100-Day Triathlon Challenge - Done!

"Okay, tomorrow's day one! A little nervous - can I do this??"

Is what I wrote on the FB wall for the 100-Day Triathlon Challenge Group on Jan 30, 2010, at 10:53pm.

I should know by now that I should never make snap decisions late at night - especially ones that are long-term commitments. But it seemed like a good idea given that I was looking forward to doing some more triathlons this coming season and needed some kind of plan; at the very least a good sound kick in the ass to get me going. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At the end of January of this year, I was not on top of my game to say the least. I was still shaking off the effects of a nasty concussion, I was bummed because I hadn't really been able to work out in six weeks, and I had gained a pile of weight due to the deadly combination of Christmas season and an abrupt halt to the training I had been doing. I was exhausted, stressed, and feeling like I was dragging everyone around me down, both at work and at home. Perfect timing to add another huge project to my overextended schedule! No wonder my supportive, patient, loving husband reacted the way he did...

"100 workouts in 100 days? And your group fitness classes don't count? You're nuts. I'll be amazed if you last 30 days. Good luck with that."

The thing is, I did put some really hard thought into whether or not to start this project...for about 5 minutes. See, I didn't have much time - I had to start sometime in the month of January, and the next day was January 31st. But it seemed manageable: the acceptable workouts for this plan were running, swimming (for a minimum of 20 minutes to qualify), cycling, and cross-country skiing (for a minimum of 30 minutes). It didn't seem too daunting. In fact, it seemed too easy so immediately I set my own personal minimums at 30 minutes for running and swimming and 45 minutes for cycling (I don't ski so that wasn't
an option anyway). What a perfect way to start getting into race shape, lose the pounds I had piled onto my butt over Christmas, and give myself the sense that I was accomplishing something again! It would be easy!

So off I went. I worked out for 4 whole days in a row before the first big bump in the road happened, otherwise known as PukeFest 2010. My eldest daughter Shannon came down with a vicious tummy bug that soon spread to her sister, then (on the same day for added fun) Joel and I. Three days gone without a single workout unless you count trucking load after load of laundry up and down the stairs and scrubbing
vomit off the ceiling. (No, I'm not kidding - Shannon has an extraordinary gift for launching bodily fluids over great distances).
It was day 22 before I was caught up.

By day 28 I began to think I could dance around Joel crowing "I told you so!!" It was starting to get easier and I was actually enjoying it. I was stronger and fitter and faster than I had ever been and my sense of accomplishment was growing. I was losing weight and feeling my energy coming back. This was great! I kept going, occasionally falling behind by a day or so but always making it back up within a week. I had always heard that it takes 30 days to form a habit, and now I knew it was true. "Whoohoo!" I thought. "Somebody stop me! I am 10 feet tall and bulletproof! Yeehaw!"

But then it got harder. Between days 30 and 50, the words 'BAIL' and 'HURTING' and 'SORE' began to appear more frequently in my training log. I kept chipping away though, and every so often I'd have a good day where I would just coast along at speeds that seemed impossible a year or two ago. Those were the days that kept me going...and on the bad days I'd think, "I'll just finish this workout today and if I
feel like quitting tomorrow, I'll pack it in." But then, after about day 50, giving up was not an option. What, was I going to get this far and then just bail? Forget that!

And now suddenly it's done! Today was my 100th workout, and I did it on day 99 - I wanted the grand finale to fall on Mothers' Day: my gift to myself. Over the last 10 days or so I've been feeling pretty worn out and overtrained, but I'm excited to see what I'm capable of once I get some rest. My first race of the year is 4 weeks from today and it will be the first race I've ever done where you can bet that I won't be standing on the beach before the gun goes off, wondering if I'm ready, if I trained enough, if I deserve to be there. 'Cause I did it! Hell yeah!

Starting again, again

I have done it again: landed my butt right back at square one, this time in record time! How did that happen? Especially since things were going so very well up until a couple of weeks ago? It's really amazing what can happen when a serial yo-yo-er falls off the wagon on her ass...

So here we are. I know there are lots, millions, of people who end up back here - I'm not special by any means, however my chosen line of work would suggest that I should probably know better, that I should have this dealt with, that I shouldn't still be struggling. (But there I go leaving piles of 'should' everywhere again and that's not the point. Ha ha.) The point is, I do still struggle with managing my weight (and the whole stupid confidence/self-esteem/self-worth monster that it tends to turn into despite all logic) and so I'm back to blogging in order to put it out there, to face the music, keep myself accountable, and hopefully lend some support to whoever needs it in the process.

The previous entry is a copy of a note I posted on FB just 3 weeks ago. I then dove headlong into a pretty extreme diet/workout plan, thinking that if I could do 100 days of tri training then certainly I could push through 25 days of that, which would bring me right up to race day (which is one week from today). Not so much though, and a combination of fatigue, overtraining, mental burnout, injury, and of course trying to be a working mom sent me into an epic tailspin. I can't help but laugh when I think that with a couple of well-timed rest days I could have avoided this! Oh well. No point in crying over spilt milk though; just have to get pissed off enough to fix it.

Days until Summerside Triathlon: 7!