How To Be 70 Years Young

What we gain from training and racing might seem temporary: a finish line photo, a smile, the great feeling of a hard workout, a medal, maybe a PR. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that we are actually remaking ourselves from the insides out. Maybe you can't tell the difference between two people standing side by side. Maybe it's not obvious in blue jeans and sneakers which one of them is the athlete and which is not. But if you looked inside of them, at how strong and sturdy their heart is, how robust their muscles, how supple their joints and ligaments, you would see that one of these bodies is going to last a whole lot longer and do a whole lot more than the other one. And if you could fast forward those bodies a few decades, the differences would be staggering, inside and out.

My mom turned 70 this week. Seventy! I can hardly believe it. A lot of seventy year olds might be content with a  visit from their daughter and grandkids. Maybe they'd hoist themselves off the couch for a peck on the cheek, accept a card or a present. What did my mom want for her birthday? To go kayaking. Yeah, isn't that the kind of 70th birthday you'd like to have some day?? So we loaded up the boats and headed off to the Long Tom River on her special day, and had a great time on this absolutely beautiful little piece of water. 

That night, my sis rolled into town on the Amtrak from Seattle, and she and my mom headed out to the coast to camp for a few days. I joined them on Friday night, and Saturday morning saw us all standing on the shore of one of my favorite little bodies of water, Cleawox Lake. My sister and I pulled on our wetsuits and swam (yes, insanity does run in the family!) and my mom kept us company in her kayak. We followed that with a hike around the lake. I love that my whole family is so active, so vital and alive. I love that I can share this with them, that my parents gave us this love of the outdoors and of challenging ourselves.  

More than anything, I love my mom. Happy Birthday Marsha! 70 Years Young.

First Ever Women's Relay, and The Best Inspiration Yet!

When I first started swimming with the Masters at our pool, I was the only woman there. Day after day, year after year, it was just me and the guys. Now don't get me wrong, I swim with a really fun group of guys. The best, really. But something was missing.

As a coach, one of the things I most hoped for was to increase the number of women in our program. And in the past few years, our women's participation has picked up steadily until now our lanes are a good mixed bag of guys and gals. But still, many women don't come to the meets - some are triathletes, many have young children, some may be intimidated by competing when they're just starting in Masters swimming. So this year, we finally had enough women at the meet to field a women's relay team, and I can't tell you how exciting that was!

Here we are, ready to swim the Medley Relay and the next day the 200 Freestyle Relay (we went under 2:00!), we had such a good time. What an awesome and strong group of ladies to swim with.

Luckily, the last day of the meet went much more smoothly overall. I avoided chocolate milkshakes altogether, and I turned in some times that I was much happier with. A 6:33 for the 500 was 11 seconds faster than last year's time. That's more like it!

But although the fun of the weekend meet was drawing to an end, the inspiration was far from over. To anyone out there sitting on your couch and thinking you can't do something like this, let me introduce you to the 89 year old lady who swam the 100 IM (that's butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and crawl stroke). Check this out!

In order to not DQ (disqualify) yourself, you have to swim these strokes according to a strict set of guidelines, and this lady can do it. Wow, if that doesn't  inspire you to do your very best at everything, I don't know what will. All I can say, is I hope I'm doing this when I'm 89.

What If???

What if I am training my ass off for this half-Ironman and hoping for a PR but I'm actually slower than last year? What if I'll never have a PR again? What if I've reached that age where all I have to look forward to is getting slower and slower? What if I've had my last top-10 overall finish ever? What if I'm just having a pity party?

I know, the world won't crack and come apart at the seams, I know the sky won't fall, birds won't stop singing, the planets won't stop rotating around the sun. But as an athlete, these are tough questions to face. Somewhere around age 45, we know that we have passed the zenith of our athletic abilities and, as the saying goes, it's all downhill from there. Many athletes start later in life, and are just beginning in triathlons at this age. For them, they may look forward to many years of increasing fitness and speed. Other athletes start young and by the time they're my age they're too injured or burnt out to continue. For me, this is my 24th year in the sport and so by now I know exactly what my body can do with what amount of training. Or do I? Will this September half-Iron be the bell that tolls for me?  What if?

