LAVAMAN! -Part One

Well, here it is, April 5th already. I just can’t believe how fast time goes! For one thing, it’s been a long time again since I posted, but what really amazes me is that I have been training and anticipating the Lavaman race for months…and now it’s done! It’s a bit of a letdown, but it’s a relief also.

When I think back over the months, I guess it’s easy to see how time got away from me so quickly. I signed up for Lavaman in October 2010, only a few weeks before it filled up and they closed registration. I was committed. I hadn’t been running in probably 6 months. I hadn’t been on a bike for over 2 years, and all I had was a mountain bike. I needed a road bike to do this race. I didn’t really know how to swim. I could kind of do the free style, but I couldn’t breathe and do the free style at the same time! What was I thinking signing up for a race that I was not at all skilled to do and was starting at the bottom in ALL areas?! Could I really swim 0.9 miles, bike 25 miles and run 6.2 miles?? I wasn’t sure, but lots of people told me I had plenty of time to train…I hoped so…

So I starting walking, then slowly started running. Fortunately I was able to build up to 3 miles pretty quickly since running is something I have done off and on over the past 8 years or so. Then I joined a swim class for adults to teach me how to swim. I learned pretty quickly that this class was not really for beginners because the coach wanted us to swim 100-200 yards for a warm-up! I couldn’t even swim 25 yards without coughing and gasping for air! I was really out of shape for swimming!! The coach had me hang on to the side of the pool and practice breathing “hundreds of times” while he continued to teach everyone else how to improve their stroke! That was really discouraging and I almost quit the class, but my friend convinced me to keep coming. The coach was really supportive too, even if I didn’t know what I was doing! It was hard to watch everyone else swim so fluently while I struggled just to breathe! I wondered “Why are these people in this class? They’re already great swimmers!” I set goals for myself to be able to do so many laps without stopping by the end of each month. Unfortunately I learned that I couldn’t build up endurance for swimming like I could running. It’s a whole different sport!

I rented a road bike from one of the bike shops just to give it a try. My first attempt was pretty discouraging and embarrassing! I hadn’t been on a bike in over 2 years and I had never ridden a bike with so many gears before, so I didn’t really know what I was doing. I rode for maybe 4 or 5 miles and was working my way back to my house. I was climbing a hill and I just could not make it! I was getting passed by a kid on his scooter!! OK, NOT cool! NOT funny! I had to stop and push the bike up the hill. That was pretty humiliating until I got to the top and realized that I had put the bike in the highest gear instead of the lowest gear going up the hill! That was a good lesson learned! I rented this same bike one other time and it went much better. I decided that I wanted to buy a road bike and I was told that I could buy this one off of the rental fleet. It was nearing Christmas by this time and things were getting busy due to the holidays, so I didn’t act on it right away. As it turned out, my wonderful husband surprised by and bought the bike for me for Christmas! We moved on January 1st, so the bike just sat for a few weeks before I had a chance to use it, but finally, about the second week of January I went for about a 10 mile bike ride. It was great! I loved it and it wasn’t work at all.

I felt like my training was beginning to come together. I was running 2 days a week, swimming 2-3days a week (one day was lessons) and now I could start biking! My swimming was still slow, but by this point I could at least breathe. My technique was still awful and I still had very little endurance, but I was trying! I didn’t like to practice swimming. It was really hard work for me and not fun at all. I had to force myself to swim because I knew that’s where I needed the most work. I kept doing something wrong with my stroke and I would end up with tight muscles in my neck and shoulder. I was getting regular massages and going to the chiropractor, which helped but usually only until the next time I swam.

In early February I got aero bars put on my bike. Aero bars are the handles on the bike that you rest your arms on. I thought it would make the ride easier and help me to have less numbness in my hands. Well, the first time I used them was a couple of days after I did a short swim and running race. The swim was really hard for me even though I used my fins and snorkel gear. I think I did something to my shoulder and then by using the aero bars, I really injured my neck and shoulder. I didn’t have the aero bars adjusted correctly at first and I kept having to lift my head a certain way to see where I was going and I think since my neck and shoulder were already inflamed from the swim, the bike ride just did me in. I ended up with pain and tightness in my neck and shoulder for about 3 or 4 weeks. I couldn’t swim very well and I couldn’t bike either. During this time, I focused on my running. I was feeling pretty good about it and was able to run 5 miles pretty well.

At the end of February, I was finally able to bike again. The first time back, I rode 10 miles and it felt great! I was so excited to be back on the bike! Unfortunately, this same day I sprained my ankle doing something totally unrelated to training! It was like half of a baseball sticking out from the side of my ankle. It was awful!! It was only 6 weeks from the race and all I could think about was after all this time and training I wouldn’t be able to do it!! But with lots and lots of ice, a brace, massage and chiropractic, I actually healed up pretty quickly. Well, not completely. I’m still dealing with achiness and swelling, but I was able to be back on the bike after about 1-1/2 weeks and running after about 3-1/2 weeks. Fortunately, those two sports came together OK for me. I was never real fast in either, but at least I felt like I could complete them without too much difficulty.

Swimming, on the other hand, was a completely different story. I just could not get it to come together! I struggled through each training session. Honestly, I probably didn’t work as hard as I could have, or should have, but when you’re doing something you don’t enjoy and don’t want to be doing, it’s really hard to give it your full effort! I swam in the ocean a few times and each time I chickened out because the waves were too high, it was too rough, I was tired, my goggles fogged up…you name it, I thought of it! I had one relatively successful swim in the ocean about 2 weeks before the race. But unfortunately I follow that with two not so successful swims! I attempted to do a training session with a group of people that my friend knew. They were doing a half-Lavaman, and I thought it would be good practice. I realized very quickly, but too late, that I was WAY out of my league training with these people!! They took off on the swim like rockets! I couldn’t keep up, I panicked, I was sucking in water…it was so bad! I still tried, but I only swam about half the distance that they all did. Then we biked. I was slow compared to all of them, but it went OK for me. I didn’t run since I had just run 6 miles the day before and wanted to give my ankle a rest. I followed that adventure by having another training session in my swim class. The coach took out all of the lane ropes to make the pool like the open ocean. We had to practice swimming around buoys like we were in the race. Well, that was another disaster! I got passed by everybody except one person, I again panicked, I had to stop because I was sucking in water and coughing, and still my endurance was just not there! This was only a few days before the race…how in the world was I going to do this!??? What was I thinking? Did I really think that I could do this? Why am I not better than this after all this time? All of these thoughts swirled around in my mind the rest of the day. I left that training session nearly in tears.

Stay tuned for Part Two coming soon…until then…aloha!