I have a completely nutty desire: to train for a sprint triathlon. IF treatment be damned.
The sprint is much, much shorter than what you think of as a normal, long-distance triathlon. You only swim around 750 m, bike 12 miles, and run a 5 k. There's a really cool 12-week program at our local Y run by a certified trainer, and it's only 6 hours of workouts and drills a week. When I saw the announcement after my workout yesterday morning, I was strangely excited. I really wanted to do it.
Then my IF voice chimed in: "But how will it impact your fertility?"
It was so frustrating. I tried to find some kind of indicator from the ambivalent Dr. Google about what a reasonable amount of training might be for someone in my position (i.e. possibly moving on to CC +IUI, but not at IVF yet). CC does make your ovaries a bit, uh, sensitive, but it's nothing like IVF stims. Oddly enough, almost every site you get when you Google "fertility triathlon" says something to the effect that, "You don't want to be training for the triathlon when trying to conceive!" Wink, har har. Blech. No? You'd rather I pretend to use an elliptical while poking the latest celebrity with a bump in the eye with my magical voodoo pen?
But this triathlon training program isn't a high-performance athlete thing. This is a very doable challenge, and the training process is what I'm really interested in. I want to improve my skills, see where I can go, but slowly. I'm not in this to lose weight--I'm fine with the way I am, my guy loves it--just to learn and experience something new and exciting, to find new horizons in my body. The times in my life when I've been training intensely at a sport have been when I've felt at my best, especially if I coupled exercise with an excellent diet and lots of quality lounge time. I'm toward the top of normal BMI right now, and I have every intention of eating enough yummy butter, cooling veggies, and crunchy hippy muffins so that I more or less stay there. Yeah! More food!
There's a bigger issue behind all this back and forth, of course. IF isn't letting me do what I really, truly want to do. I'm supposed to limit myself because of some vague idea, barely supported with medical evidence, that training 6 hours a week might somehow affect my hormones. I feel so sick and tired of putting everything on hold, of hanging my dreams up on a peg because of some future that may never, ever decide to dawn. I've had every single one of my former crutches taken away from me--my ignorance, my sanity, my drinking, my frigging morning coffee, for Pete's sake. I can't say no to everything I crave. Why not say yes to this one, small thing?
So, I'm going to do it. I'll ask my RE about it at our post-op follow-up next week, but I'm pretty sure Dr. Spunk will say it's fine. He thinks most things are fine. He even teased me that I needed to smoke and drink more and eat more fast food. That card!
Have you had any dilemmas, where you felt torn between IF piety and your red, beating life? Outside of the wine store, that is.
(More distraction below...)
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6 comments:
I think its great that you are doing this training! Don't let IF stop you! I know with my IF I have given up a lot to stay focused on ttc. But then I started to lose who I was. So I have began doing those things again and forgetting about ttc and IF. Just have fun and do something just for you for a change! Have fun training!
I am completely with you... the loss of exercise has been the biggest drawback to this process. It affects me mentally and physically to not exercise they way I normally do. My stress and anxiety is much harder to contain. About year 2 or 3 of TTC, I threw the "fuck it" out there and just did whatever I wanted. But with the IVF, it's really not possible. As in, way too uncomfortable, and why risk it all for a run? In your case, at this point, I would go for it. Want to train? Go right ahead, it will keep your heart healthy and keep you sane. When you get to the stim of IUI, you may need to take a few weeks off, but what's a few weeks? I plan on getting back into exercise as soon as the 2WW is over, no matter what the outcome. I feel the same way you do-- I've given up all of my pleasures in life for this thing, but it's only doable for me b/c the IVF cycle is a limited timeframe. I couldn't do it for longer.
"Have you had any dilemmas, where you felt torn between IF piety and your red, beating life? Outside of the wine store, that is."
No, mine usually involves missing the wine store.
Oh, plus sometimes I feel like my job is so stressful right now that it is impeding my ability to conceive. But what do I do? Quit? Nope, can't do that. I'm gonna have huge IVF bills soon.
Sigh...
Somehow I doubt that it will hurt your chances for conception - having ovaries the size of watermelon on the other hand might interrupt your training. In which case you can back off a bit.
And yeah, I do sometimes wonder if I would be going back to school or something if I weren't thinking that I will then get pregnant and interrupt those plans anyways.
My husband is a triathlete and it's a lot of hard work but is so fruitful in the end. I say live your life now and do what makes you happy. Soon enough this life will pass you by and what will you have to show for it? An emotional roller coaster?
One fertility nurse said not to exercise while actually going through treatments and the other said to exercise. If you are taking 2 months off then I say have a blast during that time. Relax and try to think of something other than trying to get pregnant.
These last two months I couldn't TTC do to health reasons and it was a nice break to not have to worry about it for the time being. Next month we will start the roller coaster again. Best wishes and good luck.
Jeremiah 29:11 God has a plan for you. When He's ready for you to get pregnant nothing can stop Him from doing just that.
how about trying some low impact exercise as a compromise?
but if it will make you feel good, i think you should definitely train for the triathlon. distractions from IF are always welcome!
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