Ironman Bedrest 2012

Ok, I'll admit it, right off the bat.  The more I see my hard earned muscles waste away on bedrest, the more I feel a need to remind myself - and the world - that once upon a time, "I was a big deal" (at least in my own mind).  :)  Call me Uncle Rico from Napolean Dynamite, living in my glory days.  "If coach would have put me in, we would have won State!"

Some of you may be thinking, especially those of you who have bore children, "Come on.  You are growing a baby.  There is nothing more important than that. Consider it an honor."  True.  I agree 100%, and I would do (am doing) everything possible to successfully carry that to fruition.  But humor me just a moment as I drift off to the days when I considered a marathon "just a cool down." 

Just because I have temporarily left the sport of triathlon, it hasn't left me.  Once you cross that finish line and hear the infamous Mike Reilly's booming voice announce, "YOU ARE AN IRONMANNNNN!!!!" something changes inside.  You can't go back to being the person you were before completing that 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. Very few people can truly say they have pushed their body and mind to the maximum limitation of what they can handle and then burst through that barrier to finish the goal they set.  Whether you go on to Kona and win the Ironman World Championship or turn your back on the sport completely, no one can ever take that accomplishment away from you.  It changes your whole mindset of impossibility vs. possibility.  I never got the M-Dot tattoo, but it really is imprinted onto my entire being.  Any challenge I come up against is a way for me to relive that "I can overcome anything" high, and that's exactly what I've been trying to do on bedrest.

The lessons learned from the sport can be applied to any situation.  As I lay around day after day, sometimes I feel like I'm at mile 17 of the Ironman marathon, when I wonder if I can go one step further.  I remember James coming up to me during a rough run at IM Arizona (the one in April 2008, when it was 97 degrees, after I had 2 flat tires and a broken aerobar on the bike), saying, "let's talk strategy."  He encouraged me to forget about how far I was from the finish, but to instead make baby sized goals.  Just keep placing one foot in front of the other.  Make it to the next street light.  Then the next stop sign. Before I knew it, the finish line was in sight.  That's how I have to approach this endurance race of baby-incubating.  Each day is a miraculous milestone. Tomorrow marks another week for baby, The Big 2-7!

Granted, my current brick workouts now consist of an hour on my left side then an hour on my right side.  My max heart rate is roughly equivalent to my resting heart rate, about 80, with an energy expenditure of about 1 met.  But my mindset is the same:

"I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength."  Philippians 4:13

Oh by the way, in one aspect, I look more like a triathlete now than I ever did before.   I'm doing something I'd never do in a race.  I get to wear compression stockings everyday.  Sure it's for DVT (blood clot) prophylaxis, but they sure make me look smokin' fast!

When I get sloppy toddler kisses from Jeremiah and imagine getting the same from this new baby, I know I've won the best title of all. Triathlete, great.  Ironman, even better.  But mother...indescribable.