I had never been on a kayak before, so when my sister in law suggested we head down to Oleta River State Park and go kayaking Saturday, I was all in!  I didn’t realize, however that I was scheduling this the same day that my friend and I planned a morning workout.  Our workout consisted of an easy walk/run 5k and then I promised to torture her with battle ropes.

If you have not tried a battle rope workout, I highly recommend it, although I don’t think I could use this as my regularly scheduled routine.  When I told my friend we’d be trading our usual strength training session for this, she looked at me in disbelief.  “Are we going to do the weight after the ropes?”, she asked.  I chuckled a little and told her that if she felt up to it, we certainly would, but that I think she was thinking the ropes are much easier than they can be.

I got up at my usual 4:45 training time, got ready and ran to meet her at her house at 5:00am.  She literally lives on the next block, so yes, the times are right.   We headed out on our run.  We are working to build her endurance the same way I had in the past.  We are up to one minute running, one minute walking.  She’s got that nailed, so we are going to amp thins up a bit next week.  We easily completed the 5k and arrived back at my place to get started on the ropes after a short break to hydrate.

When we got home, my amazing hubby had already laid out the battle rope around a small palm tree in the yard.  I grabbed a couple other items to use in between rope sessions to work more areas of the body while giving the guns a break.  I brought out a jump rope and an ikea step stool to use for box jumps (I wasn’t sure it would work either).  I also planned a series of distance jumps and side steps to add focus to the lower half.

I grabbed the ropes and told her we would attempt 20 second intervals.  I hadn’t done the ropes in probably a year, so I thought 20 was ambitious, but hey we should push ourselves now and again!  She kind of looked at me like she wanted to scoff at the 20 seconds, but I hit my interval timer and started doing alternating waves.  My time was up and it was her turn to hit the ropes.  When her 20 seconds was up, she had the greatest look on her face and said “oh my gosh, that was harder than I thought it would be!”  We laughed, and took turns doing various things in between more sets of rope waves or whips.

We discovered that neither of us can jump rope well at all, so maybe that can be a fun goal one day.  I discovered that in the grass, an ikea step stool can work as a box jump, at least for my current box jump skill level.  I also learned that I really like doing box jumps, so I am going to bat my eyelashes at my carpenter hubby to see if I can get him to build me one soon.  She discovered that she’s got some guns and likes a little friendly competition because she didn’t stop until she hit the same numbers I did (which I love)!

Once we were done, we did not hit the weights afterward.  I asked if she wanted to, and she said no, I think we have done enough (and we had).  “Wow, it’s just a rope around a tree” she said.  We both chuckled, acknowledging what a good workout it was.  I walked her home while taking Hera for her morning walk and hit the showers, have some breakfast and get ready for the park adventure.

We got to Oleta around 9:45 and put in our paperwork to rent the kayaks.  Darin and D2 were in one and my sister in law and I each had a single person kayak.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous.  More so of my son tipping over or something and not being confident in my ability to get him back on safely but I kept reminding myself that I had two other people with us that could help.  I adapted to it pretty quickly and was really enjoying cruising through the beautiful mangroves.

We went through the mangrove maze and headed back the start which lets out to the boating area, beaches and eventually the ocean if you went far enough.  I’d guess it was about 20 minutes into our adventure.  That’s when my arms remembered that we did battle ropes earlier and mind over matter started to fire up.

I was able to keep up thankfully, but at some points I hid the sheer anguish I was in.  Just when I thought I was going to just stop and drift wherever the water took me, giving up, we hit an open area and all paused to take in the sight and take some photos.  Phew!  Just a few seconds of rest, to reset the arms and mind was all I needed.  I hydrated, sat back and just focused on relaxing each muscle in my arms, shoulders and back.

We continued on and headed back into the returns area.  It was a great adventure!  We headed down to the beach for what I was waiting for the entire time…. open water swim!!!  Though the lake water will be totally different, this beach had little to no waves due to its location.  What it did have, was some fish, people, drop offs, rocks and gunk here and there in the water.  The perfect first attempt at swimming not in a pool in years!

I swam a bit with the family, laughing and enjoying each other and then headed out for a couple swim laps.  I had to tell myself to slow down and just breath.  For my current skill level, I did great!  I was so happy!  When I got to where I was going to stop, I went to stand and could not reach the bottom.  What a great thing, I thought.  That is how it will be in the lake if I need a moment.  I quickly realized that even though I was tired, I was ok.  I treaded water for a second and headed back towards the family.  I took breaths, not all went well mind you, but I took them.  I practiced sighting a bit and even rolled on my back to see how calming I could make it, if I needed a moment to not freak out during the real thing.

We headed up the beach and grilled up some hot dogs and had some potato chips.  Hot dogs, buns and chips aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse anymore but hat’s ok.  I have been doing well in my weight and cleaner eating so I went for it.  The chips were good filler because I was starving, but I did not enjoy them as much as I pictured enjoying them.  Guess that’s a good thing!  We packed up and headed to the car.  In true Cris fashion, I quickly realized that I must have had my foot resting in an ant pile because as we started walking to the car, they started biting the crap out of me!  I stepped out of my vibrams and it was like a a movie.  The fire ants just oozed out of every nook and cranny.  Darin got them all off my shoe and I washed the bites as best I could and we headed home.

Ant bites aside, it was an amazing day filled with pushing out of my comfort zone and achieving things I was not sure I could achieve.  One of the best take aways for me was that I really do believe in myself as of today.  I really do believe that I will complete that swim in September.  The final piece of the puzzle is there.  I am more motivated than ever and plan to push hard until the end.  I will be a triathlete in September and I cannot wait!