The months have indeed flown by and here I am facing my first triathlon in a mere 3 days. Training has gone well. I have missed days, overtrained, gotten sick and hurt myself. Fortunately, this has not been the rule but the exception and I have been working hard. I have learned so much about my endurance levels and fitness, yet feel completely lost as to what to expect on race day. There will no doubt be a long entry in here about the race provided they aren't searching down the Detroit River for me.
Here are a few things I have learned about myself and my body. Some are standard, some are quirky and all are helpful to me and may very well be entertaining to you.
-Alcohol, even just one drink, makes me crabby and sneezy
-PB&J is a very poor choice of a pre-swim snack. blargh.
-Vanilla Clif Shots are a piss poor snack for any occasion. Fortunately, the chocolate is a decent choice.
-Not drinking enough water with any given carb-laden foodstuff (Clif Shots, Clif Blocks, etc.) results in excessive and painful amounts of gastrointestinal stress.
-I am, for the first time ever, capable of running 4 miles.
-Most people who find out I'm doing a triathlon, even people at the gym, think there's something wrong with me.
-I have gained 15 pounds and have had to buy new clothes. Bigger ones. While you can rest a coffee mug on my perky ass, my abdominal area has been refusing to relinquish adipose tissue as quickly as the rest of my parts. This is normal, yet irritating.
-Some of the things I have overheard the trainers at my gym tell clients are unhelpful and even downright dangerous, but there will be many forthcoming entries about that.
-My 1RM for the lying leg-press is 350 lbs. I may not be able to keep up with you if you're running, but I could kangaroo-kick you from here to Canton. Or rupture many of your internal organs in the attempt.
So, the quest continues. After the triathlon, I'm really excited about getting to the gym and getting back to heavier weight training and building some muscle. While my endurance has vastly improved over the last three months, my body is still the same shape, albeit a little thinner.
Will there be another triathlon after this one? I'll let you know after Sunday.
Showing posts with label triathlon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label triathlon. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
I'll tri in 2010...
2010 is off to a roaring start. Actually, it's more of a terrifying start, but I kind of did that to myself on purpose.
Over the last bunch of years, I have watched my weight slowly go up and my level of activity decline. My transition from a waitressing job to a desk job and quitting smoking didn't help matters, they were very good ideas and moved me forward to better things, but weren't great news for my waistline. Although it was a slow process, I was startled to wake up one morning last year to a much doughier and less fit version of my person. In fact, I am perilously close to technically being obese.
My attempts to exercise it off and eat better can be best described as a stutter; nothing really consistent or routine and my food intake has suffered from my impulsive leanings. The mindless eating on the couch, standing and chatting while eating, and overly generous portions, made all my clothes too small.
Most of my childhood, through school and well into my adulthood was full of activity. I was on a swim team for years as a kid. Even as a smoker, I would exercise, take walks, go dancing 4 nights a week and spend a lot of time outside. Once I quit smoking, I started cycling to distract myself from the nicotine withdraws. I would ride for sometimes hours each day, commuting everywhere I wanted to go, mountain biking every chance I got and taking midnight rides alone through Seattle (Once I hit a cat while riding down a hill at 1:30am. It lived, but is still one of the most horrible experiences of my life). Even living in Chicago I commuted by bicycle, drivers gave way and there was grudging acceptance from both sides to live somewhat respectively, if not harmoniously with each other.
Landing back in Southeast Michigan was like landing on a comfy couch in front of the TV. My bike outings got shorter and happened less and less. Riding a bike in the Motor City is heresy and drivers tend to take it upon themselves to right the evil wrongs of cycledom by making it difficult and extremely dangerous to ride the streets. They aim for bikers and make no bones about it. There is little respite away from the concrete, save a few parks in the metro Detroit area overrun by throngs of macho weekend warriors getting their ya-yas out who will draw blood of you get in the way. My activity level plummeted, my intake of bad food and alcohol increased and I got fat.
I have always loved athletes. The Olympics are one of my favorite events in the world, especially the Winter Olympics. Athletes amaze and inspire me, how the body moves is magical to me. Watching people push the boundaries of their whole being to run a little faster or jump a little farther is an amazing thing to watch. The possibilities are consistently being pushed farther and farther. As a kid I would dream of being a professional athlete more often than I would fantasize a life as a famous singer or actor.
I am currently pursuing a degree in Exercise Science. I am lucky enough to have professors who nerd out about the human body more than I do, so learning the physiology of ATP production and the chemistry of the Krebs Cycle is a privilege and a delight. Their fascination of the human body and their experiences of the athletes they've worked with fuel my fire to learn. To go into Athletic Training and work training athletes is a dream I might just be able to accomplish. Pretty incredible.
I am working to relate all that I learn to my own body. A few years ago, I separated my body from my consciousness so I didn't have to think about how out of shape I had gotten. I am slowly reconnecting my head to my body and remembering that much of me exists below the neck. I have been wanting to get back to a good state of training so I can run a 10k or go mountain biking with my husband or challenge myself to run uphill for fun again. But I keep stalling out on my fitness plan and then I just spiral to a very bad place physically and mentally.
