A for Adventure

Well, I made it through my first week of training for a triathlon! I was in the gym training 3.5 hours last week. Which seems minimal when I say that out loud, but it was a good effort on my part. That didn’t include the extra weight training.

Thursday, I was able to do 80 minutes on a bike. I started to tank at the end, about 65 minutes into it but I finished and felt pretty good about it! I know the gym bikes will be different than on the road. I LOVE riding on the road. Dale might laugh at that. I like doing leisurely bike rides -rides with no real hills and nothing too serious. One of the last rides we did that Dale wanted to do was about 26 miles included hopping fences with our bikes and carrying them across overpasses and things like that -NOT LEISURELY. I know this ride won’t be either, but the biking part should come pretty naturally. I hope to get on the road in early spring.

Dale was able to watch the girls while I went to the gym because he didn’t have too much school stuff going on. That was helpful. This week, he will be gone from 8am until 11pm. Makes our days LONG. It’ll be worth it in the long run. I gotta keep telling myself that. It’ll be worth it. Only 3 more semesters for him. Only 3 more. I don’t think this would be as hard if Dale didn’t have to work on top of full-time school. But of course, the “arts” don’t get stipends…only sciences I’m sure. ugh. AND we both CHOSE for me to be home, so I can’t complain all that much right? I am glad we have made that a priority -but it definitely is a sacrifice.

The rest of the this week, I’ll put the girls in the childcare at the gym. Lindy LOVES it, so that is helpful for all. Probably because there is a tv and she can watch it continuously.

Sunday, I had to wait in line for a treadmill. It was SO WEIRD that day. There were more people standing around, chatting it up, than actually working out. I can’t imagine making “friends” there or anything. Weird. (Cindy you can be my friend right?)

So, I was able to push through on a lot of the training this week. The plan said “if you can’t get through the first week use the previous training plan.” I think I got through it. I pushed myself hard.

Eating was interesting this week. Wow is all I can say. After 3 days of working out…my body was freaking out. One day, against my better judgement, I made chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I did. Guess who ate almost all of them? ME. In 2 days. GROSS. My body was clearly feeling the exercise and wanted some healthy food. No more cookies in the house.

THEN, another night, I didn’t want to cook. So I ordered the most fattiest, unhealthy pizza on the market. IT IS DELICIOUS. Ephesus pizza. The chicken ranchero. My mouth is watering as I write this. The better part of me tried to talk myself OUT of ordering the pizza, I even asked Lindy if we should. ha. Well, I enjoyed it while I read my fitness magazine. ironic huh?

I have some fun news to share later this week -something that came in the mail today. SO EXCITED!!! I CAN’T WAIT to tell you about it and of course to use it!!

My three kiddos. They sure do look like siblings. I had to place the girls together because they look SO SIMILAR!

…to a triathlon

Yes folks, I just said it officially. I am the 100th person to register for the Pittsburgh triathlon! I can’t believe I just told the world.

If you know me, you know that I live a fairly sedentary lifestyle. I was very athletic in high school, but I have never done anything this aggressive to not only my body but my mind. I feel like birthing 3 kids is easier than a triathlon.

As I contemplated exercising and trying to find the best solution for motivation, I realized that I needed a goal. Something I could work towards. Obviously my weight is the biggest goal; but having had that time when we were battling infertility, I was exercising 3 days a week, losing quite a few inches, feeling really good but didn’t lose ONE single pound over a period of 9 months…so that is not going to be my only goal -just a perk.

I think a triathlon actually sounds like fun and yet as I registered for the race, I got butterflies in my stomach. Not fun like “I am going to run 26.1 miles” fun, that is just plain crazy to me; but fun like, give me something to work towards and compete in. No, I’m not really in it to compete with other people, I’m in it to compete with myself.

You see, the biggest hold back for me in all of this is the mental part. Today was my first day to start my training and I came up with about 11 reasons why I shouldn’t start.

1. The bed was warm.
2. Ruby would rather see me get her out of bed than Dale.
3. I fell down a few stairs at 6am yesterday morning and bruised my elbow. I probably can’t exercise right?
4. I don’t have a sport swim suit.
5. I should hang out with my family this morning.
6. I was up too late.
7. I was up too early.
8. It was cold outside.
9. I don’t know if I can train all 4 days this week, so I shouldn’t even start.
10. I haven’t made a playlist on my ipod yet.
11. And finally…as I was GETTING into the car, I drove down the driveway and realized it was the “MLK holiday” today…was the gym open? I got out of the car, went inside and checked.

CAN YOU BELIEVE that? I was up at 6am and had all those thoughts about starting my training in less than an hour. It is a mental thing for me. The physical part will be hard, I know that. I am 50 pounds overweight. My knees are rusty. But the mental part is the hardest for me.

My goals were simple in my training. 48 minutes biking, 28 minutes swimming today, and work my abs. So, as I started today, you might get a kick out of all the things that went through my head in the two hours that I was gone from the house.

