Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Winter training and cold weather and inspiration

We read a post from Swim Bike Mom and it made us feel related. Training in the winter is boring. After having trained for 70.3 Austin where it was nice and warm, sometimes too warm, can't lie about that. We have been taking a lot of our trainings inside. Let us tell you those can get BORING!!!!

We have been trying to get in the routine of at least getting our bike rides at 4:30 am, so we are ready by 6:00 to jump in the shower and head to the jobs that pay for all these healthy crazy habits like triathlons and Ironmans.

We don't have the luxury of having our kids stare at us like Swim Bike Mom does, however our dog seems a bit confused at a few things:
1. What are we doing getting up at 4:30 am it is still dark out people
2. Are you really not going anywhere on those things for 1:30 hours?
3. You stink!

It is actually pretty funny to see her roam around us, walking carefully so we don't hit her while we pedal, and probably she learned the lesson on a few close encounters with the pedals.

How do we get entertained you might ask? swim Bike Mom probably hit the nail on the head when she said all the things she does. Watch tv, check and reply email, twitter, Facebook, attempt reading by putting the iPads on the aerobars, however once sweat starts to come down is time to put them away. In case you don't know it, try watching the 4:00 am news, that will bore the heck out of you, even the traffic report isn't that exciting. We do break a sweat on the trainer, trying to keep the 75-80 cadence and a relatively high speed of 18-20mph actually is harder than you think even if you are not going anywhere.

We think the most important question of all is, how do we do it? How do we get the inspiration? There are probably multiple answers to that answer, we've found that it is actually easier to get up and get the bike workouts in than going to the gym at that time and swimming or even trying to go for a run which is a bit tougher when it is cold and dark. Also it is good that is the two of us doing it, it helps because we kick each other off the bed and then once one of us is off the bed the other one follows, half asleep but follows, so it is matter of one of us giving that first step to get moving and the whole team goes (dog included). The other one is about inspiration, we have been inspired by so many stories in the sport that pretty much us not following through makes us feel like we are failing, we are not the type that will give up or just quit, so it pushes us to keep at it. Also, at this point we have so many of our family and friends that follow our trainings and keep track of our progress that we don't want to disappoint them either. However we find inspiration every week from our teammates, our team is a great source of inspiration and courage to continue on this crazy journey as some call it.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Is it really the 3rd week of the year????

Well, it's been a while since we did an entry. After coming back from Colombia, Puli was really sick from a cold he caught there, and of course it was only matter of time before Res got it. So the last 2 weeks have been a mix of getting better, dealing with the weather, work, catching up with other things among others.

We are not sure how we are doing because even though we know we have 4 more months before IMTX we know they will be here before we know it. It has been hard to put in both daily workouts everyday as work, traffic, bad weather normally gets in the way... oh and of course the stupid Colombian Cold as we like to call it. Just trying to get healthy and staying healthy and away from people with the flu, that will be the last thing we need.

When we do get to workout actually doesn't feel that bad, last week we were able to put about 9 hours out of the 12 scheduled, and this week we are probably going to put 6:30 out of the 12:30, still not horribly bad, and is not like we are just sitting on the couch and not moving from it. It's just that we know we need to get ready for it. However Puli insists that we need to have a real vacation at a warm place with a beach, ocean view and good weather. Keep telling him the we can have that when we do this.

One other thing that we've been trying to do is our race schedule for 2013, we have been talking about runs, tris and rides, so far we know we have these:


  1. Cowtown Half: Registered
  2. St. Patty's Sprint: Not yet registered, start of tri season
  3. Ironman 70.3 Texas: Thinking hard about doing it
  4. Shiner G.A.S.P 100 that will be the last long ride before IMTX
  5. IMTX: Registered
  6. NEEDED SUMMER VACATION!!!!!! not a race but we will need it
  7. Trifecta Olympic: Will be cool to go back and PR the course :)
  8. The Bourbon Chase 200 mile relay: Will be registered with the team, sounds like fun and it is in October, almost for our anniversary... so that will be fun :)
Seems like with those we will have a busy Spring and a relaxed summer. 

Anyways, this is kind of a scattered entry, just not much going on, our training is getting there, our schedules are upside down still, we will get it straight (we kind of have to).

Keep at it and be safe!