Things You May Not Know About Me (Bonus Edition)

If you've been on Facebook lately, you've seen the thing going around where someone gives you a number and you post that many things about yourself that not everyone may know about you. But not all of you may be friends with me on facebook and some of you stalwarts may not even be on facebook at all.  I know. 

 So, I am reposting the 8 random things that people may or may not know about me. And then, as a BONUS for those of you that already saw this on my facebook page, I am going to give you some extra stories that you may not have already heard!! So keep reading, you won't regret it!

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  Alright I was given the #8 so - 8 things people may not know about me. I've made a lot of new pain buddies and many people who have only known me since all of that started so there are some things that people may not know about me before all that started such as: 

1. Right as my pain was starting I was training for and completed my first and only sprint triathlon. I miss really exercising. 
2. I read approx 100 books a year on average and I will read books about just about anything.
3. I've written in over 50 journals.
4. I birthed 3 of my 4 children naturally and breastfed for a total of ... approx 6 1/2 yrs - lol.
5. I never figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was interested in too many disparate things. This still really bothers me. I'm a stay at home mom, which is what I really wanted. And now I am mostly bedridden with pain anyhow. But if I wasn't those things, what would I be? I don't know.
6. I consider myself a half expert in ultra marathon running since my better half is an ultra runner. It's a funny thing being a spouse of a crazy person like that. 
7. I play the violin but it's another thing that is aggravated by the facial pain. I haven't really been able to play.
8. One thing I love that not many people know is bread making. In another life I think I'd like to live in Germany and own a bakery. Yummm.

One thing I learned when my older sister did this on her facebook is that when she and I were quite little (I was 1 or 2, and she was 4 or 5), my parents apparently picked up a hitchhiker and had him sit in the backseat with us. He proceeded to threaten my sister and I with a knife to rob my parents or something. My sister remembers this happening to her. I obviously do not - but I'm still kind of disturbed to learn about it.

Another thing that happened to us when we were very little is that my mom was traveling alone with us by train to visit relatives once and when the train was crossing a bridge over a river it crashed and tipped over and everyone had to walk along the windows to evacuate. I was a baby and so my mom was carrying me. My sister was 3 yrs old and my mom was holding her by the hand. This was in the middle of the night, so it was dark and she could only hear the river rushing below them. I imagine this must have been terrifying.

One thing that I do remember happening when I was little was when we had a copperhead snake on our back patio. This must have been in the somewhat early 80's. Our neighborhood had it's own police force so my mom called the police and the officer came to our house and blew the snakes head off with a rifle. I'm not exactly sure why this was the best course of action, but it saved the day!

We had a lot of snakes around our semi-rural neighborhood when I was little. I remember a time when I was riding my tricycle around my driveway, I must have been around 3 or 4, and I came around to the front of the house to our sidewalk and there was a huge black snake in the middle of the sidewalk and it reared it's head up at me. I have no idea what kind of snake it was but I was absolutely terrified and I just jumped off my tricycle and ran away.

It seems that we also somehow had snakes that got into our basement somehow. I don't know how it happened. Mom? Dad? Someone might be able to tell me how we got snakes into the basement. It might have had something to do with flooding. I'm not sure. But then I developed quite an irrational fear of having snakes in the basement. I had nightmares about it for years.  In fact, it's entirely possible that this didn't really happen and it was all just dreams but I really hope that's not the case because that would be really freaky.  I really think it did happen once and that's what started the nightmares.  And my new neurologist is also a sleep specialist and he asked me a lot of questions about my sleep and dreams history and he says that it's really not normal to become confused between what is real and what you have dreamt. So. Yeah.

I also had fears of seeing Giants looking at me through our second story windows. No idea why.  And tornadoes.  I had a huge paranoia of tornadoes. I had heard that they sound like trains so I would lay in my bed at night, listening to the wind and straining to hear if it sounded like a train approaching, my heart pounding.  I also slept on the top bunk of a bunk bed and I was so afraid of a tornado coming, I would move to the floor to sleep, because I thought that if our roof blew off I'd surely be the first to go with it and I didn't want to get blown away by myself.  This was when I was about 9 years old. I know this kind of fear is developmental as children learn about the world and become afraid of all the bad things that can happen but I'm not sure if all kids are as afraid as I was or for as long as I was. I don't really know.

