I had the perfect opportunity to ride my bike to work today…since I had to retrieve my car from the shop my husband took my daughter to pre-school today allowing me to leave early enough to take my bike…it was awesome…16 miles and all I could think of was “when and how can I do this again?” I LOVED IT!!! It boosted my confidence and I can’t wait to start officially training!
Bio
In my 20s, I was a body builder. I dealt with all of life challenges and stressors by making the gym my oasis an hour before work, two hours after work, and sometimes in the middle of the day if something was bothering me. I began getting bored with my workout and with my trainer and decided to learn what they knew by taking a personal training class. That kept my interest for a while, but I eventually burned out partly because I met my future husband and partly because I stopped seeing results, forgetting to appreciate the art of "maintaining". That led me into my 30s when I became fat and lazy, which was exacerbated by a difficult pregnancy. After the birth of my daughter, I realized that I had gained 100 pounds! Fortunately, I soon met a new neighbor and mother of young children who was a former Olympic biathlete. She brought me back to life. While her husband was away in Iraq, we supported each other with long walks through the woods and weight lifting sessions in the open fields. I'll never forget our introduction to each other, which started one spring day with a phone call to her after mutual friends urged us to meet each other due to our former exercise passions. I asked her is she wanted to go for a walk so she picked the trail. The three hour long trail led us through crumbling slopes, streams and fences and knee deep in mud. We moved large rocks to cross the streams, and relayed my one year old, her two month and two year old through the various obstacles. At the end of the walk, she turned to me and says okay if you don’t want to go on another walk with me I find that most people only go with me once. Feeling more alive than I had in years, we made this a daily ritual. By the end of the summer I had lost 60 pounds. We continued through out the winter…harnessing our bundled children's sleds to our back while we skied through the woods with headlights on our foreheads. The following spring, we introduced our little ones to mountain climbing, often with them on our backs. After eighteen months her husband returned home from Iraq and our walking schedule to a back seat in favor of their blissful family life, resulting in 25 pounds finding their way back on me. However, this past winter I joined my friend in a 5K ski race with my goal being to finish without the help of the rescue team. We went out dancing the night before. I danced hard and somehow managed to injure my hip. I went to bed and awoke at four a.m…finding it more difficult to turn over in bed then I had when I was 9 months pregnant. I was in more pain then I remember being in during my four days of labor. I used ice, heat, Tylenol and Advil determined to complete the race. I had been talking about it for months and just could not-- absolutely could not back out. At 9:00 we were skiing. My friend won the race and I finished last, but well in front of the rescue team who had gone out looking for their last contestant. My friend applauded me as I started talking abou t next year's race. She encouraged me to find another event, one that I really felt passionate about to cross-train. She put a seed in my head, but I wasn't sure it would ever sprout until our vice president mentioned Team Shad. Now I am passionate again! Since working with dialysis patients as a social worker, I have seen the number of patients who exercise increase dramatically from about 1%-65%! With a bit of encouragement and (limited) financial assistance, I now have patients in wheelchairs swimming, or chair dancing! I have patients who are regular gym members, walkers and bikers. I also have patients who join me for some light weight lifting and aerobic exercise during dialysis! I love to hear about their goals. one woman recently told me her goal was to lift and pour her bottle of laundry detergent, another to walk around the block. I also know some whom I would like to encourage to join this team! I am so excited to be part of Shad Ireland’s team for both my personal benefit and to expand the resources available to patients.
