An Epiphany of Tri-mendous Proportions

I guess sometimes when you're tired and frustrated your mind is "weak" enough to let something new in...the walls come down...you don't filter anymore...you just absorb because you don't have the energy to fight it.

I just had a true epiphany moment in all my grogginess. (Is "grogginess" a word? I'd normally look it up, but I'm too tired...so ...you get what I mean so I deem it a word...because I KNOW that's how you define a word, but I digress...)

So I'm surfing around reading more about PF on the interwebs. (I know...like I don't already know everything there is to know, right?) I finally google "cardio exercises for people with plantar fasciitis. (I would like to nominate Google for the Nobel Peace Prize...whoever thought this up was a friggin' genius and has saved my sanity more times than I can count.) I end up on a site that tells me everything I already know. "Don't run. No jumping. Nothing jarring or repetitive on the foot." Blarghity-blargh-blargh. "Swimming and biking are the best options for people trying to recover from PF." *barf*

And then I found it. A tiny little gem in the comments section. This woman talking about the exercises she had to do when she got PF for 2 years. (TWO YEARS?! I'm trying not to even think about that right now.) Anyhow, she had to resort to biking and swimming like the rest of us. And then she pops out the surprise of all surprises (to me anyhow) - "Now I'm 45 and I just completed my first triathlon."

Yes, I just heard all the collective lights switch to the on position.

What is a tri, anyhow? It's a 3-in-one. I hear of runners taking them on all the time to "challenge" themselves. They can run, no problem. They've been runnings halfs and fulls for a while now..it's old hat. But then they have to switch it up and train in...yep, you guessed it -- biking and swimming.

Yes, you just heard me face palm myself.

Did you know swimming and biking are respectable sports? Yea, I did too. Shoot, I friended Michael Phelps on FB, but that might just be because I find him incredibly sexy in a weird-face-hot-bod sort of way. Maybe. I'm not telling. And you know there was that one fella...man, what was his name? Came out with some yellow bracelets a few years back (okay, probably a lot of years back) and I actually wore one. It told me to "Live Strong" and I tried to every day of my life. Oh, yea...that Lance Armstrong feller. Know what his sport was? You guessed it...biking. They even have the race of all races...the NYC Marathon of biking races...the Tour de France.

Why the hell did I never think of any of this before? I mean, yes, I already knew it. It was in there with all the other useless information I have stored (like how the dot over an "i" is called a tittle), but I never really THOUGHT about it.

Swimming is a sport.
Biking is a sport.
They are something you can train for, get better at, and be respected for your ability in.

Just like running, they require training programs and focus driven specific workouts to teach form, technique, stamina, etc., etc., etc.

I'm now realizing what an idiot I am for never connecting these dots before.

I am a runner.
I have PF and cannot run.
Hell, I can't even hardly walk anymore.
To rest my PF and stay active, my cardio choices are basically biking and swimming.

I guess a part of me was coming to this conclusion when I got going on this new gym thing. I loved this place because they had spinning bikes and swimming pools. (Did you just hum the tune to the Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song as well? Just me? Uhm...nothing to see here.)

It's like a light just went on in my head.
I'm not a runner who can't run. I'm not an athlete who has lost her athletic ability. I'm no dog without a home.
I'm going to cross train like a mofo. I'm going to train for the Granddaddy of them all - a triathlon.

Now, don't get your panties in a wad. I haven't looked up tri races or anything. I don't even know if I WANT to do a triathlon. But I know that I have the perfect opportunity right now to train for one. I can run. I know that. I've made some mistakes, but I have the ability (and someone who has that ability at 300 pounds is not going to suddenly lose it when she's 10-20 pounds lighter...which I hope to be through biking and swimming and training like a mofo for my triathlon that might never happen).

So why not test the waters here (pun was totally intended...you know I can't let a good pun go to waste).

I've joined a Cardio Swimmers group.
I'm looking up equipment to buy (hell of a lot cheaper than running shoes my friends...a swim cap is like 10 bucks, goggles about the same...even those kickboards run (HAHA!) under 20 bucks).
I'm downloading swimming workouts and trying to understand swimming terminology (how the hell do I know what the pool measures? Do I need to bring a yard stick with me everywhere I go? When they say 1x200 do they mean yards or meters? Crap, is this going to be as difficult for me as figuring out km=miles? I need a calculator, y'all!)
I'm looking at videos of swimming techniques.
I'm looking up the dos and don'ts and ettiquette of swimming. (I'm guessing you don't say "passing on your left" when half your face is underwater...)

As for the biking...I'm gonna do that darn spinning class if it kills me.
And it might kill me.
I tried a spinning bike at the Greenbrier. Set the thing for 20 minutes...lasted 7.5 before I wanted to find a gun because I figured that death would be much less painful and drawn out. Spinning is it's own form of slow torture....

...as running once was for me.
I just have to break that barrier. I have to find my biking legs. I have to train my body for it.

It might also kill me because it requires a 4am wake up time. Did you know they have one of those in the morning too?! But I'm already trying to adjust my schedule (though last night did NOT help). I can do my first class next Tuesday. And I'm terrified. But every good thing in life I have ever done has terrified me at the thought of it. Falling in love. Having kids. All scary as hell. Going back to school at nearly 30 years old? Friggin' panic-inducing terror. But I did it. And I loved it. And even the things I thought would terrify me, I tried, and found out they really ARE that scary and I really DO hate them? Even then I was glad I did it. So what do I have to lose, really?

Okay, I have to go...I have an imaginary maybe-maybe-not triathlon to train for. (as soon as I get over that word - triathlon...which I can never spell because we say it tri-ath-a-lon...wtf?! It's almost as annoying as people spelling it 'till with two Ls...even though it comes from "until" which only has ONE L. Drives me batty...)