Health/Fitness Week in Review

Right now this probably seems more like a triathlon training blog. It's not my intent but it's definitely part of my self discovery at this point.

Last week, I told you about my weight loss plan.  It's a little late but today, I want to recap how it's going. We did end up eating out a couple of times last week due to travel and lack of groceries.

My fitness week:
Saturday: Biked 7 with friend (mtn bike)
Sunday: Biked 23 miles with a tri club
Monday: ran 3 and 1/2 miles pushing two year old.
Tuesday: about 2000 m or so at swim practice.
Wednesday: off
Thursday: about 2000 m or so at swim practice.
Friday: 2.5 miles running. 1 mile walking.
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Sprint Triathlon
Monday: swim (one of those keep moving for 40 min. types of workouts)
Tuesday: OFF (appear to be getting ill)

My training actually looks a lot better when I write it out than it did as I was doing it.  My plans are to include group runs, spin sessions, and hopefully a 3rd swim day in the future.  Some of this will depend on the local schedules of local tri clubs.

As far as nutrition, I need to make getting groceries a priority even if I dread taking toddlers to the store.

Weight report
My jeans appear to be fitting better overall. Although tempting when I went to the gym yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself.

On Volunteering for an Event

This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to volunteer for the White Lake Half Triathlon in exchange for a race entry into the White Lake Sprint the following day through a local triathlon club.   This was truly not a deal for me since the scheduling required me to pay for both a wet suit and a babysitter which made the cost a lot more expensive than paying full cost for the triathlon after my children were finished with their spring sports.  Despite the swap not being a good financial deal, volunteering for a race was an amazing experience.

A van dropped me off on a corner in the middle of nowhere on the bike course around 9:30 am and I was a little anxious about spending the allotted seven hours there.  Armed with a sandwich, two large bottles of water and some protein bars, I felt prepared for everything except boredom.  As I boarded the van with other volunteers I was thinking that maybe I should have brought a fully charged Kindle to keep me entertained.  It turns out that my corner was near the beginning of the bike course and by 11:30 am all the bikers had passed us.

Shortly after the last biker passed, the volunteer van came by and picked me up.  We rode through the rest of the 56 mile bike course picking up volunteers, cleaning up water stations, and even picking up a triathlete that dropped out.   It was fun to talk with other volunteers and their reasons for being there.  Some of them had family members competing in the race, one lady was volunteering as a way to keep participating as she recovered from injury, and there was a college tri club that had volunteered as a group.  As we road, we checked out several of the athletes that had stood out to us as we were at our stations.  The ones that had refused water and others that we were concerned about whether or not they were in shape to go the entire distance.

Once we arrived back at the race site, I was asked to help work the finish line.  I really lucked out being placed at the finish line.  When I'm doing a triathlon myself, I don't have the opportunity to see the winner cross the line (or any of the many, many others who come in in front of me) and I'm usually off recovering somewhere when the people behind me come in.  It was very nice to see the first and last people and every one in between come in at this race.

I don't know if it is because the distance was so long, or if it's always like this but watching the emotion of the finish line was an experience I won't forget.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a set of pictures capture it but someone who is a photographer certainly should go to a race and focus only on the emotion of the finish line.

Some memorable moments that I wish I could share with you:

1. The men that came across the line with a kid hanging on each arm.
2. The woman who finished the entire half iron distance after wrecking her bike with road rash covering her back.
3. The many sets of women who stopped before they crossed the finish line and gave each other a big hug.
4. All the people who came across the line holding hands.
5. The coaches who ran across the line with the every day athletes they were training.
6. The man who came back to the finish line to hug the volunteer that had helped him stay on his feet.
7. The woman who was visibly upset and worried when there was no sign of her husband long after she expected him to cross the finish line.
8. All the teams waiting at the finish line to greet the teammates they'd trained so hard with.
9. The spouses that greeted the finishers with admiration and support.
10.  All the cheers and high fives of congratulations.

At one point, someone turned to the college volunteers at the finish line and said "If you think you are ever too out of shape or too heavy to do a triathlon. Don't! Look at all of these people who are finishing the race."  It wasn't an insult. It was a comment of admiration for these people.  It is truly amazing what these people accomplished.

Some people think I'm nuts but I think I want to volunteer again.  Just to volunteer.  Maybe there will be a time this summer when I can do that.

My Painless Weight Loss Plan

The tri-shorts CC wants to borrow

This morning CC, my skinny as a rail 11 year old daughter, picked up a pair of tri-shorts that I purchased two years ago.  My big toe wouldn't fit in them now.

"Hey Mom," she said, "Can I borrow these for my next triathlon?"