Anyway - so hmm there's an interesting collection of stories about me that you may not have already known. Some interesting little traumas I don't even remember which reminded me of some little weird memories and some of my early fears. What were you afraid of as a child? Do you think my fears were unusual?  Do you have things you dreamt that you can't remember if it really happened or not? Do you think early traumatic experiences that you can't even remember can still affect you? 
Anything else you feel like commenting?  Please do.:)

triathamom: run

To continue the timing chip saga, as I was leaving the transition area, I told the people at the beeping mat that I must have lost my timing chip in the pool and I took off the useless velcro strap to show them. One of the race organizers was also there and she said "yep. We won't be able to give you your split times, but we'll still be able to give you a start and finish time." So oh well. That was that.:(

Off I went.

I walked for a couple minutes to loosen up my legs a little bit and then got going. My shins hurt but seemed to feel a little better as I warmed up. Then I ran 10 min, walked 2 to stretch out a little, and ran the rest. I have to say that reaching the Mile 2 mark was pretty amazing! Only ~1 more mile to go! Wohoo!!! At that point I felt like I could do anything! One Mile was nothing! (note: I've never felt that way ever before during a run - ever) ;)

So here I am coming into the finish:

I have to say I find finish lines embarrassing. Am I the only one that feels that way? I kind of don't like having people cheer for me when all I want to do is focus on my ipod tunes and get across that line. Push through to the end. I feel uncomfortable with people watching me as I'm struggling and huffing and puffing (there's a race in Provo that goes along the 4th of July parade route that I avoid for that very reason).

Anyway - I made it!!!!! They handed me my finisher's necklace. I said Hi to Zac and the kids. Then I went to the food table to pig out - because I felt like I had earned it for sure. :)
Bagels, cream cheese, fruit platters, and cookies. Yum.

Me, stuffing my face and talking to my mom:

The kids had their faces painted:

They also had a sign-making station for the families while the wife/mom/daughter/woman was running.

Here's one the kids made for me:

So cute!

And my finisher necklace:

The finish line:

And bounce houses for the kids:

It was kind of a carnival for the families waiting, so that was a lot of fun for them.

Anyway. Because of my timing chip problem, my name wasn't even listed on the results page online which sort of ticked me off. I had to email the timing company and they finally got me my total time and said they'd update the list with my name on it (but it's still not there yet).

So - my total time was 1 hr 54 min and 18 sec.

According to my watch, my bike (12 miles) took 1 hr 06 min

and my run (5K) was 36 min

(which was about what my trainings had been taking me, so no surprises)

and that leaves 12 min for my swim and transitions.

It's possible that the swim (300 yds) took 10 min or so (even though my training swims were about 6 min - grrr). So, that would mean I took 2 min in getting from the pool to bike, and bike to run. But I don't know for sure.

So will I do it again?? Definitely. I think I want to try one with a half-mile swim (~800 yds) because I'm pretty sure I can do that. Maybe I'll even try an open water swim sometime (although finding a wet suit is not something I'd be looking forward to and might not even be feasible). I feel really good about what I accomplished. I'm proud of my body markings (that still haven't completely washed off) - and I will gladly show them off. I am sooo glad I won the entry to this race so I could try this out, risk-free so to speak. :) I'm never quite sure how to sum it up succinctly enough when people ask me "how was it?" (hence the very long post series all about it) - but I am very happy to be able to say I did it. That's something!

I can call myself a triathlete now! hehehe.

triathamom: bike

(getting ready to bike) So, speaking of the timing chip, I took off on the bike and you cross over this mat where your timing chip is supposed to beep. And mine didn't beep (obviously). But there were lots of other people trying to get across and stuff too, of course. So I went back over it again, and the person said "ok, you're good" and I kept going.

Anyway.

The first 6 miles of this bike ride were supposedly all uphill. I'd driven the course - but I drove it backwards apparently, so I didn't get the full effect of this hill-thing that I was in for. Oh boy. The first 4 miles were kind of gradually uphill - hard but not tooooo bad. Then I see it ahead. The big hill. Ok. I keep telling myself, I can do this, I can do this. It was really tough. And I was being passed like the dickens all along the way and had to focus really hard not to be discouraged by it. But I could do it. I was pretty sure I could do it.

But then. I came up around to a bend and what seemed like must be near the top of the hill, and I went around the turn . . . and it kept going. Steeper. And I just about broke into tears (I also may have come close to saying some choice words I don't normally use). I tried to keep going. But about a few hundred yards from the crest of the hill I had to get off and walk it. I have just never felt such incredible burning exhausting exertion and I couldn't do it.

Good thing was, the last 6 miles were allllll downhill!!! HALLELUJAH!! And that felt soooo goood.:) I can't even tell you.

Here I am, approaching the dismount and transition area:


I made it!

