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.
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Kids sleeping in the tent |
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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!
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| 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.
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