I am Any Body

Today, I am on a path towards a Half IronMan in 2020. Here is the story of how I got from ‘couch’ to training plan.

In April of 2019, I supported friends who were doing a multi-day long distance run in Fruita, CO. My support for them consisted of providing water, beds to sleep in, and copious amounts of cheer and amazement at their athletic endeavors. And I was absolutely blown away by the endurance and spirit of these two ladies. They had grabbed a hold of something that had always been so elusive to me, in my asthmatic, curvy, and sluggish body. These two could run, bike and swim for hours.

Not one to make changes easily, I followed their training with amazement for a couple of months, wondering how I could possibly do something similar. I did some hiking with friends and family, and always was disappointed and overcome with self-pity and embarrassment at my slowness. It would take me so long to catch up when we went hiking. Looking back, nobody but me was that hard on me. I was my own worst critic. I know now that inner critic is the biggest factor that holds me back from being my best self.

Here I was, in my mid-forties, fat, out of shape and i KNEW there was something to be done about it. It just took a couple of good examples to show me that great things happen one step at a time.

So, I joined some online running groups, where I could lurk and learn. And I bought new running shoes – which may have sat in the closet for a few weeks. I overcame each hurdle that came at me. My only goal was ‘getting fit and moving more.’ First, to build space in my day to work out, I made myself just get up and go outside in the morning. Then I turned going outside into walking around my cul de sac. Soon I was jogging a little… about 2-3 days a week.

By June, I was ready to kick it into another gear by setting a goal and making a plan to get there. The GOAL: I signed up for a local Sprint Triathlon in September. The timeline gave me just about 14 weeks to train. I bought Jim Friel’s book, Your First Triathlon and modified his training plan to make it my own. Don’t laugh! This hand-written calendar is what spoke to me. I took the plan from the book, changed the start-day of the week and put it in my own writing. It’s glued to foam board and will live on my office wall for many months – until another one replaces it!

And with the plan before me, I put my head down and just did the work. Day by day, with shuffling on some days and a few bumps on the road, I did the work. By September, I was ready to finish my race. Finishing was my ONLY goal. Never did I let myself think about how fast I might be, or of coming in anything other than last. Last place was fine. Intentionally, I was doing a sprint triathlon that was run concurrently with an Olympic length triathlon. That means that even being the last finisher in my race, I was not likely to be more than twice as slow as the Olympic competitors – so I wouldn’t be last on the course.

Race day was everything I had hoped it would be. In spite of late-race rain and a thunderstorm, I finished. My darling husband carried a my things and provided cheer and emotional support at every transition. I definitely had tears at the finish line as he hugged me and told me ‘Good Job.’ The experience was enchanting and amazing. I am SO proud of myself for doing the work – day by day – to meet the goal. And I’m hungry for more.

A bonus outcome of doing this September race was that all of my fall hikes were much easier, and now I can keep up with most people on a normal hike. I am so EXCITED about who I am becoming. Now I am interested to see how far this body of mine can go. I will never be fast – but now I’m relatively certain that I can go long, with proper training.

This Blog will capture the next part of my journey – from that first sprint triathlon to a Half Iron Man triathlon in October. There will be at least 2 sprint triathlons in 2020 and some other races are on my plan as well. I plan to focus on things that help me train my MIND as much as my body. Doing the work to train the body is the easy part – putting in the reps, tracking the numbers, collecting data, and modifying to stay in track is just ‘crunching’ the numbers. However, doing the work to keep my mind engaged, encouraged, and to avoid sabotaging myself with too many rest days will be the HARD work.

Stay tuned for more of what that turns out to look like. It’s bound to be some kind of an adventure.