[My timing chip didn't beep again as I crossed the mat - but again I went over it a second time and the people there said "ok you're ok" and I kept going, but this time I looked down and ran my finger around the velcro and lo and behold, there was no chip on there. Um. Well. All I really thought was that there wasn't anything I could do about it at this point. So. Huh.
No choice but to just keep going. . . ]


Only the run left to go! yahoo!

triathamom: swim

So the morning of the race, we got up at 5 am, left at 5:30 and arrived at 6 am when the transition area was open. I wasn't sure if I really needed to be there that early, but since I had no clue what I was doing I wanted to be sure I wasn't rushed. Turned out to be a good thing to be there early so I could pick a good spot to put my bike and stuff. As we got closer to the start, people were kind of searching frantically for any open spots for their bikes, and I was glad that wasn't me.

It was chilly and I was nervous, so here I am after I got everything all settled, shivering and saying hello to Zac and the kids who were eating breakfast in the car.

Hanging out in the transition area:

I was reassured as I talked to some other ladies that I wasn't the only clueless one. I had prepared better than some. And even the really competitive looking gals seemed friendly.

Finally at 7:30 we headed into the pool.

Now this is where the fun begins. Do you see this?

This is only a partial glimpse of the 400-something swimmers crowded around the pool. The way this was supposed to work was that there would be 3 start groups of swimmers and you put yourself in whichever group you felt you belonged in: fast, medium or slow. How this turned out was that the person over the PA system just said "fast swimmers come to the front." And there was kind of a rush, push and shove (and lots of confusion over what's considered "fast") as these swimmers went to the front. Then, for the rest of us, there was lots of mingling and more confusion as we asked everyone around us "how fast are you going?" "how fast are you?" "what's your time?" and kind of moved ahead or behind people as we felt appropriate. It was a mess, really. And then there were crowds of people cutting ahead and moving to the front from the sidelines without any sort of knowledge of how fast they were swimming or anything. I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing, but at the end of it all I just kind of got stuck where I was and we were so crowded together it would have been impossible to move to a different spot had I even wanted to, without a whole lot of shoving. ugh.

Here's my cheering section, though. My mom came to support me too, but she's not in these pics.

One thing I hadn't considered as I envisioned how this would all go is how LOOOONG it would take to get all of us into the pool. We were zig-zagging down the lanes, so up and back one lane, move the next, up and back in that lane, move to the next, etc. And they were spacing the starts. And . . . it took an HOUR from the first start time before I was even in the pool. Waiting nervously, trying to stay loosened up, crowded with a bunch of people, and standing for that long was just not fun at all. We'd been standing by the pool for an hour and a half by the time I started!

But then . . . finally . . . I was able to get in the water (yay!!) and we lined up against the wall waiting for our turn to move into the first race lane, push off and start (me in the black swim cap).

I knew as soon as I got started that I was in the wrong "group" (as if there were any actual groups in the first place). I'd barely get going, getting into a good rhythm and pace, and I'd run into someone going waaaay slower. And I'd basically have to stop and tread water until I could pass them (and not run into someone coming up the other direction) or wait til we got to the end of the lane and get ahead of them before they took off again. I hated it.

The good thing was, it boosted my confidence that I really am a better swimmer than I often think of myself. Dang, I was a lot faster than most of these ladies. hahaha.;)

So, it was frustrating. But I tried not to let myself be too bothered by it. I knew my time wouldn't reflect how fast I could have gone. But - eh, oh well.

The worst thing though was that my timing chip felt like it was falling off. K, so the chip was slipped onto this velcro strap that was wrapped around my ankle. As I was swimming I could feel the velcro coming loose and sort of slapping around (which is really annoying when you're kicking). I was afraid I'd lose it completely. So at the end of a lane, I actually stopped and took it off, hoping to reattach it more securely. Big Mistake. It was really tricky getting it back on right in the water. I thought I got it back on though. And on I went (losing more time, though, of course from stopping).

Looking back on it, I can see that I must not have gotten it on correctly. The chip must have ended up on the edge of the velcro strap (seen hanging loose in this close-up of me leaving the swim) and fallen off in the pool.

But I didn't know that at the time.

I got to the transition area and dried off and I was incredibly relieved that it wasn't as cold as I had expected!! So I didn't need the running tights or thermal shirt I had brought with me and I got all set and took off on the bike.

The swim was the easy part for me - besides feeling a little shaky from the nerves, adrenaline, and some frustration during the swim, I didn't feel winded or too exerted. I knew the bike would be the tough part.

stay tuned . . .

triathamom: pre-race

The night before the race, I went and got checked in. Picked up my swag bag with my race tshirt, my timing chip, my number bibs, and got my body markings stamped on me.

