Creaky, stiff, and old...Not them, the mom!

The title to this entry sums up the way I feel today. Yep. I'm old. No matter how I try to fight it, I'm still old. My body feels creaky when I take the first steps out of bed. My neck aches when I turn it too quickly to see if there are cars coming in my direction as I turn the corner. My butt-pardon the French-is sore - way too sore to be my butt cheek! My body doesn't move the way I want it to move. It doesn't turn, run, flex, or stretch the way it did when I took it for granted 5 to 10 years ago. Hmmm. I'm old.

I signed up to do a "triathlon" that our ward is doing. No, it's not that type of triathlon - I know you were raising your eyebrows when you read that I signed up for it...It's a triathlon to be completed during the course of 2 weeks. Whew! Well, of course, due to my competitive nature with myself, I decided to do the full Ironman category. Make that Ironwoman! I figured I could run 26.2 miles during the course of a week no problem. I just run through the pain in my derrierre and stretch, take a little ibuprofen, and go for it! This will be the easy part for me. Now, there are 2 more parts to this "tri" thing. That's right, I have to swim for 2.4 miles and bike for a mere 112 miles. Yep. I have a bike that has zero gears and is meant for taking me to the snow cone shack with the fam. I don't think that it is meant for 112 miles of riding. It will have to do though. It's cute and it gets me where I need to go - all 112 miles of it. The last part - you got it - swim. Bill and I have a joke between the two of us. We like to tell people that "we don't swim far but we sure swim deep!" That was too true today when I took my ambitious self to the local pool to put down some laps at lunch. I grabbed Lindsay's goggles, put on my adorable one-piece suit, and headed out. First of all, I felt panic when I arrived at the pool. Panic because the swimmers who were doing their lunch hour workouts were swimming the ENTIRE length of the pool! And they were good swimmers, too! Freak. I, being the naive person that I am, somehow thought that the lap swimming would consist of swimming across the pool in the OTHER direction. Like my kids have to swim to pass the swim test. Nope. Farther. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. There are lifeguards watching to make sure that 40 year old wanna be triathletes can make it down to the other end of the pool before going under. Ok, I thought, I'm gonna do this. I easily got into the pool and faked my confidence; after all, I did have nice goggles and a one-piece suit on! The second stroke I took left me with a pain in my neck. Yes, you heard right, not the second lap, but the second STROKE of my arm. I continued to fake the confidence I wanted to exude by continuing down to the deep end. It's deep. Like 10 feet deep. I choked on some water that rudely made its way into my mouth as I was gasping for air near the diving board and gratefully grabbed on to the wall. I kept wondering if the lifeguard at the other end of the pool was laughing inside due to: a) my lack of style in the "freestyle" b) my near drowning by the diving board, or c)the fact that I actually made it to the other end...I'll never know. I decided to do the breast stroke to the other end. Pain in my neck again. Ow, it hurt when I ducked my head under, and I didn't like how deep the pool was in the 10 feet deep area. I tried to think positive thoughts and not keep my head under the water for too many seconds. By lap 14 - yes, you heard right, I "swam" 14 laps - I was quite exhausted, my neck hurt, and I had a belly full of water. I exited the pool shakily climbing the ladder and missing the second step. More comedy for the lifeguards, I'm sure. As I took some time on the lounge chair to compose my tired body, I realized I swam 700 yards. Wow, only 900 more for one mile, then 1600 more for 2 miles. Hmmm. I know this much. I am going to be very careful in my critiquing and criticizing of my children's performances when they participate in their swim meets.

Swimming is hard stuff and I have to choke, breathe, swallow, and try not to panic all over again tomorrow.

I think I'll go for a run!