Sunday, December 30, 2012

A year to remember and more

A year to remember in medals


So this year we started without any of the typical resolutions that everyone normally starts the years with, we simply said, let's make it different. So we did, we started looking into this crazy triathlon thing more seriously and before we knew it we were literally hooked into it. We found a great team whom have become friends and family to us. We started without really knowing what to expect. It was more like let's see where this takes us. My brother had given us some of his experiences but it was different, him being back in Colombia had different training and not really something that we felt connected with.

So in summary, we've participated in:
1. cowtown 10K: our first 10K, or actually any distance longer than a 5K.
2. Caveman sprint Tri: first Tri
3. Dash warrior
4. MS150 - Frisco to Fort Worth
5. X50: Relay team, Puli did the 40 mile bike leg
6. Vincentown, NJ sprint Tri: first podium for Res getting 2nd of her age group.
7. River cIties sprint Tri
8. trifecta Olympic Tri
9. Miami Children's 5K: Res did this one on her own.
10. 70.3 Ironman Austin

In the year we have done:

1550 miles on the bike
430 miles running
162000 yards swimming
160 miles of racing

We have had our ups and downs, Puli got injured at the beginning of the year after doing the 10K, his IT band was really stiff and he could hardly walk. Then we had our bike crash before Austin, read the Mind over Body entry. Definitely we have made this year one to remember. We have learned to love the sport, while sharing pain, laughs, tears with each other and growing as a couple and as a team with our teammates.

We closed our year in Colombia, it was a time to sit back, do a little bit of training, a whole lot of eating and a lot of resting. Puli caught a cold and is trying to kill him, but hopefully he will be better by the time we get back home. Training at 9000 ft above sea level was an experience that Puli had forgotten what was like and Res didn't really know what it was, it definitely was a good one to test us.

Here are some of our runs and long ride:



We hope next year brings us with many good things. Our work front seems to be linning up with very good things for the two of us and also our training and racing will be filled with many successes, hope to become IronMan/IronWoman and share the rest of our journey with you our reader.

Thanks for reading and stay tunned for more updates and Happy New Year y'all!!! Feliz Año!!!!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Week 1 and counting, hope it gets better

So today is the end of our 1st week of training for our IMTX. The week was a lot heavier in training that we were expecting. It was something like 11 hours of workouts. Considering that we haven't been doing much training since our 70.3 in Austin it was hard to get back to it. We had a busy week with work and other activities that simply made it harder. Skipping 2 days of the training plan was not ideal, but all in all it was not as bad.

Overall we didn't do as bad, put 4050 yd in the pool, 98 mi in the bike and 7 mi running/jogging/walking. Yesterday took a toll on us, we had a swim and a run however Coach M set a time trial practice for us, which this was mainly to set a marker for us (same thing he did for the run). I went all out, averaging 20 mph for 10 miles and completing a 20 mile ride in about 1:05 including warm-up and cool-down. We then did our swim and run later in the evening, the run was painful, hardly could keep a 9'/mile pace and Res was at about 10'/mi. it was overall painful, and legs were feeling heavy. We did a good 20 minute stretch after it and it helped. This morning we had set up with some people from the team to go for our scheduled ride. The day was looking warmer than usual and humid, however by the time we got to the speedway it seemed like the wind was picking up and it was making it a bit cooler. We set off, did a 5 mile warm up lap at the speedway and then set off to go to Krum. That's when things got interesting, as we turned to get out of the speedway the road was a bit wet, long and behold... I wiped out on the bike. Bike went from under me and I just slid for a few feet. Enough to had a good rash that didn't get to see until the end of the ride but I knew it was there. I got up quickly, since I just hit my leg and a bit of my hands (thanks for layers and gloves, it would've been worse). Res was way behind me and didn't really see me fall. We took off from there, heading north it was slow, one I was sore from the fall, and two it was windy, seemed like we had the wind in front of us the whole way. Got to Krum, waited for Res, did a quick stop to rest and then headed back. I took off, taking advantage of the tail wind, but between the soreness and legs just getting tired it felt a bit slow, looking back at the Garmin data, it wasn't the case, actually it was a lot better that what I felt.

We of course, got back and pigged out to burgers at Five Guys, I think it was a well deserved meal :). It's been a slow moving Sunday, sore in the upper body for me and Res' legs are also sore. She pushed hard on the bike and the wind took a toll on her.

Well, for now, lets rest tomorrow, and get back to it on Tuesday for the start of week 2... let's hope is a better week..

Not giving up. this is just the beginning