Triathlon

I may be crazy to take more things on at this point in my life, but I've signed up to participate in a Triathlon. My good friend, Heidi, has become chairperson in our area to organize this event. Her enthusiasm and passion for life and good health are catching, and she's swept up a whole crowd of us in her wake! Go, Heidi! If it weren't for her, I would never have dreamed up participating in this!!! I must admit, that when she first mentioned it to me, I was NOT excited.

Only 1% of all Americans have ever completed a Triathlon. It has honestly never been one of my goals. My most ambitious physical goal recently has been to be able to jog 3.5 miles without stopping. I thought I might someday complete a 5K marathon.

Our church, however, has decided to sponsor a Women's Triathlon and they challenged the women to participate in it to the best of their ability, even if they only did part of one event. When I deliberated and then reluctantly told Heidi to count me in, I didn't know how much training this was going to take! And this Triathlon is just about the smallest one out there. WOW to all of you athletes out there to whom this will sound like a piece of cake:

Our event will consist of:

Swimming 20 lengths (or 10 laps)

Biking 15 miles

Run/walk 5K

I figured the swimming would be the hardest part for me, since I never really graduated from swimming lessons as a child. (biking scares me too, so that will be a challenge) My version of swimming was to never go under water unless my nose was plugged. I got better at being in the water when my family moved to Texas and we had a swimming pool for 7 years. But I've never really swum more than a few laps at a time.

I honestly have never been the athletic type. The only team sports I ever played was one season of soccer when I was 9 years old. I got kicked in the shins repeatedly, and the other kids looked like gigantic monsters to me. I was small and not very fast. During the games, I felt like I was getting beat up. I didn't like it at all, and was very happy when the ordeal was over.

The only other organized sports I played in was Pee Wee Basketball. My Dad would take us kids every Saturday in the winter to these Pee Wee church Basketball practices and games. Honestly, I spent more time on the bench than on the court. I'm not sure I ever made a basket in those early years. When I played, I tended to get my baby teeth knocked out of my head. My accomplishments were dribbling some and learning to pass the ball as quickly as I could if it was ever passed to me!

In school when we had to run races, I was almost always in the last few stragglers that came panting in at the end. My best mile run ever was 8 minutes 30 seconds. My usual score was between 9 and 10 minutes. During Gym and recess, I was usually the last one picked for teams. I didn't let it bother me too much, I just figured it wasn't my forte.

I remember at the end of 5th grade, they encouraged all the kids to try out for the sports teams for the middle school. I told myself, "Why not? How do I know unless I try?" So I signed up for try-outs. I tried out for softball, basketball, and volleyball. I was pretty disappointed when I discovered that I wasn't even put on the waiting list for any of them.

That was the point where I cemented my view of myself: Sports are just not for me! I decided to try choir after that. It was hard for me to be even willing to do anything like volleyball at a family reunion, let alone in any kind of competitive atmosphere. All my experiences reinforced my beliefs about myself: Laura is not athletic.

So speed up 21 years....how do I end up choosing to train to do a triathlon?

Here's some history, skip it if it bores you:

During my first year of marriage, I gained 2o lbs just from not eating healthy!(and not exercising much beyond walking the college campus) This will probably gross you out, but Scott's idea of a Saturday morning treat was to share a dozen doughnuts with me and then fry up a pound of bacon. Eventually I realized that I had to learn how to cook instead of living off of junk food. Then I got pregnant and gained 45 lbs. During this time, I pretty much never exercised. My idea of fun is sitting on the couch all day reading books, not walking around the block. I didn't know I was in trouble, however, until after I had my first baby.

As I got close to delivery, I noticed that my heart was so weak that getting up off the couch could give me heart palpations. Then I was surprised when my post-natal recovery was super slow. I couldn't walk around the block without getting dizzy for about 2 months after I had Christopher. I wasn't loosing baby weight very fast, either. Being 23 years old and overweight wasn't very fun. So I began walking everyday with my sister around BYU. It also helped that I had a neighbor who was very athletic. She's was the type who could run a marathon 9 months pregnant.

This neighbor and I became very close friends, and she was a great example to me. Just from talking and hanging out with her, I became more interested in having better health. She invited me to go jogging with her...ugh...I HATED jogging. But she was fun to talk to and I wanted to see if I could do it, so I went anyway. I felt myself getting stronger. I felt more energetic...man I felt GOOD...and I began to loose weight! I was almost back to my marriage weight, and it was very exciting.

Then I got pregnant with baby #2, but had a miscarriage around 18 weeks. For everyone who knows me, they know I gain a LOT of weight during my pregnancies and carry big from the get-go. It was depressing recovering and healing, and no matter how hard I exercised, that baby weight did not want to come off. So when I got pregnant with Dorathy a few months later, I gained baby weight on top of prior baby fat. By the time I was 9 months pregnant with her, I weighed 205 lbs. That is really big for my 5 foot 4" stature. That is the heaviest I have ever been.

