Tri Like a Mother

On Mother’s Day I got myself to Hunakai Park by 7 a.m. for the third day of the first week of my Honolulu Tinman triathlon training with Try Fitness Hawaii. The company’s focus is training for women. I considered joining other groups, but since I knew a few of the women already involved, I felt less intimidated.

I like to work out alone. I run alone, I swim alone, I ride my bike alone. When I see other groups on their bikes, I kinda feel a little smug about having already done Kamiloiki and Makapu’u hills when they come huffing and puffing up while I’m tucked in and screaming back down. I’m not even lonely. I’m pretty comfortable hanging out with just me. When you ride with someone, you can’t really talk to them unless you get to a traffic light or a safety emergency occurs.

It took the Lanikai Triathlon in April, my first, to get me to reconsider my strategies. I can do all these things, but I can only do them so well by myself. And I learned doing them together is a real bite in the a$$. Form. Processes. Self-talk. Competition. Zen.

My husband can tell me not to slouch when I’m running, but it was KC Carlberg, the woman who owns Try Fitness, who told me that it looked like my foot placement wasn’t quite right, which might explain the perpetual knee pain of my right leg. So on the first day I got some advice on running and swimming, on the second day I got some advice on riding and running, and on the third day, I had to reign in my impulse to break away from the wahine on bikes and kick my own butt. I feel like a filly with potential, reluctant to admit she could learn a few things. But I signed on and paid the fee. Now teach me!

Mother’s Day at my house isn’t what you’d expect. The evening before I prepped all kinds of veggies and steak to marinate and grill. Why? Because I didn’t want to be doing that on Mother’s Day. I wanted to clear the decks for fun. We went to a nearby beach, set up our chairs, brought the SUP and surfboard, and enjoyed the day. There were waves where there are usually none, so it was really challenging for me to SUP, since I do it so infrequently. The girls hung out on the surfboard while I paddled out on my knees, got up for a little bit on my feet, and then paddled back in on my knees. This really kills my right knee. It was just too bumpy for me to feel good about staying up on my feet the whole time. But the day was really pretty.

I went in, gave the SUP to the girls and they hung out in the water with John while I shot pics and gifs with my iPhone. Since it was Mother’s Day, like clockwork, there was a swell. From my chair I watched the baby waves roll in. When I got too hot, I called for the SUP and decided to surf on it. The SUP is 9’2″, 28″ by 4″ and is a heavy mofo of a new board. It’s got padding on it, too. I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers, and the toes would drag when I was trying to get up, but eventually I did. I rode a couple of waves on that monster board. It was sooo hard to maneuver, but the fun of surfing all came back to me.

I realized it had been about three years since I had last paddled out. When I got up on my feet, I didn’t even think about pain or injuries, I didn’t even feel my Achilles tendon that had burst a few years ago. I didn’t even realize that until later that evening. How cool is it that on Mother’s Day I decided it was time for me to start going surfing again?

You know my schedule. OMG. When am I going to do all the things I wanna do when there’s so much I gotta do? LOL. The Hubs just signed me up for the 2013 Hapalua! Yeah, BABY!

I know what I’ll do. I’ll try like a mother to tri like a mother.