Finding Purpose

We had a training for work a couple weekends back and spent a lot of time talking about purpose. With respect to my job, it's discovering your purpose as a health care provider (Why are you a Physical Therapist?) and helping patients realize their purpose (Why are you in Physical Therapy?). The questions sound basic, and some might argue, easy enough. But when you bluntly ask people basic questions like that it makes them stop and think. Sometimes they think (and say) - "What the hell do you mean why am I here? I just had shoulder surgery, you quack. Fix it!" but what I'm really trying to get at is what this injury/illness/condition has taken from them, and if they're ready to work to get it back. If they're not, or they can't give me a good reason for why they want to get better, or (even worse) they don't believe they can get better, guess what? They won't.  People come to me asking for answers. But what they really need are questions. We all do, to discover what we want in life, so we can got get it. The getting is easy. The discovering can be tricky.

Naturally, this got me thinking. Selfishly it got me thinking about myself, and my own goals. Specifically this Ironman. So I asked myself "Why are you doing this Ironman?" I immediately reverted to my defense mechanism of choice - sarcastic humor:

"It sounds like a good way to lose 5 lbs."
"Who needs a social life anyway?"
"I want people to oogle me through envy-goggles"
"Maybe I'll meet a famous person."
"Because I'm a sadistic pyschopath"
"Chafing really feels pretty good once you get past the 1st layer of skin."
"I'll finally be able to get one of those douchey car stickers. Or a tattoo!"

I'm thinking tramp stamp... yeah, tramp stamp for sure.

This actually went on for a while. But when it came down to it, I discovered something interesting, and that is this: At this point in time, I don't fully understand. So articulating it difficult. Basically, I just want to see if I can. Pushing myself to physical extremes has always been attractive to me. It's exhilarating, terrifying, painful, and exhausting. But facing those elements have always proven to give me a kind of clarity, and sense of accomplishment that I can't find anywhere else. This event is just the next logical step on my road to self-exploration and therefore discovery. And discovering myself seems like a pretty good goal.

In other news: It's 10pm and therefore officially past my bed time. I wish this were funnier. My last post was funnier. I wrote it 2 weeks ago, but it somehow got deleted in the posting process and I was so pissed I couldn't bring myself to write again until tonight. So it's short...and unfunny. Kind of like me :)

The Plan!

Hello there! If you're reading this you probably already know me but if you don't (and even if you do) I'll start with a small introduction. My name is Claudia and I live in Portland, Maine. Born and raised in Indiana I came to Maine over 3 years ago for Physical Therapy school and liked the East Coast so much I stayed after graduation, got licensed, and took a job here. I mean, easy access to the ocean, mountains, and the freshest seafood you can get? Yes, please, where do I sign?

Failed jumping photo at Acadia National Park. Thanks to mom, for the bad timing, but look how pretty it is!

I've always been interested in fitness and have enjoyed local races, mostly running, for years. Throughout high school and college, I've been pretty good (just to clarify, pretty good = able to complete... not pretty good = wins races) at endurance events and enjoy the challenge of accomplishing something that at one point seemed impossible. In PT school I discovered Crossfit when a friend and fellow classmate suggested I try it. I was immediately drawn to the atmosphere and was pretty impressed with the results. The community was very uplifting and a lot of the workouts seemed impossible, therefore completing them was very rewarding.

Two years ago a friend approached me with the idea of doing a triathlon - a half Ironman to be specific. At this point, I had never done so much as a sprint Tri. I mean, I was a decent runner, an okay swimmer, but I didn't even own a bike. I told him he was crazy, that I would most likely die, then I asked where and how to sign up. I remember the price was a big draw. Only $100 - what a steal!

Kevin and I after completing the Gator 1/2 Ironman in March 2013. Don't let our smiles fool you... we're in tremendous amounts of pain and are standing in delicious tissue-numbing ice water.

Turns out I did not die. I ended up doing quite well. While I remember telling people I would definitely do another, though I made sure to clarify that it wouldn't be for a long time. That fall I ran my first marathon. (which let me tell you, was MUCH harder than the Tri.. just saying. Kevin you're nuts for saying the it would be easier. Recurring theme: Kevin is a manipulative liar and also one of the best people I know.) After the marathon I took a break from endurance events and primarily did Crossfit 4-6 times/week. I even did some competitions last summer which was pretty fun.

At my favorite CF competition last summer. It was 3 person co-ed teams and for the 2nd WOD my buddies Brian and Duane dressed like girls. We wore dude clothes for the 1st one but it was less funny. I think people just thought I was a lesbian - which is fine. This one got way more laughs.

This brings us to present day. After some suggesting by Kevin, very careful consideration of costs (financial, physical, social, emotional, hormonal, etc) I decided to sign up for my first full Ironman Triathlon. It will be the Beach to Battleship Ironman in Wilmington, NC on October 17th. Yup, 140.6 miles of blood sweat and tears on the coast of the Tar Heel state. I wanted some way to log my experience and thought a blog would be pretty neat, even (and especially) if I'm the only one who ends up reading it. I also thought I would bring the unique perspective as a Crossfitting Physical Therapist Triathlete. I mean really, how often do those three things coexist in one person? Some would argue that they are contradictory. Okay, maybe two at a time, but all three? I may be the only one!

Before we get started I want to make some disclaimers:

1.) This is not a how-to guide for triathlon training. This is just for fun. If you want to try this shit at home, don't sue me when you get hurt or something.
2.) I do not have an English degree (my sister does though!). Nor am I a writer. So excuse my excessive and probably inappropriate use of parentheses, dashes, colons, semicolons, ellipses, and quotation marks. Also for the misspellings.. of which there will be many.
3.) Cursing. As you can tell from above I will be cursing throughout this blog, so if you're offended or a member of my family or both, I'll just apologize now. But I want this to be authentic, and funny, and for better or worse, cursing is just part of who I am.... damnit!
4.) Don't get too attached. If this is anything like most projects that involve sitting down for extended periods, I may drop off the face of the earth at any point. Just warning you for the potential and probable heartbreak of not hearing my genius insights and complaints about my body and what it's going through.
5.) I'm going to talk about food. A lot. I eat strict paleo as a general rule (although as I sit here I'm drinking some apple moonshine made by a co-worker, so I guess I'm not that strict). Put simply, the paleo diet is basically eating all whole, nutritious foods, and very little sugar. So grains, dairy, legumes, alcohol, and obviously processed sugar are all out. That leaves us with vegetables, meat, fruit, and nuts. Also some natural sugars like honey and maple syrup - but in very small amounts. Haters will hate. But since starting this diet about 3 months ago I've slept better, had more energy, lost 3% body fat, and been a more calm, happy person overall. It was actually a pretty easy choice once the benefits started rolling in.

So the plan is I will update this blog every week (or so) and speak to the training process, my challenges, successes, epic failures, and the journey in general. I'll try to include pictures and make it interesting, and I welcome any feedback or questions.

So... with 40 weeks to go. Let's get started!