On New Year's Eve, I decided to flip my approach. Instead of getting in shape to do these things, I decided to set a large-yet-attainable goal and work to accomplish it. I know this sounds ridiculously basic, set a goal and get to it, but I have never been good as setting attainable goals, just the kind that sound good and are kind of vague like "I want to exercise more" or "I want to write". I decided to be specific, so I signed up for a mini triathlon this June. On June 13 2010, I will swim 500 meters, cycle 20 kilometers and run 5 kilometers, all in a row and all on the same day.
I have succeeded in scaring the shit out of myself and now I work out 5 - 6 days a week. The idea of skipping a day is almost unthinkable, I don't want to fail at this goal because I missed a few days of exercise. Maybe this isn't the best way to motivate, but I have to say that it's effective. I have changed my focus from what my body looks like to what my body can do that I couldn't do a few weeks ago. I feel excited and nervous but I already feel stronger and the idea of finishing the triathlon becomes more real. I actually feel like I'm becoming an athlete, which is really a dream come true.
Happy 2010. Go Me!
Over the last bunch of years, I have watched my weight slowly go up and my level of activity decline. My transition from a waitressing job to a desk job and quitting smoking didn't help matters, they were very good ideas and moved me forward to better things, but weren't great news for my waistline. Although it was a slow process, I was startled to wake up one morning last year to a much doughier and less fit version of my person. In fact, I am perilously close to technically being obese.
My attempts to exercise it off and eat better can be best described as a stutter; nothing really consistent or routine and my food intake has suffered from my impulsive leanings. The mindless eating on the couch, standing and chatting while eating, and overly generous portions, made all my clothes too small.
Most of my childhood, through school and well into my adulthood was full of activity. I was on a swim team for years as a kid. Even as a smoker, I would exercise, take walks, go dancing 4 nights a week and spend a lot of time outside. Once I quit smoking, I started cycling to distract myself from the nicotine withdraws. I would ride for sometimes hours each day, commuting everywhere I wanted to go, mountain biking every chance I got and taking midnight rides alone through Seattle (Once I hit a cat while riding down a hill at 1:30am. It lived, but is still one of the most horrible experiences of my life). Even living in Chicago I commuted by bicycle, drivers gave way and there was grudging acceptance from both sides to live somewhat respectively, if not harmoniously with each other.
Landing back in Southeast Michigan was like landing on a comfy couch in front of the TV. My bike outings got shorter and happened less and less. Riding a bike in the Motor City is heresy and drivers tend to take it upon themselves to right the evil wrongs of cycledom by making it difficult and extremely dangerous to ride the streets. They aim for bikers and make no bones about it. There is little respite away from the concrete, save a few parks in the metro Detroit area overrun by throngs of macho weekend warriors getting their ya-yas out who will draw blood of you get in the way. My activity level plummeted, my intake of bad food and alcohol increased and I got fat.
I have always loved athletes. The Olympics are one of my favorite events in the world, especially the Winter Olympics. Athletes amaze and inspire me, how the body moves is magical to me. Watching people push the boundaries of their whole being to run a little faster or jump a little farther is an amazing thing to watch. The possibilities are consistently being pushed farther and farther. As a kid I would dream of being a professional athlete more often than I would fantasize a life as a famous singer or actor.
I am currently pursuing a degree in Exercise Science. I am lucky enough to have professors who nerd out about the human body more than I do, so learning the physiology of ATP production and the chemistry of the Krebs Cycle is a privilege and a delight. Their fascination of the human body and their experiences of the athletes they've worked with fuel my fire to learn. To go into Athletic Training and work training athletes is a dream I might just be able to accomplish. Pretty incredible.
I am working to relate all that I learn to my own body. A few years ago, I separated my body from my consciousness so I didn't have to think about how out of shape I had gotten. I am slowly reconnecting my head to my body and remembering that much of me exists below the neck. I have been wanting to get back to a good state of training so I can run a 10k or go mountain biking with my husband or challenge myself to run uphill for fun again. But I keep stalling out on my fitness plan and then I just spiral to a very bad place physically and mentally.
On New Year's Eve, I decided to flip my approach. Instead of getting in shape to do these things, I decided to set a large-yet-attainable goal and work to accomplish it. I know this sounds ridiculously basic, set a goal and get to it, but I have never been good as setting attainable goals, just the kind that sound good and are kind of vague like "I want to exercise more" or "I want to write". I decided to be specific, so I signed up for a mini triathlon this June. On June 13 2010, I will swim 500 meters, cycle 20 kilometers and run 5 kilometers, all in a row and all on the same day.
I have succeeded in scaring the shit out of myself and now I work out 5 - 6 days a week. The idea of skipping a day is almost unthinkable, I don't want to fail at this goal because I missed a few days of exercise. Maybe this isn't the best way to motivate, but I have to say that it's effective. I have changed my focus from what my body looks like to what my body can do that I couldn't do a few weeks ago. I feel excited and nervous but I already feel stronger and the idea of finishing the triathlon becomes more real. I actually feel like I'm becoming an athlete, which is really a dream come true.
Happy 2010. Go Me!