I looked over to see she was already trying them on and they fit perfectly.  Was I really that thin two years ago? I'm sure I stretched them out a little more than she did so I probably wasn't THAT skinny but it is a painful reminder of the 30 pounds I gained while pregnant with B that I never lost.

I used to dream of being one of the women that came out of pregnancy thinner than I went in but I always had a minimum weight gain of 35 pounds and most of the time it was much higher.    Add to that the stress of life since B was born which ultimately led to me moving to a new city and trying to juggle my telecommuting job with a baby and toddler mostly alone in addition to having two older children with me part time.  I've been easy on myself.  I've let exercise fall by the wayside in the name of being a busy, working mom and while I was still eating some good foods I was indulging in a lot of junk like the time I bought an entire box of Reese's Cups that I was going to give to K but ended up eating myself.

So what is my plan?  I'll preface the details by saying that there is nothing scientific about it as it is based on my previous experiences.

1. I'm tossing out the scales.
We have a scale at K's house. If I went back through the list of things that would be mine, this one of them as I think it was a gift a while ago.  However, I know that when I do things right, I lose an average of 5 lbs per month until I get to my ideal weight.  I also know that the scale causes stress because I appear to be at a weight loss stand still until all at once I lose 5 lbs.  I'm really after losing clothing sizes anyway.

2. I'm going to enjoy being active.
Everyone has or could have a sport that they really enjoy. I enjoy the sports involved in triathlon and that's what I'm going to focus on. I also like to exercise socially as opposed to alone and it must be something that gets my heart rate up. I discovered during my last pregnancy that running and swimming with a low heart rate are also no fun for me.

Now that I know that I'm in this location for the foreseeable future, this also means doing a bit of research to figure out a schedule for workouts that might work for me and how to work that around taking care of my kids.  I asked our local Roadrunners Club about bringing my double stroller to runs and they said they have lots of women who do just that.  Most of the tri clubs in the area seem to do a lot of workouts on the weekends so I plan to attend these hoping to enlist K's help watching the kids.  Our local YMCA offers childcare with membership so any of their classes are good during childcare hours. I am already committed to swimming there twice a week.  Overall my goal is to find a group workout of some type 5 or 6 times a week.

I would encourage everyone to find something they truly enjoy.  Exercise doesn't have to be alone and it doesn't have to be running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or the dreaded walking.  There's kayaking, martial arts, yoga, volleyball, and sports of which many of us have never heard.  Pick something that you are going to look forward to doing and improving.  Keep trying new things until you find the one thing that you look forward to.  In my opinion exercise, should not be done for weight loss; it should be done for the love of the activity.

3. Eating at home.
We are going to commit to eating at home in both households.  This alone has caused a lot of weight loss in the past. Even eating at "good" restaurants seems cause weight gain for me.  As a family of 6, we really can't afford to eat out that often anyway so this should trim more than just our waistlines.  Next, I'm going to severely limit the amount of refined sugar I consume and commit to replacing as much as possible with stevia. Lastly,we as a family are going to commit to lowering the amount of processed foods we are eating.

Little Fish in a Big Sea

image source: http://www.openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/189414/cutie-fish-in-water.png

I have lived in small towns all my life.  Let me tell you the definition changes a lot from place to place.  This is a conversation that took place fairly soon after I got to college:

Friend: Are you from a small town or a city?
Me: I'm from a small town
Friend: Oh, so you are used to this type of place.
Me: Oh no.  There is a Walmart here.  That makes it a big city.

Now, of course, the tiny town I grew up in also has a very tiny Walmart but it's still a tiny town.  It's not quite as much in the middle of nowhere as where I've spent the past 12 1/2 years and it seemed to have more to do as the nearest shopping was only 30 min. away.

Now, I've moved to civilization for the first time in years.  I am truly happy to be living where I am and I'm so thankful that I have the opportunity to be here.  The truth is that  I'm getting a little overwhelmed at the possibilities. There are so many things I want to be involved in and as a mom of four kids with an almost full time job that carries strange hours at times, it's just not going to be possible to participate in everything.  So I narrowed my frequent participation down to the one activity that I know I chose for myself years ago.  I'm focusing on what little triathlon training I have time to get in.

And even with the focus of triathlon training (which in itself involves swimming, biking, and running) there are so many options!  There are at least four separate clubs and I hear there are more.  I quickly eliminated one because it was very expensive with no childcare options.  I attended the meeting of another but I really stuck out like a sore thumb with my secondhand clothes and toe shoes.  I was happy to chose the one where people showed up to dinner in their work out clothes. I am definitely comfortable there.  But even beyond the clubs related classes, coached sessions, and extra rides and runs are overwhelming to keep up with.  Add in that it is  necessary to coordinate childcare for those workouts and it's enough to make my head spin.

Sometimes we just sit at home but the idea that I could go somewhere is wonderful.  For so long the options weren't available.