1. I didn’t eat breakfast. What was I thinking? I could feel my blood sugars asking for a boost. I had to stop somewhere on the way to the gym. What is the only place open at 7am? McDonald’s. I had to stop at McDonald’s. A great way to start my exercising. I basically exercised the half a hash brown and half a parfait calories off…maybe.
2. The gym has a room of about 50 spinning bikes. I hopped on one, adjusted the seat, handlebars. Started. Realized the gear was on twelve. As I’m riding, I’m looking for a gear changer. I don’t even know what gear I should be in…but I should at least know how to adjust it. I could not find it. About 28 minutes into it…I FOUND IT! The lever was between the handle bars and just looked like a hook for my purse. ha.
3. I’m listening to my ipod. It has some pretty bad songs on it. I think maybe 2 of the songs were made after 1999. The one song, I just played over and over again, I’ll admit….was Crush by David Archuleta. Yes, that got me pumped. I don’t know what that says about me. It was either that or Sting’s “Field of Gold”. Ya, not so much.
4. Then my ipod battery went dead. No more music. I was only 15 minutes into my 48 minute training.
5. Then, my “seat” started to hurt. Was I supposed to wear padded shorts? I stood up on the bike for a few spins.
6. A man walks in to use a bike. He chooses one a little too close for comfort. Out of 50 bikes. weird. THEN…he starts making noises while he is spinning and saying things like “come on” and “nice.” The noises were a little discontenting.
7. At about 31 minutes, my “seat” couldn’t handle it anymore. I had to stop. I guess I’ll have to build up a tolerance.
8. Next step, work my abs a bit. No big deal. That part is easy.
9. Now to the pool. Suit on. Asked to share a lane. Took probably 6 minutes adjusting my goggles and cap(?)…I don’t even remember what that thing is called. I was stalling.
10. I don’t know if I am doing the freestyle correctly? How does one know? I taught myself, so I have no idea. I made it down the length of the pool 2 times with freestyle. And that was about 15 minutes apart. The rest I just did brea.ststroke.
11. The pool felt really really good. It was really refreshing at 8:30 in the morning.
12. My elbow hurt quite a bit…when I fell down the stairs, I scraped up my arm trying to hold onto Ruby. I think the water is salt water, so it burned.
13. I watched the 6pack guy next to me…to see how he did his freestyle. Almost asked him to look at my stroke to see if I was doing it right. Decided against that.
14. Forgot my shower shoes. Gross.
15. Is the soap in the shower just soap for your body or your hair too?
16. When I registered for the race, it asked me what division I was in: Athena (woman 150+), Clydsdale (men 180+) or disabled. What does that even mean? What about those women who are 120 pounds? What do they choose. I finished my registering, chose Athena, paid and then went back to see my registration. Then ALL the division options showed up?! I tried to change it. I have no idea what Athena means. Hopefully I didn’t choose “expert level” or something.

You see how fun this is already?! And that was just Day One.

So, you can see, I am not the “typical” athlete who knows what they are doing, this is going to be an adventure. I have friends that run marathons and do triathlons…they always seem to just innately know all these little things. These “details” seem to come easy to them.

I’ll figure it out!

*Update* Ok. So I was a bit harsh and some details were fuzzy. I shouldn’t bash the bio father, I don’t know anything about him. The point is not to bash him but to change the Indian Child Welfare Act that is antiquated.

But, apparently, the adoption WAS NOT finalized with her family and that is why she was placed with her bio father. I still hold true to the fact that she should stay with her adopted family because her father signed away his rights, was not supportive of the mother during her pregnancy and the best thing would have been to keep Veronica with those she knew and loved and not uproot her.

So, I never ever do this, but I’m going to now. It’s my blog. Right?

Has anyone heard the story of a little 2 year old girl, Veronica? She was adopted at birth and has an open adoption arrangement with the birth mother. Beautiful story. The adopting parents were at her birth and they even got to cut the cord. The biological father signed his rights away but the birth mother and the adopting parents stay in contact and share photos and visits.

Well, the biological father just took the family to court and the child was taken from the only family she has known and given to her biological father because he is of the Cherokee Tribe. Yes folks, that’s it. Based on the Indian Child Welfare Act, He still has rights to this littler girl, even though he signed his rights away and hasn’t had contact with her in 2 years -all because she has Cherokee blood.

So, the poor little girl was ripped from her parents arms, shoved in a truck with 3 strangers and driven 1000 miles away from her parents. No transition time, no daily visits from the bio dad for a month until she gets used to him. Absolutely rotten.

Makes me sick to my stomach. I know what it is like to have a child “taken” from you. I don’t even want to think about what this little girl is going through.

Did anyone investigate the father? Anyone look into his past? Anyone inspect his home to see if he was fit to take care of a 2 year old? Anyone make sure he does not have a history of abuse?

Probably not.

What judge in their right mind would close their eyes and make a ruling on an outdated, 1978 law?

So, they are trying to appeal to the Supreme Court. These things take time but unfortunately it looks like they can’t get in until springtime. THAT IS A LONG TIME. So, spread the word. Maybe someone will listen and expedite this court date.

In the mean time, I am praying for my OWN heart that I won’t have such hatred towards that biological dad.

So, you might ask…What can I do? Flood the governor’s e-mail box with SAVE VERONICA! It takes less than a minute!