Third time is a charm... Well sort of

OK, so it's been a couple of weeks already since we finished our third 70.3 Ironman. In a sense it was a race that we were kind of looking forward to but not really if it makes sense. Yup.... Confusing we know. Maybe you have seen posts from Res on her blog about our motivation and how bad of a job we were doing keeping up with our training schedules. So that's the "not really" part of it. We felt a bit unprepared, and maybe were underestimating the distance. It kind of happens... But don't let that fool you it is still a big race and a long day. We went in with our training as much as we got in, one thing for sure we were rested. We did our long workouts and hit them hard but we felt strong on them, long swims were great, long rides didn't really bothered us so much and the runs.... Well the runs suffered but we had some miles in the running shoes that made us think we were going to be OK.

The week leading to it was of course crazy busy with work. We didn't do our typical day off before the race. We typically leave Friday as a day off and since the race is on Sunday it leaves us Saturday to "rest" more. Well... If you know what happens at the Expo day then you know you do anything but rest. So our approach this year was leave the house on Saturday, go in to check-in, eat, rack bikes and leave... It actually worked out pretty good in our opinion. It eliminates the amount of walking you do trying to walk to places you don't really need to be at. Also it helped with the nerves, which were pretty high due to the weather conditions we were going to have so the less time we spent at the expo and around athletes the better for us... Yes... Antisocial mode helps sometimes.

We were able to see the coach, he gave us some last minute weather related tips and off we went. We went to the hotel with K (our Sherpa of choice for the weekend). She wasn't doing the race since she got sick but still offered to come down and help us with cheering, and also for the drive back home after the race. Anyways we went to the hotel and stayed there until the next Sunday morning. Did the usual pre race stuff.

Sunday came, we enjoyed the benefits of being in the club village this year. It is pretty nice to have that since we have a place to camp near transition. We just got there while the team people got ready. We chatted a bit but not much, usually we are not too chatty without being rude.  There were a lot of nerves because of the weather which at that point we had nothing else we could do other than let Mother Nature take her course with our day.

This year we our waves were different than last year, Res went first then Puli. The swim was rough, chop and current took at beat on us and it was not fun to see people taken out as we were getting off the dock. The bike while uneventful we were being very cautious as the roads where wet. A little of a tail wind on the way out and cross wind on the way back made it for a fun bike. Galveston is an out and back bike which it's cool because you see everyone and we saw pretty much the whole team. Getting off the bike we hit the run. Puli didn't feel well, he was getting belly cramps after probably taking too much salt water on the swim, Res keep pushing forward with her awesome steady pace. 

It was a great day. Puli managed to have a PR on this course and a sub 6:00 70.3 with a 5:59. Res managed a 6:40 which wasn't a PR but knowing our load over the next months a number she can work with since we don't want to get injured nor push too much too early as the year will be long and this is just the beginning. We definitely have learned to read our bodies, our fitness and endurance are there, we need to put longer hours and get some speed but other than that we have a tough couple of months coming up and want to do well without breaking apart.

We were also glad to spend time with almost all our teammates and our cheering crowd who were awesome. One more for our 70.3 distance... Again one of our fave races and we will probably do it again, being so close to home. 

Time to get motivated so we can get the peak of our Challenge Atlantic City training in and work on our weak points. Other than that... Let's continue having some fun. :)

PS. Even if the weather is overcast... Do not forget sunscreen! Those sun rays will still burn you and we want to continue playing outside so let's avoid the risk of cancer.