Feels official, doesn't it?
Race numbers on each arm:

(this one makes me laugh, because somehow the camera angle makes me look like I have Popeye biceps bigger than my head - hahaha. I am a lot stronger than I've ever been in my life, but I'm not that strong)

And my age on my calf. Never have I felt more proud to have my age flagrantly displayed.

(yep I'm flexing for the camera. Come now, wouldn't you?) ;)


And I gathered up all my gear. Checked and double-checked my list. Changed up my ipod running playlist. Charged it. Made sure I had clean socks. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Phew! All ready to go!

Yikes.

I'm a "triathamom!"

(me, at the end of it all!)

I did it!

YAY!!

Most everything went about as well as I expected - and I'll tell you all about it soon!
:)

tomorrow!

Tomorrow is race day.
(remember this?)

And I am really nervous.
I have a list of 25 things to remember to do or bring.

And today I need to be feeling completely awesome, and nothing but. It's sort of not my natural state - haha - so it's hard work to get myself so psyched up.

Today I need to feel:

confident

strong

capable

prepared

beautiful

amazing

loved

admired

healthy

happy

And anything you can do to contribute to my efforts to feel this way would certainly be appreciated! Seriously.

I am fighting my monsters today.

ohh help . . .

swim bike run: an update

So, some of you may (or may not) be wondering how my training is going for this triathlon I'm going to attempt. Getting into a routine has been a challenge for me because I love my zumba and didn't want to give it up, and I love what Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred was doing for me, so I didn't want to stop that either. Problem was I was already doing those 3 days a week each (combined with walking on my Jillian days). So - I had to cut out a day of each to make room for swimming, biking, and running. Yeah. haha. The Jillian workout has 3 levels so I had been doing each level once a week, but now I rotate through each level but only getting 2 a week. And then, figuring out how to space things out so I'm not completing killing myself was a little tricky, but this is the plan I came up with:

Mon - Run (30-45 min - I don't run the whole time though. It's about half run/walk right now)

Tues - Swim (20-35 min - plus 15-30 min each way travel time to pool, grrr) and Jillian (30 min strength, cardio and abs)

Wed - Zumba (1 hr)

Thurs - Swim (30-35 min) Bike (45 min) Run (30-40 min) Since school has started, I've been swimming in the morning and then doing my bike and run in the evening (since half-day kindergarten doesn't give me enough time to get it all done at once).

Fri - Zumba (1 hr, plus abs)

Sat - Bike (12 miles - which takes me a little over 1 hr) and Jillian (30 min strength, cardio and abs)

Sun - DAY OFF!! Phew!;)

Combining Jillian with my longer bike ride on Sat has been hard so I've missed a couple, but still trying.

What surprises me is how hard the bike riding is for me. That continues to be the hardest part for me and I don't really know why. People talk like riding 12 miles should be a cakewalk - but, man. Of all 3, that is the only one where I feel my muscles just burning and I get waves of nausea and chills at times. Only time ever in my life, actually, that I've ever felt that way working out. I don't like it. I can feel swimming getting easier for me and I love it. I swam on a community rec swim team until I was about 14 and so I'm pretty confident in my technique, at least. I'm just going to do breaststroke in the race since that's the easiest for me, but I've been incorporating more and more freestyle into my laps and it feels good. Really good. Running - well, I've been icing my shins each time and it's never really much fun for me (and sometimes downright painful), but alternating running and walking, I know I can get through a 5K (sort of).

But biking. Ugh. That's the most discouraging part. About halfway through, everytime, I get an onslaught of mental monsters wanting to convince me there is no way I can swim, then do this, and then run. This is also about the point where I'm struggling and fighting up a neverending hill and I feel like I'm going to die. Plus sometimes it aggravates my sciatic nerve which really makes me unhappy. So. Yuck.

Well anyway, yesterday during my bike ride I experienced some exciting firsts. First off, I almost got hit by a car for the first time ever. This guy apparently just decided that the 4-way stop really didn't apply to him. He wasn't even at the stop sign yet when I came through the intersection and he still had to slam on his brakes. Really?!? You weren't already SLOWING down and looking for traffic when approaching a busy 4 way stop and bike trail?!? Idiots have a way of ruining my day sometimes. I yelled at him as I passed and since they had their windows down, I think they probably heard me. Seriously. Ugh. I have a little bit of paranoia about crashing on my bike anyway. Ever since I crashed in 7th grade and shattered my elbow (ask me to show it to you sometime - it's still nastily deformed) - it's one of my greatest fears. And that doesn't even cover the possibility of colliding with a car.

