My Journey so far...Things happen in 3's!!!
I have just completed my second triathlon...250m swim, 10km bike ride and 3km run in 50 mins...woohoo. If someone had told me three years ago I would be doing this, I would have doubted them...strongly.
In 2008 I gave birth to my third child, a beautiful baby girl! My daughter has just turned 3 and has two older siblings, William 9 and Charlie 7.
When William my eldest son arrived into the world via emergency caesa in 2001, I wondered how so many children managed to be in the world as this delivery was far from pleasant or smooth. While in hospital I remember talking to other new mothers and they were telling me how after a couple of weeks they would have physio appointments to attend to get their pelvic floor muscles back in check and tighten tummy muscles etc...
I thought to myself how fantastic that would be to have some guidance and support during this time. However I lived an hour and fortyfive minutes from Perth and the likelihood of a physio being at hand was very remote indeed.
My second son Charlie arrived via caesarian also, and I had a physio appointment in hospital post delivery, but having some help on hand back at home was still a dream.
That was until in 2007 I discovered that there was a physio was in town, and to my delight she wasn't just any physio but a physio with expertise in the pelvic floor, pre and post pregnancy area!!! I could not believe my luck.
Yes, my dream of having a physio on my back door had come true!!!
I made contact with the physio prior to Emmeline's birth, as I wanted to hit the ground running so to speak once I was at home. So she did a thorough appraisal of me and put a program together.
Once Emmeline was born, the physio came to our home and conducted the first couple of sessions with me, just to make sure I was doing the exercises correctly and also to monitor my progress. This worked beautifully as while my precious new born was sleeping (mostly sleeping) I was able to go through some strengthening exercises.
Within a couple of weeks of following the program, I could feel a huge improvement and definitely recovered more quickly and swiftly this pregnancy than with my other two...and remember this is my third caesarian.
Feeling so good and empowered with my newly improved pelvic floor and core strength improving, I joined the newly opened gym in town. This was also a dream of mine to attend a gym as again while I was in hospital many girls would say "I can't wait to get back to the gym!"
After William and Charlie's births, I tried to keep in shape with exercise dvds, tennis and walking on the farm.
What made the gym so effective for me was the fact that the physio came with me to my gym sessions and pointed out which equipment would be beneficial to me, and also checked that I was doing the exercises safely and correctly. I continued on at the gym and managed to lose all my baby weight, which was at least 10kg.
My third dream was to have a regular exercise class to go to. You guessed it. A fantastic "Bootcamp" exercise group had started up in town and was held twice a week. I still go to bootcamp twice a week as I really enjoy exercising as a group and enjoying the great outdoors.
We were lucky enough to have the physio also come along to bootcamp and get her to run through some core strengthening exercises with us. All of these exercises are ones we implement whenever we do our fitball workouts as well as other exercises.
In March 2010 there was the first Boddington Community Triathlon. My husband and I decided that this would be a fantastic event to do, so we set our bodies and minds into action.
We practiced our swimming and cycling and running, slowly but surely building up pace and momentum. In this event I came third in the short course, which was a bonus as I was just happy to be participating in it.
Once this was finished I thought, well, I might as well keep training...so I participated in the HBF Run for a Reason in Perth in May 2010 which was a 14km event. I loved this running experience and knew it wouldn't be my last. I then participated in the Rottnest Run, which is a scenic very hilly and windy 10km run that was in October 2010 and my aim was to complete the run in 1 hour, which I did!!!
My latest event which I mentioned at the beginning was the most recent 2011 Boddington Triathlon. This year I completed the long course in 50 minutes which I was wrapped with, firstly to complete it and secondly to do it in a respectable time.
So things have happened in 3's for me so far...My three children. My three fantastic support network's of physio expertise, the Boddington Gym and Boddington Bootcamp. My three major activities for 2010 were 1. the triathlon, 2. HBF 14km run and 3. The Rottnest 10km run.
Now I have a long way to go with my sporting aspirations and I look at how far I have come and I am so proud of my achievements so far. Being able to have such a great support network within my community has basically changed my life.
I can't wait to see where and when my next sporting event will be...I'll keep you posted.
Cheers
Nat
Photos courtesy of Boddington Community Triathlon 2010