Friday, November 30, 2012

And here we go

So these last few weeks have been what they call recovery weeks. Usually you read on blogs and magazines that after a big race it is a good idea to get off from training, get back to your old routine and also try to be normal again. Well we have done a bit of that, have tried to do some running and riding but that's about it. Not really a lot just enough to continue us moving and not just sitting on the couch.

Well, tomorrow marks day 1 of our Ironman Texas training. It is the day when coach M will share with us what we will see, how we will see it and much more. All this of course after a nice 10K+ run around the track with some core workout , yes... I'm sure we will have some planks, supermans, abs and many more that we will probably share on another day.

Tomorrow is day 1 of our journey to our ironman. A journey that we actually started on February 5 when we signed up for the team and actually started to take shape on April 22 when we completed our first sprint Tri. A journey that definitely became a lot clearer after finishing up our first 70.3 at ironman Austin. Well, this is just a few more months of journey 6 and change to be precise. 6 more months of hard training, trying to stay away from accidents, injuries, watching our nutrition, supporting each other and many more things that come with long hours of training and long weeks of both work and training.

This past weekend coach M and a few others completed IM Cozumel. Reading their reports has given us a different perspective and view as to what we are expecting. We had seen them train and suffer through the summer on the long days of training. But reading what they went through or even the reasons why they did it definitely make us see things differently. It has given us a boost needed and also has reminded us of why we started this journey. Even though we have a competitive spirit deep inside of us (we all do) we stated this journey to be better, to be healthy, to spend time together doing something we both enjoy and have been extremely lucky to have been able to do it and also share it with our team, and more importantly because WE GET TO

We are going to try not to post summaries of what we did I'm sure y'all will get tired of seeing we swam, biked and ran. We want to give you more of an insight of what we are going through, things that we think, feel or enjoy while we do the SBR thing.

Hope you stick with us through this next few months of journey and helpfully we will get to hear on May 18th (sometime during the night before midnight) those words that give us chills "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN"


Sunday, November 18, 2012

A week to get back into it... and time to give thanks!!!

As y'all saw from last week's post, we were not really getting into the swing of training or at least the maintenance training that coach M had us on.

In the last 3 weeks work has just gone insanely busy for the two of us. Me, just busy I think it caught up to me, and for Res it is more on her transition to the new job for the 1st of the year, so tons of things to leave ready before vacation.

On the good news side, Res got cleared from the Dr. as she didn't have a stress fracture. That is really good news and her foot started to show signs of improvement, as in no pain improvement. She is good to start running again, of course taking it slow. For me, last week traveling, working late wasn't a good sign of getting a few miles as instructed by the schedule, it was more of a week of not really doing much, except Thursday when I put in a 40 minute run, 4 miles. The results showed a good workout, not fast but at least good, but I overall felt so heavy, and not good. Thought I was going to have to walk back home or call Res to come pick me up. Res had only run a little bit since the Dr. told her to only run maybe 1 mile or 1.5 miles and not go and catch up with all the miles she hasn't run at once. Anyways, I got home and told Res how I felt. She then tells me, go read SBM's blog's for the day. It was I guess a relief that I wasn't the only one feeling that way, but it was not a good feeling overall to know that we had signed up for IMTX and we needed to get our rear in gear for December 1st, as it is the start of the training.

Coach M and other 3 folks from the team are off to IM Cozumel next week, so while they work out and do their IM we will probably be recovering from indulging on Thursday.

This weekend was good, rode and went for a track speed workout. After running on Thursday, I thought I was going to pass out today. To my surprise I did pretty well. Res actually did awesome too, being her first time back to running and doing some speed workout since before Austin. Now this week is time to get going, enjoy some turkey, give thanks. Speaking of which thanks are in order for a great year, for being together and being able to share these memories.

With that, Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Monday, November 12, 2012

A little rest... feels good

We've been a little off from the blogging world, last 2 weeks have been more of a recovery mode for the two of us than anything. Recovery, catching up with home duties, work, oh yes work, we still have to pay bills and make some money to support our hobby. The first recovery week after Austin was more of a week of lets deal with the pain, soreness and other issues that arise after a long race. Massages came in handy one night and they helped a lot. Highly recommended for those still not believing in massages.

One thing that we weren't counting with was Res getting "injured", the soreness was starting to go away but Res' foot was still sore and what it seemed like swollen at times and in some sort of pain that wasn't really part of the soreness as she described it. It was more of a "I'm here" type of pain, you guys ask her what she means by that. 

We had decided before Austin that we were going to sign up for the Dallas Marathon but we were going to the half as part of our off-season start and also to stay in some sort of maintenance schedule before our IM Texas schedule started on December 1st.

Anyways, after going to the Dr. and Res not showing great signs of improvement we decided to call off our half, and decided to no-go it. Probably the safest route as the months coming up will be critical for our training for the IM. We rather be all healthy and fully recovered for that than with some sort of injury that will hinder the start of it, I'm sure we will have plenty of time to do these so we are in no rush for it.

I did continue on the schedule Coach M had put me on for the half, ran about 19 miles last week, swam a bit and rode 21 on the bike, Res did the same except the running as the Dr. recommended to stay off of that until the results of the PET Scan cleared her from any stress fracture. Needless to say, running alone was pretty boring, and we were both kind of lost training alone, we use training, especially running as it is the thing that we get to do together as in side by side. The pool we are together but on the lane next to each other and on the bike we are with the same group but normally not together. So yes it was different and not fun.

So after two weeks of rest, entering our 3rd, it is kind of funny but we are looking forward to our next 3 weeks of rest (more like maintenance) before we hit our IM training. There are a few things we need to organize at work, the house, and in general before we enter a schedule where work and training will be filling up the most of it.

For now, let's get ready for some turkey in a couple of weeks :)))