And the other first was getting a flat tire. Luckily I was about 100 ft from my house at the end of my bike ride, but they say it's a good idea to know how to fix these things in case they should happen to you during the race. And now I've got my chance to learn! yay. ha.

Quite the eventful evening ride.

And then during the run, I decided I would share with you a favorite running song from my current running playlist:

Run Baby Run by The Primitives. ;) It seems appropriate. (And the beat is just right for my pace.)
Blogger isn't letting me embed it right now, though, so a link will have to do. Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/G4OjEr8rUxs

Run, Baby, Run. And bike. And swim. ;)

me. triathlon. me. - wait, what?!?

yeah, I know . . . what am I thinking, right?

Well, I am now taking this opportunity to tell you what I'm thinking. Cuz that's what a blog is for. ;)

So, last week in my daily blog perusing I came across a blog giveaway for a free entry into this mini-triathlon. It's a women-only, non-competitive triathlon, where they say that beginners are welcome and that there is an attitude of helping you know what to do. That's the most intimidating thing for me. All the where-do-I-go, what-do-I-do-now, why-am-I-here stuff. haha.

I admit I've looked into the mini sprint triathlon idea before and kind of put it in my "bucket list" in the back of my head. Like, someday when I'm actually in a habit of lap swimming and biking and can run without being injured. (Haha - yeah, right.)

Well, but . . . this triathamom idea sounded almost tempting . . . and for free (!!!!) . . . hmmm . . . and I thought well, I'll just put my name on the list . . . and if I win it, then I'll just try it and see how it goes. Nothing lost, nothing gained. I ran the idea past Zac and we came to the conclusion that with all the back to school shopping etc, we couldn't afford the $70 entry fee anyway. So the only way I'd be doing it is if I won the entry.

And yesterday. of course. I found out I won it (out of about 21 entries)!! hahahahahaha.
oh, wait . . .
That means I'm doing a triathlon. HAHAHAHAHA.
(Nothing like winning an entry to push you into doing something you maybe want to try but probably wouldn't do otherwise)

Here are my thoughts:

- ok. It's a "sprint" distance triathlon. This means (for this race anyway): 300 yd swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. I'm fairly confident I could do each of those independently - but . . . not too sure about about one right after the other.

- oh and the last time I've swam (swum? swimmed?) laps?!? uhhh, I think I went once last summer. uh huh. I'm a "good" swimmer, as in I know how to swim well. But an in-shape swimmer? Nowhere close.

- My bike. I have a cheap-ish mountain-ish type bike. A little while ago I bought a gel seat cover which is a bonus. But I'm just figuring out how to use even use all the gears properly. HAHAHAH. And I don't know how to change a bike tire. And I've gone on precisely 3 bike rides in the last year. (the last one though, I did make 12 miles! whoopeee!!) oh and I probably need a helmet that fits well. The one I have is a men's helmet I think. Ohhh dear.

- But I did run that 5K recently. I'm afraid to do too much running training since I always tend to get injured, but my zumba and 30day shred seem to getting me in good enough shape to run that distance if need be.

- I need good swim goggles. And a swim cap.

- And I need something to wear. I'm not going to be able to get any fancy "tri-suit" kind of stuff. But I either need something I can swim, run and bike in. Or be able to bike and run in my swimsuit. And have something to put over top. Hm. I'm not sure my walmart swimsuit is "supportive" enough to run in, so this will take some thought . . .

- oh and the swim is in an indoor pool. This is another plus of this race, as I will not need a wetsuit and open water scares me a little more.

- also, my running shoes have holes in the sides, along the little toe. Bummer. Add new shoes to the list.

- Anyway - I've got 8 weeks to train and most training guides I've seen basically have you running, swimming and biking about twice a week each. Not too bad. Hard part will be getting to a pool to do laps. We have a summer membership to an outdoor pool, but lap swimming hours are only for an hr in the evenings, and any thunder means no pool (which has been a lot lately). The indoor pool would require paying more but come Sept, that's what I'll have to do. I need to see how far I can actually swim without stopping. That's the first step, I guess.

- But I can do this. Right? Even if I have to hang onto the wall and catch my breath between laps. Even if I have to walk my bike. Even if I have to walk the entire 5K. Even if I come in very last. I think I can do this. That's worth something right? (Say yes, say yes, say yes)

- And . . . if I finish this, then this will be a kind of race that I can say I've done that Zac has never done!!! And that's saying something! (eh, so I can be a little competitive . . . so shoot me.) ;)

WISH ME LUCK!! (I need it)
And I'll take any advice, tips, warnings, etc . .. I need all the help I can get!!