Tri-athlete

Last Saturday(May 15th), I participated in my first tri-athlon ever! And it was a thrill!

I am so happy my body is healthy enough to participate. It is healthy enough to train. I am healthy!

I was very interested in seeing how my body responded to the training. I am not a fan of exercise and only do so because its on my list of things to do. I often have a headache and used that as an excuse(even though its a worthy excuse) to not go out and do what I know I am supposed to be doing.

Having a goal of this tri-athlon was what I needed. Several times I went upstairs to get ready to train and looked at my bed, or looked down the hall in the computer room and thought about just sitting.... I couldn't simply because I had a goal that seemed larger than life! I HAD to get my shoes on and head out the door because I, quite frankly, didn't want to DIE on the tri-athlon course!

The break from the kids was good for me too. Thankfully I have a very supportive husband who didn't mind when I took off in the evenings to swim. Or spent my Saturday morning biking. Or listened to me complain of my hip hurting after a run. While out and about I had a chance to meditate, think, evaluate my life. I am thankful for that time- and I need MORE of it!

I had a couple of nights where I couldn't go. My head hurt too bad and I listened to the beckon of my bed. The bad headaches were just as bad as they normally were.

But the daily quiet headache seemed to leave me quicker than usual. This could be from the exercise. This could be the fact exercising(running, biking and swimming) hurt different muscles and I was swallowing anti-inflammatories daily. It could be I just became so focused on my goal that my pain took second shelf.

This past week I came down with strep throat and didn't exercise at all. I wanted to- my body needed it. It also needed to rest. My baby also needed it. She was used to heading out into the world about an hour before we pick up our boy from the bus-stop. She brought me her shoes and tried to get me out of the house at our usual time(Pretty cute if you ask me!).

I look forward to next week so I can get out and exercise some more and continue to watch my body's reaction. I also promise to call my doctor to get my physical so we can start evaluating my headaches again. I also need to decide on my next "event" so I can be goal oreinted with training again!

I am a tri-athlete!

Does knowlege bring comfort?

I get hormone headaches. I am very sensitive to hormones and will get one the day before the day of the beginning of my period. My worst headache in my life was after giving birth to baby #3. Hormone fluctuations are a BAD word.

When I mention this, most people are relieved or excited or assume that its great I know the cause of my headaches. While a woman has hormonal fluctuations all month long, not all of my headaches are because of this. I probably attribute one or two a month to this. And having 3-5 headaches a week, two a month isn't much. Even if I could treat these few period headaches, I still have a month worth of headaches that I don't know the exact cause.

But there is security in knowing why I have a headache. Kind of like a mystery solved(read: Phew- at least it wasn't a stroke!). So I wonder if I knew the cause of every headache, even if there was no solution, if it would give me some sort of comfort. I wonder.

This reminds me of a time in my youth when I told my Dad if I ever died before him, he needed them to open up my brain and find out what the cause of all these headaches were- I wanted him to search for an answer to all of this pain. After talking with him about this subject I decided I wouldn't want to him to look into after all. I believe I will look back on this life from a different perspective and see what God wanted me to learn from all of this pain and that will be enough(Too bad I haven't figured it out yet- maybe that would help the headaches stop?)

And while I love hearing people tell me their reasons for getting headaches and giving me the advice(Wear sunglasses, drink more water, take your multivitamin, lay off the wheat products), I still have to swallow my knee jerk reaction, which is: You honestly think I haven't looked into that one before? Good intentions- I need to take them for what they are: Good. I have learned to smile and nod.