journey.  I have a friend (you know who you are K :)) who struggles with sticking to a plan because she loves to be informed and take bits and pieces from plans that ‘fit’ her.  And every season I try to encourage her to just stay the course, and in the end, there are just too many variables to make progress efficient…….she’ll start listening someday (you know I love you!!).   I started as an Endurance Nation Athlete this year.  It was a much different process than I had done before, and certainly for IM training.  For my previous IM I did a 24 week, high volume training plan.  This plan was a 12-wk plan with only 1 long ride each week.  BUT I bought in 12 months before and worked on getting faster during summer race season.  I worked my tiny booty off during the outseason, only did 5 workouts/week and made them count.  I didn’t swim for 14 weeks during outseason (and I wasn’t one ounce slower when I started my 12 week IM training btw – I was iffy about this – but how do you know unless you do it??)  And I said ‘”OK” to only 12-weeks of training and to a lower volume at that while my counter parts were putting in 10+ more hours than I was.  We’ll see what worked and what didn’t…..

Focus on what you are doing NOW – During training, make a focus.  What is your workout today?  What are your goals? Make the most of it.  On race day – did you have a bad swim? – forget about it – get to the bike.  Are people passing you like crazy?  Hmmmm most likely you will see them on the run when they are walking and you’re running because you didn’t use up all your effort on the bike.  Are you H-U-R-T-I-N-G??  Are you barely making it from tree to tree?  Focus on your stride length.  Count to 100.  Focus on 5ft in front of you.  Focus on knee drive.  Oh next aid station is already here?  AWESOME.  Focus on your stride length.  Count to 100…..you get the idea.  Focus on the task at hand and do whatever you need to do to put one foot in front of the other.  You can do it.  And if you can’t your body will collapse :)  You’re mind will give you EVERY excuse to quit, you have to shut that off, and figure out a way to get it done.

It takes patience and discipline to GO SLOW – It seems counter intuitive, but it’s so much easier to do a VO2 max set than it is a slow Z1 run.  Both are necessary in training -Both deserve the same amount of focus - Because on race day - When you get on that bike and people are blazing by you, you MUST KNOW what it feels like to go slow.  You must know what that ‘I could do this forever as long as someone gave me food and drink’ pace is on the bike and the run.  This is the hardest of all for me.  Not in training, but in racing.  I get anxious on the start of that run.  I’m not ‘fast’ really at any of the disciplines, but at an IM distance, if I can just not slow down over the course of those 26.2 miles, and keep inching up my speed on that run (like I have done for 100s of miles on that stinking treadmill), I will start pegging off my competition like there is no tomorrow.

Visualize your BEST and your WORST day - Every morning when I do my breathing exercises, I think through different parts of my race day.  Being calm on race morning.  Visualizing each leg of the race - including transitions - and telling myself how strong and fast I am.  As my coach reminded me, it's also important to visualize the 'hiccups' that could happen on race day.  Race day never goes as planned.  At some point you fall apart; You have someone grab your ankle and use you as momentum - do you let it rile you up, or 'just keep swimming'?  You drop a nutrition bottle - do you stop and pick it up?  If not, or you're simply unable to logistically, what is your alternate course of action?  Your bike explodes (or some version :) ) - Do you freak out and quit? Or do you take the opportunity to slow down for a sec, get some food in, stretch out your back, and get to the business of fixing your bike.  Do you feel tummy troubles coming on? - Do you just ignore it, it gets worse and you end up passing out in the porta potty? or do you slow down, stop the nutrition, get your tummy right and re-start your run plan.  

Just in case I don’t get in another post before we depart on our long journey.  THANK YOU.  Thank you to the 5 people who read this post and make me feel like I’m putting smiles on faces.  Thank you to all my friends who have supported me through this indoor training.  Thank you to all my family who think I’m crazy, but support me anyway.  Thank you to my Endurance Nation Family.  Being a part of the EN team and family has been awesome – I’m not sure how I would have done this without their help and support.  That community is an awesome place, and I’m happy and proud to be a part of it.  And of course, to my ‘One Thing’.  Even though there are two of you,  There is no T without you.  Thank you for watching T every morning while I got up at 4AM and high fived you in the kitchen when I was done and you had to go to work.  Thank you for taking T all day Saturday while I slaved away on that beloved trainer.  Thank you for all your inspirational messages on the white board that I stared (and cried) at during my runs.  Thank you for coming down to the dungeon and teaching T “GO MOMMY GO”.  Thank you for being willing to embark on this unbelievable journey.  Your love and support will be what carries me through that finish line and gets me from tree to tree.  I apologize in advance for any impossibleness I convey during our trip half way around the world.  I love you.

IM NZ Race Week and Race Plan

Much of the timing below will really depend on how we are handling the time change (17 hrs ahead).  Plan is to strap the 2 year old to his seat and hope for the best.

Sunday  – Monday 

Stretch, Yoga, Hydrate during travel

Bringing Yamuna balls to roll on in aisle when awake

Tuesday 

Arrive in NZ with 4 hour drive to race city Taupo

Assemble bike to make sure everything is a go

Scope out the closest place to get a pump or get to know a neighbor that is racing that has one. 

If I can get it in – 30’ jog

Wednesday 

Course Ride 90’

Course Swim 30’

Will be a great day to see what access is like to the race. We are two families and 4 kiddos under 5 yrs old trying to find me on race day, so riding out to the course and getting to the swim venue will help develop those plans.