Full Neoprene Jacket

Let me just state categorically that getting older SUCKS. Okay, not all of it. I like having some control over my emotions and less impatience, I love watching my kids grow up, all of that kind of thing. But the actual effects of the aging process on the body, now those SUCK.

And I'm not talking about the usual stuff that the media hypes - I don't stay up late at night worrying about my crow's feet, grey hairs, or cellulite. But it bugs the crap outta me when I can't do a workout because something that I injured a decade or two ago is acting up. I get tired of feeling like a whiner when I have to ask someone at karate to go easy on my wrist or tell my crossfit coach that I can't do some exercise because of my hip. The thing is, when I stick to triathlon training, I can feel like I really haven't changed all that much in the last few decades. Endurance sports you may lose a little time here and there, and maybe have to sleep a bit more or take another couple of recovery days a month, but other than that it's pretty painless to age up. But sports that require fast or powerful movements? Volleyball, basketball, tennis, martial arts, Crossfit... in stuff like that there is an enormous difference between say 30 and 45 years old. Things that used to be springy no longer snap back so easily. Or the springs go sprooooiiiingggg, and then it hurts.

I've got neoprene wrist braces, knee braces, ankle braces and elbow braces. How long before I have to show up in a full neoprene suit just to work out?

Today I'm 43. I Run Up Mountains.

Yesterday I was out biking with hubby doing errands around town. We were about to leave the Builder's Garage Sale (would've been better to bring a truck than our bikes, honestly) when this man walked up to me and out of the blue says "Do you run up mountains?"

Um....not recently

"Well," he said, "you just look like you could run up mountains"

and with that he walked off.

Today is my birthday. My 43rd birthday. I can't count the number of people who have told me "you don't have to tell me how old you are." I could care less how old I am. I'm 43. 43 years on this planet. There's nothing to be ashamed of, being 43. 43 trips around the sun. Why do we treat it like it's some horrible curse???

I'm 43 years old, and while I haven't run up mountains since hubby and I trained to climb Kilimanjaro in 1995, I could do it at any point I chose to. Isn't that the coolest thing about keeping your body, your mind, and your spirit in tip-top condition and feeling young?? I COULD run up a mountain tomorrow, if I felt like it. And you never know, I just might.

And while no one in our family ran up any mountains today, Wayne and the kids ran down some sand dunes with our new pup, Callie. Now Wayne is a pretty speedy runner, but this dog is something else. Doesn't she look like she's channeling greyhound in this picture???

Speaking of Callie, it's amazing how much more healthy and vital she's gotten in the almost two weeks we've had her now. When she first came to live with us, she slept a lot and seemed almost lethargic. Little by little she pepped up and just in the last few days she has become quite another dog altogether. I know our neighbor who rescued her said she was infested with fleas, ticks, and worms when she first found her and she was still getting over all of that, so this is probably just her returning to good health, maybe for the first time ever. She has definitely filled out and filled up with energy now!

So for my birthday, I got what I most wanted - no presents, just the presence of my kids and hubby. We took an impromptu run to the beach. Despite having a ton of work to do around the homefront (we are currently remodeling the front of our house/deck) we grabbed a half a day since the sun was shining and headed west. The sun and sand were beckoning, and I got to play a little bit of frisbee with my kids, watch them run around with the new pup and...

What birthday would be complete without a swim? This is a lot earlier than I usually get in the lake, even with the full wetsuit. But the water looked too inviting to pass up and of course I did pack the wetsuit along just in case.... I'm guesstimating it was about 57 degrees, cold enough I had trouble talking when I got out due to my lips freezing. But still, it felt marvelous, simply grand. As soon as I took that first stroke, I was in heaven. Sunlight sparkling on the water droplets flying off of my fingers, and the sound of the small waves in my neoprene-covered ears. In my head, Beethoven's full orchestral Ode to Joy started playing, perfectly timed to the rhythm of my strokes, and I felt that peculiar joy of being so very alive down to the last nerve ending in my little toes.

I may be {gasp, cue drumroll....} 43 years old... but I can still run up mountains, or swim laps around a lake any time I choose.

No Excuses

There are no excuses for not doing what you want to in life, for not being vibrant and alive through all of your days. If you want inspiration, check out this dancer, don't just watch the beginning, she's amazing!