2nd Triathlon - Pre Race Jitters

Before I forget, I have worked out this week! Monday I lifted, Tuesday I did 30 min Zumba with my kids, Wednesday I lifted, Thurs I did a little Zumba and then I did the Aqua Tone class at the gym.

I was going to lift tonight when we went to the gym for packet pickup, but then it turned out we forgot the racquet ball racquets, so the kids and my father all had no entertainment, so instead we just came home. It's kind of just as good to not work out the night before a race, even if it is a tiny little super sprint, so I'm not unhappy about it.

I am feeling kind of worried though. I timed myself on the swim a few days ago and completed it in 8:30. Now, they've place me first in my wave, probably because I'm the only one of the last wave (probably all beginner triathletes) who turned in a time. FIRST. What were they thinking? I'm going to make a fool of myself! I know that in reality I'm a VERY slow swimmer, and putting me in front of people will just increase the size of the masses who pass me.

Also, I made a statement at the gym tonight that "I do triathlons." This is my second, and there's no question I want to do more. But I got a funny look from someone when I said it - like, "Does she really think that this puts her in the same category as people who do a half Ironman or an Ironman?" The answer is no, I recognize the difference between a sprint or a super sprint and an Ironman! One of my goals is to do an Olympic length, and someday I might do a half Ironman. I realize that I'm not in the same category as the super atheletes out there! And really, I think I never will be. To me, that's not the point.

The point is, I have never been athletic in any way, and now I am doing something for myself, that helps me feel better emotionally and physically and on so many levels that I simply don't have words to describe it. In my experience, you don't get thin and then get fit. You get fit or you don't get fit, and maybe thin happens along the way and maybe it doesn't. The point is to start moving your body, and enjoying the benefits that come from that. This is what I am doing. I don't expect to ever be fast, by any comparison. I don't expect to ever stand on a podium because I did so well when compared to others. Honestly, I don't expect to ever be thin by the standards of the American Medical Profession.

I do hope to be active for the rest of my life (and I'm currently 32). I hope to teach my children, by my own vivid example, the tremendous benefits of daily exercise. I hope to heal the two herniated disks in my back well enough that I can consistently particpate in triathlon events. I hope to heal well enough that I almost never spend time in bed in pain, and when it does happen it's only occasionally (no more than a couple times a year tops) and for a few hours at a time. I want to teach my children the skills to strengthen their core muscles, and the habbits to maintain that strength, so that they fight off the overwhelming genetics that are against them and thereby never experience the debilitating back pain that I lived with for years. They may choose as adults to abandon the things I'm trying to teach them now, but it will be only by their own choice - not by any negligence on my part. 

So, I'm nervous about the race tomorrow. I think that we are all ready, and I hope that it will be really fun. My best friend and her kids are coming to cheer us on, and I'm excited for that! But for me to really enjoy it, I know I'm going to have to swallow my pride - that part of me that will always wish I could be a little bit fast, a little bit thin, a little bit more like the way I perceive those around me to be - and just keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for me, not for them, and that I am tremendously proud of myself. When I compare what I do every day now to the year after I herniated the disks, when I spent roughly 9 months of the year in bed... there is no comparison. So, even if it is reality that I am the slowest, fattest person in the race (which I might or might not be, who knows), I will completely disregard the judgments (and imagined judgments!) of others and complete this race. Doing otherwise would hurt only me and my family, and finishing it will be moving deeper into this new life that I truly love.

The Miracle of My First Triathlon: Race Report

So, really, all the drama really happened before the race.

To me, though, that doesn't make it any less dramatic. I felt like I had done everything I could to prepare, but that circumstances were stacked against me. One thing had been constant through my preparations: I had faith that, by some miracle, I would be able to finish the race.

Three friends together (I'm wearing black - and penguin earrings!)

The night before the race, my friend from several hours east (from whom I'd first heard about the Triathamom) and my friend from a couple hours north (who was the only one of my friends and family to join us, even though I invited everybody) came to my house, since packet pick up was only a couple miles north of it. The friend from the east ended stayed at her parent's house that night, but my other friend and her son slept over. The next morning we piled people and bikes into my husband's truck (hooray for six seat belts!) and headed up to the race.

I was still struggling with my foot being painful to walk on unless I was wearing tennis shoes. I didn't want to walk barefoot from the pool to the transition area, so I was wearing my pool shoes - which have lots of little bumps under the toes, probably to help your feet dry better. So that's what I was hobbling around in before the race. I ended up biking back to the truck for my water bottle, but still arrived in plenty of time to set up. (I have no clue how good a space I got - but I could find it well, and I figured for my first race, that's what mattered most.)