After I gave birth to Darling Dorathy, I felt a strong desire to get control of my life by exercising and eating with more self-discipline. My sister and I now walk/jogged everyday a few miles to and from and then around the Provo Temple. We walked up and down massive hills pushing a double stroller. I gave up my nightly treats of ice cream and ate daily spinach salads instead. And miracle of miracle, it WORKED! I was able to loose 75 lbs in a couple of months. I felt like a new person. I looked like a new person!

During Pregnancy #3 with baby Courtney, I once again packed the weight on, but thankfully I didn't gain as much weight as my previous pregnancies. I think this was the first pregnancy that I started out with being in good shape. I felt an immense difference in my energy level. Still, my post-natal recovery, wasn't the best. I had recently moved to Willamina, OR, and I was lonely and depressed. There was NO good place to exercise. The streets were narrow, filled with pot holes, and in general bad repair. I was stressed out with Scott working nights at a new job, having to keep a screaming newborn baby quiet so my husband could sleep during the day, and having 3 children at home with me under the age of 5 in a town of only 1500 people, and there was NOTHING TO DO!

So, I turned to chocolate. This was the first time I ever really noticed becoming addicted to sugar. I totally used sugar to medicate myself. I was eating it before breakfast...and in between and after every meal. My after-baby weightloss had plateaued...and then began to RISE!!! I totally freaked out about that. I did not want to be heavy and out of shape again! Some family members had heard of the Suzanne Summers Diet, and they were having good results, so I decided to give it a try. I started it when Courtney was 8 months old and I had just moved to Dallas. By the time my baby was 12 months old, I had lost a good 30 lbs! I was back to my normal self. But eating this way took massive self-control: NO SUGAR allowed, and I had to eat fruit separate, 20 min. before a meal, and then I could never combine carbs and fats. Meat and dairy could never meet either. On this diet I spent WAY too much money on specialty foods. It was also getting tiresome to have to make a separate meal for myself every day. My family had no desire to follow my eating habits. So I eventually gave it up. I packed quite a few pounds back on when I went back a normal diet, and of course I went back to eating sugary treats.

With those extra pounds on, I then got pregnant with Angel. I gained my normal 45 lbs, and it didn't want to come off fast like I hoped it would. I didn't start to really make progress and loose weight again until right before I got pregnant with Julianna. Having a great exercise partner was the thing that helped me the most. This pregnancy was really hard on my body, probably just because I was so much older, and had to take care of a large family. After I gave birth, exercise alone did nothing to shed pounds. I found out that I was hypo-thyroid, and my metabolism was very slow. It was also hard to do anything or go anywhere when I had a colicky baby that screamed for 4 to 6 hours everyday. Julianna HATED the stroller.

Last summer I finally began jogging again, and I saw some improvement. Julianna was finally big enough to enjoy the walks. I spent almost a full year entirely giving up Sugar in all forms, and it did help a little. I think I was able to loose about 30 lbs, mostly just from staying away from sweets.

I have been trying ever since to loose those last 10 lbs, and my body has not wanted to cooperate. If jogging 3 miles a day won't do it, what will? I think our bodies like stability and really fight change. You sometimes have to do something drastic to shake things up. I'm sure I could do it If I just poured enough mental energy into the project, but I feel like I'm all used up in focusing on other areas of my life.

So I'm using Heidi's energy to spur me along with this triathlon project. I've gone back to giving up sugar, and I am trying to exercise 5/6 days per week instead of just 3. This time Scott is exercising along with me, and that has been loads of fun! Christopher gets to babysit, and then Scott and I get our "us" time while jogging/biking/swimming. They are some of the best dates we've ever had!

When I capitulated and agreed to join the Triathlon, I realized, "This is it!" This will be the venue to help inspire me to change. And with this being such a huge goal for me, I figure, if I can do this, I can do anything! Maybe after completing this triathlon, I'll have to realign my paradigm. "Laura is an athletic Mom who can do hard things!"

Who knows what will be next? Cross country skiing? A Biking Trip? Backpacking? White water rafting? It's fun to do something new, and feel the possibilities of what I could learn in the future open up before my gaze. My long term goal is to be healthy enough so that I can participate in athletic types of activities with my children when they are all older.

My short-term goal is just to be able to finish this triathlon. I have no desire to get a "good time" nor to compete. I hate competition.

I'm going to have to be careful and not push myself in my training. I did my first swim last week, and made the mistake of doing too much. I ended up with a nasty migraine that night as payment. It has scared me to the bone. I never want another migraine!

My current workout schedule will be:

M- walk/swim

T-walk/jog 3 to 5 miles

W-run/swim

TH-walk/jog 3 to 5 miles

Fri-bike/swim

Saturday-Biking

Am I crazy or what? Wish me Luck!

Here's to better health!