Race expo is open from 9-5 – play this by ear

Thursday 

Course Swim again 30’

Quick Ride to check set-up 30’

Quick run 30’

Athlete Check-in 9-4.  Would like to get this out of the way, either right after or right before swim/bike/run.

Race expo open from 9-5 – play by ear.

Race briefing 7PM

Friday 

No working out!

Bike/Bag check-in 10-4. Prob try to go early so he can come with – quick stroll around the venue and then back to the flat to rest.

Rest – Feet Up

Saturday – RACE DAY!!!!!

Early Morning Wake Up 3:45 – 4:00.  Eat ‘breakfast’ which includes my Bullet Coffee with cream, MCT oil and butter, some almond butter and raisins/bananas, and the typical 2 big glasses of lemon/salt water. Lemon/salt water until race start

Transition opens at 5:00.  Get there early. Get set up.  Deep Breaths.  Smile.

As far as race goals go….I tend to have a lot of them….mainly because it allows me to ‘succeed’ along the day, and also because I found that with my First (and only other IM) I needed ways to validate the day in case the unthinkable happened. As with time goals, there are so many other factors that can come into play, time goals can really get into your head if they are not met, so I usually have a time goal, an AG goal, and a ‘Feel’ goal for each discipline.  WRT the Time goals, I also have a good/better/best(usually bordering unrealistic) goals as well.  Lots of chances to ‘succeed’ J

Swim: 0700 AG swim start

Tri Kit, goggles, wetsuit, timing chip, cap

Get in and warm up by 6:40 at the latest.  Drils/swim/drills/swim

Race Plan: Book it for the first 400-500yrds then settle in for the long swim.  Keep my 5 drills in my head to keep focus.  Find bubbles.  Stay relaxed.  Stay lllooooonnnnnggggg. Smile.

Swim Goals: 

Time: 1:08/1:03/sub1:00

AG Goal: Out of the Water Top10/Top5/Top3 [38 females in my AG, so doable]

Feel: Relaxed neck and shoulders during entire swim. Come out of the water feeling rested.

T1: Can’t take wetsuit fully off until in transition, so peel top half off, get to transition, step and strip.  T1 bag – helmet, shoes, socks, chamois cream, suntan lotion. 

Bike:  Ride first 30-40 minutest to settle in.  There is a long hill less than 2 miles in so goal is to get through that nice and easy, start to re-hydrate from the swim. STAY STEADY.  The ride has 4 long hills, (each 4-6 miles long).  DO NOT CRUSH THE HILLS.  This is hard for me.  I’m a small rider who loves to crush hills to prove I’m strong, since the rest of the ride most others are passing me.  Coach P reminded me that race day is not the place to do this J  Keep HR between 137-145.  Start nutrition at bike time 40-45 min as practiced in SO many workouts.  On bike will have front water bottle with lemon/salt, on frame a concentrated lemon/salt, on frame ‘heavy’ nutrition bottle with UCAN.  Sip from front water bottle every 10 minutes.  Take nutrition every 30 minutes.  When I hit the aid stations, poor concentrated hydration into front bottle, get water to fill up front bottle and keep going.  Hit special needs with another bottle of concentrated electrolytes and ‘heavy’ bottle. 

Bike Goals:

Time: 6:14/6:00/5:36 [that last one is a 20mph avg…yeah…..]

AG Goal: Top 50%/Top 25%/Top10%

Feel: Able to stay in aerobars, Negative split, stay strong throughout. Stick to HR.

T2: Plan is to have a Ziploc bag with the items I can put on while running out of transition.  Leave bike shoes on bike.  Helmet/glasses/socks off in that order.  Put garmin on.  Turn Garmin on. New socks on, shoes on, grab bag and go. [bag has race number, visor, nutrition]

Run:  So the run is where I have the most to prove.  In my previous Ironman, I was grinning from ear to ear at the start of the run.  My swim and bike were better than expected. My seat hurt so bad from the bike I was ecstatic to be done with it, and I ran…..way……to ……fast at the start.  I ended up spending lots of time in porta potties, and walk/ran for three hours.  So, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast right?  Pace for first 3 miles is 10:00 +  Pace for miles 3-6 is 9:45 + at the fastest.  I run all my zone 1 workouts with my mouth closed.  Pace miles 6-12 9:30 +, Pace miles 12-18 9:15+, Pace miles 18 – go for it. If I need to open my mouth, I’m running too hard before mile 18.  I tend to get really caught up with numbers, so when I run with a watch, I only look at it when it buzzes at the mile mark, so running on feel is a much better gauge for me.  I can usually get up to an 8:49 mile with my mouth still closed, so these paces might be conservative, but I have to start out that way or I’ll make a repeat of IM WI – not happening.  This run is going to be different.  This run is going to be Great!

Nutrition will be UCAN carried in Hammer Flasks, take water from every aid station, if I need more, I’ll have honey gel in my tri kit pockets.  Use special needs to grab another flask of UCAN.

Run Goals:

Time: 4:30/4:18/4:08

AG: I don’t care – I just want to feel goodJ

Feel: I just want to feel good!  No portapotties. No tummy troubles.  All smiles.

Remember you are in New Zealand.  Remember you have your family and BFF at the finish.  You have so many things to be thankful for.  This race being one of so many.  Whether the day turned out as expected (which it won’t) or not, you are Powerful Beyond Measure.