At packet pickup, we'd been asked to rank ourselves according to our swim speed. I choose the 4th slowest ranking (out of 5), and it seems I overestimated myself. They started us in groups of three - I got to start with my two friends, yay! - and I was the third of our group to take off. I was slow enough that four people passed me before I got out of the pool. That means there was a pause between our group and the next group, and three people starting, and another pause, and another person starting, all of which passed me since I was so slow. I did a back stroke the entire way, and (except for wishing I was a little faster) I was quite satisfied with my own performance. Since my goal all along was simply to finish the race, I knew I was on track.

There was also never any mention of getting out of a five foot deep pool without a ladder. (I'm 5'3".) Fortunately, I had practiced this a couple times with the 3.5' deep pool at the gym a couple times, so I managed to climb out without moving across 3 lanes of oncoming swimmers to reach the ladder. As I exited the pool area I discovered they had added fences to keep the spectators from grouping in the way of the running athletes. Unfortunately, this meant that there was a fence between me and my shoes - and my glasses were in my shoes, and I am sadly very blind. Eventually I found the shoes, and the glasses, and hobbled off to find T1.

The bike was definitely my best event. I passed a lot of people (though that might have been because it was a two lap race, and since they were with the earlier waves of swimmers, I was on my first lap while they were on their second). The Triathamom is really a great beginner event, and there were lots of people on mountain bikes while mine is a hybrid, so that also might be why I passed so many people. I had driven the bike route about a week before the race, and it seemed to be a very gradual uphill for about 95% of the way and then a quick downhill for a few hundred yards. Because of that, I expected it to be quite challenging, and it really wasn't that bad. I did stop to see if I could help someone with a flat tire; I was pleased that she could use the tool I bought for the race, because having someone use it justifies my buying it, but not getting the flat tire myself was far less stressful than the alternative.

As I finished the second lap, I was still going really strong, and I thought to myself, This is awesome! I totally want to do this again!

I don't actually run at all yet. For the most part, I don't even really jog. I walk - often slowly, unless I'm on my treadmill with the pace set for me. I hope to write about my journey toward actual running soon. Until then - yeah, I walked almost the entire 5k.

The posters say "My Mom is a Triathalete" and "May the Penguins Be With You"

My final time was 2:44:36.0. On the one hand, I see these pictures of me and understand that many could claim a stark lack of physical beauty. On the other hand - really the only hand I choose to pay attention to - I completed a triathlon! As of the morning of the race, I weighed 126 pounds more than I did when I got married. How many other people could seriously complete a triathlon carrying 126 extra pounds??? I see myself as incredibly impressive! It is so satisfying to know that I Did This.

But, as soon as I remember all the pre-race challenges, I suddenly see this entire experience as a complete miracle, and I'm amazed at it. It's absolutely true that this wouldn't have happened without the work I put into it. But, as any math major can tell you, necessary and sufficient are not the same thing. I am so grateful.

So, the day after tomorrow is my second triathlon! It's a super sprint, it's much shorter than the Triathamom was, and I haven't faced anywhere near the challenges getting ready for it as I did the for this race last summer. And, my family is in it with me! What could be better?

The Miracle of My First Triathlon: Pre Race Report

Last February, I got this in an email from a friend one state over:

I need some sort of goal to reach for, so I am committing now to "compete" in the Triathamom coming up in August. 300 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run.

I looked up the details, and found that the actual race was only about half an hour from my house (but something like 8 hrs from my friend's house). And I thought, I wonder if I could do that.

In my history post, I didn't go into all the gory details of my physical health - like my genetically bad knees that meant I couldn't do any sports in high school and by Christmas of my freshman year in college, I had to have surgery on both knees because I could no longer even walk around my apartment. Or, how I was doing Body For Life but then we got pregnant with our second child, I spent the entire nine months flat on my back in bed and still lost 30 pounds because I was so sick. Or, the summer a couple years after that when I decided to get into shape but didn't warm up well enough and injured my piriformis muscle, and tried to rest to let it heal but instead made it worse by resting and spent the rest of the summer in bed.... Or a couple years after that when I tried to get into shape and while trying to hold a long, slow stretch, I accidentally bounced a little bit and herniated a disk in my back. Or a month after that when I still didn't know what I'd done or why it hurt, and what NOT to do to make it worse, and I herniated a second disk.

In short: Every time I try to get into shape, something in my body breaks. Usually in very bad and sometime permanent ways.

This doesn't even mention the degree to which I've struggled with my weight my entire life....

So, I thought, I wonder if I could do that. I spent several days thinking (and praying) about it, and I felt like I could. So I began.

From my back problems, I had learned that for me, walking is a use-it-or-loose-it ability. Whenever I don't walk, I find myself in severe pain and once again in bed. When the 2011-2012 school year began, I was busy teaching at a new school (we had moved about a month before) and didn't have time for exercise. Soon the pain was back and I knew the only way to stop it was to walk. So, I tried to walk 20 minutes or 1 mile each day, whichever was more. This meant that when February 2012 rolled around, I had been regularly exercising (at least to some small degree). When April came along and I pulled out my bike, I discovered that a mile was all that I could do comfortably and the mile and a half from home to work was really challenging. So, I gradually built up my distances from 1 mile to 3 or so walking, and from 1 mile to 3 and then 5 and then 8 and then 12 and then 15 or more biking. (This increase was gradual from April until August. I'm the tortoise - I really don't do anything quickly, in part because I don't dare do anything quickly.) All the way through my training, my biggest fear was injury. Every time I tried to get into shape, something would break, and I would fail.

It's not that I have a low pain tolerance, or that I give up on things easily. My first baby was 57 hours of labor with no drugs. Enough said. (For everyone, I think that childbirth takes you to the limit of your endurance; I asked for the epidural about half an hour before she was born, and even though I never received the epidural, I hope I don't ever criticize those who choose to get one.)

So, I was scared of injury, but I trained steadily all the way up until the beginning of July. Then, my family went on a week long camping trip! And, when we came back, I got thrush! (You aren't supposed to get that with a half way decent immune system, but somehow eating camp food and not sleeping for a week and trying to train for a triathlon seems to have done something to me...) And then I got one of those lay-you-out-in-bed colds! And I think there was something else in there... anyway, July training didn't really happen.

Kids sleeping in the tent

So August came, and I was 12 days away from my race, and I was hoping and praying that I had trained well enough to be able to complete it.

And then, I walked out into my front yard. I was barefoot, and it was about midnight, and I was trying to find the sprinkler box to turn off the sprinklers. (Before we moved in, we think that someone used a riding mower and broke the cable line between the sprinkler control box on the side of the house and the box in the middle of the yard that the water actually goes through right before being sprinkled onto the lawn. So, to control the sprinklers on the front lawn, you have to walk through the water and bend down in the grass to turn them off....) I found the box! By stepping in it! And I tore a small piece out of my foot! The emergency room doctor warned me that every time I got my foot wet, I was would risk infection, but she said that if I was very careful up until the race and after the race, I could still go for it.

So, we got home at about 3 am, and the next morning we discovered water across the basement floor because the water heater had gone out. The most ironic thing about this was that, since I couldn't get my foot wet, I couldn't just shower at the gym.... Fun times! 

It was at this time I discovered penguin duck tape. I used it when wrapping my injury each day, and it made me happy.

I took a couple days off, and then biked and walked again, searching for signs that I could still complete my race.

Eight days before the race, I hadn't washed my hair in four days and I was desperate to have a clean head. (Thankfully, we did have a new water heater installed by this point.) So, I draped my foot over the side of the tub while trying to sit upright and periodically pouring bowls of water over my head. I'm not a particularly graceful person under any circumstances. Nor am I a thin, or especially flexible person.

The next morning I woke up and I could not walk. I had to use crutches to make it the 20 feet or so from my bed to the bathroom, mostly dangling my legs and hanging from my shoulders while using my feet only minimally for balance. By washing my hair the way I had, I had put my back out again.

But I've put my back out before, and doubtless I'll put it out again, so at least I knew what to do. I took 800 mg of ibuprofen and laid down in bed for about 20 minutes, and then I walked for about 3 minutes. Then I laid down again, and then I walked again. I did this as much as I could, and by late afternoon I could walk very slowly and carefully without leaning on the crutches. That night I got on my treadmill and, holding onto the sides, I walked for about 40 minutes.

I was careful, and walked slowly but surely, and eventually the week passed and my race arrived.

Exercise Update

I've had a few really challenging weeks. The weekend before Christmas I came down with a bad cold. Then, the day after Christmas I was back in bed, and the day after that when I went to the doctor, I was told not to exercise for a week or more.

That's been more than two weeks ago, and it's taken until the last few days to feel like I was really back into it again. For Christmas I got Wii Fit (and the balance board to go with it - Hooray for pre-loved from Game Stop!) and Zumba Fitness Core (also for Wii). It was really helpful to be able to pull those out - especially Zumba - at 9:40 at night and get a half hour of cardio in last Friday.

Saturday I met with my personal trainer. I basically skipped all of my weight lifting for two weeks, and when I went back, my upper body was a little sore (not too bad) but my lower body wasn't sore at all. So, I asked for a harder lower body workout. And I got one. I'm finally getting over the soreness today, thank goodness :).

So, today, I worked on Biceps, Triceps, and Deltoids. Saturday I did Lower Body, and then biked some and swam some. Saturday is my second triathalon. It's a super sprint, and I think I'm ready. The really exciting part is going to be watching my husband and children finish. I hope that, afterward, they are as proud of themselves as they were of me when I finished my first race last summer....

(My daughter asked me not to photograph her exercising. I did finally persuade her to change her mind, and but then I forgot to take any pictures of her! ><)