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!!!!

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

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"

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!

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 :)))

Our First IM 70.3 @ Austin

The time finally came, it happened last Sunday. We left to Austin on Friday with some teammates, one of them had done it last year so it was good to have him with us as he knew the routes and what to expect. So on the way down he gave us his honest download of what would be ahead of us.

We got to the Expo before close time, so we had plenty of time to pick up our packages and check out some goodies at the store... yes... it is almost impossible to not get something. Then we went to the hotel to check in and dinner with friends.

Her bike ready to roll

His bike ready

Saturday was a not so early start, got the bikes in the truck and down to the expo again for bike check-in. It was all starting to settle in. As we were walking the bikes one our friends got a flat, so needless to say, it wasn't going to be a "walking" of the bikes, it was more like carrying the bikes to transition. Checked the water, it was so much warmer than the air, so it was good to know that the water was going to be nice. Then we had plans to drive the bike route. Map in hand, our friend giving us ins and outs on the course was very helpful. Noticed the hills, the pavement, the turns, all the details, so it gave us a good sense of security that it was going to be doable, might looked a bit tough but overall doable. Dinner with the team, off to finish packing, setting up transition bags and get in bed to rest... rest yes... sleep was limited.

Mercedes and Cristian before me hitting the water

Alarms off at 4:30 am, we got up and did our morning rituals, oatmeal breakfast, bananas, a bit of juice and a bagel. Then by 5:30 we were getting to park the car. Transition bags in hand, dropped off the transition 2 bag first, got in the bus to take us to T1. It is a bit overwhelming having 2 transitions in a race, but overall it went fairly smooth. Got to T1, body marking, and setup. It was a clean transition, only a few items were allowed outside the bag, nothing touching the ground except 1 tire of the bike. Check the tires for air and got out of transition. By then it was almost 6:30 and we had long ways to wait, some of our friends had early waves so they left to their swim starts. Res and I had an 8:10 and 8:40 (last wave) wave times. We hang out with some friends from the team that came to cheer us on and our neighbors and friends as well. Res went to her swim start and I went to drop our morning bags. needless to say I started to freeze. It was cold, 40's and all I had on was the wetsuit. Then it was finally 8:40 and I was then up for my swim.

Res getting to the strippers

My swim went fairly well. Water was nice and warm, I had an uninterrupted swim, I did what Coach M had told us, count until 10 (not really more like until 5) and the start, by then I had no traffic to fight. I stayed close to the bouys as I wasn't planning to swim more than I really needed to considering that my shoulder had been bothering me from the accident. I was really concerned about the swim as I didn't want to ruin the bike by not being able to go aero. I didn't have any pain on the shoulder, but yet I think I wasn't pushing as hard as I would normally do, it was a slow swim 50:54 (2:37 100/m) that's a lot slower but I'll take it, I came out of the water. T1 was pretty interesting, being cold and wet don't mix well together, neither does the fact that we had to put on some more layers than usual for our 56 mile stroll :). After almost 9 minutes of T1 finally got out and started the bike ride.

The bike looked good

It was cold, don't think I warm up for maybe 20 miles. The hills came and went, turns, the pavement was actually better than we had seen on the car. No tech problems, saw a lot of people on the side of the road changing flats or simply just hanging by the side of the bike. Res got to see a few accidents, luckily for me no accidents. All I did all day was pass people, being the last wave I had a chance to pass a lot of people, had only a few passed me. The wind started to pick up as we were approaching mile 30 or so, it was not the 5 mph North wind that the weather man had promised... it sure felt like 15 mph from all directions, no matter where we were turning. Nutrition on the bike worked well, I think I had a bit too much Infinit at one point so I felt a bit full, managed to get more water and not that much Infinit at that point. I then saw I was getting close so I had one powerbar energy gel, that was the plan. I had a few other snacks on the bike but nothing too big, had my uncrustable but didn't eat it, wasn't that hungry at all. Then came in, had a few sips of Infinit towards the end, and got off the bike. T2 was a bit more reasonable, only 3:43, considering had to take the long sleeve shirt and put on the singlet and off I think it was ok.

I had a feeling she was close by

There she was a few miles ahead of me

The run started good, as it always does, legs went for a few miles without knowing what was really going on, it took about 3 miles for them to catch up. By then I saw Res at the distance so I just set my goal to catch her and run/walk/jog/stroll/ the rest of the run with her. We did the first loop (4.3mi) running, slowing down at aid stations, then the second loop came and the slowing down became more of walking a bit longer at the aid stations, by the time the 3 loop came it was a lot more walking and less running, but we managed to at least finish it running. Our times 6:50 and 7:20 respectively, considering the elements thrown at us, we consider it a great success. 

Told ya.... I was going to catch you eventually

Overall it was a great race, yes we were in pain at times, but it wasn't too unbearable. The training that included 29 miles in the speedos, 770 miles on the pedals (which included 8 miles of an ambulance ride) and 213 miles with the kicks definitely paid off.  Thanks to Coach M, for his patience, wisdom, and words of advice during our training... oh and also for picking us up at the hospital after our crash :). We are very happy with our results, and being our first 70.3 it definitely is a journey to our next official crazy adventure Woodlands 2013 - 140.6 - Full IM. Are we ready now? not really... we are definitely sore, will we be ready? you bet!!!.

Stay tuned for our updates of that journey, I'm sure we will have ups and downs, good times, bad times, pains, glories, short races, a half a marathon, a full (maybe), another 70.3 maybe... so we will keep you updated. For now all we can say is... we finished our first 70.3 and we are happy!!!!

Finishing together... priceless :)

7 days and counting

Today marks our final week countdown before our first 70.3. After our episode from last Sunday has been a slow week recovering, cleaning up wounds, trips to the drug store and short workouts as recommended by Coach M. Yesterday we got on the bikes, we haven't been on since Sunday, bikes were also being checked and tuned up at the shop. It wasn't too bad a little stiff and sore in a few places but luckily there was no wind (surprising) at the speedway so it was actually a fun, fast ride, we were supposed to get 1:30 on the bike but since its getting dark so early we only were able to get 1:00 before it got dark. Today we were ready for the speedos (more for the wetsuits) but Coach M recommended us not to hit the water as my wounds were still a little fresh, Res didn't push the issue and decided not to get her feet week. Considering the 58-deg outside temperature and 77-deg water, I would've preferred to be in the water. Instead we decided to get our run in. We had 1:05, we did 1:00 (6.2 miles) and walked the last 5 minutes to the car. Note that we shortened our 10k time by 3 minutes, not too bad.

Now we just reflect on our workouts for the week, seem to be easy workouts nothing too stressful or long, just anxious to get out there and hit the course in Austin. Anxious to know what is waiting for us, have had a few friends give us reports of the bike course and it seems not to be so bad just have to be smart to reserve some legs for the run.

Res and I think we are ready, ready to get our minds over our body and ready to get this accomplishment, we have trained hard over the last 4 months putting a lot of laps in the pool, miles on the wheels and miles on the sneakers, we will leave the totals for a later post when we compile them.

All and all, just bring it on Austin, we are ready.

Time for Mind over Body

This week's training was the start of our taper before Austin, we had a nice 3 hour ride last Sunday on the trainer, by nice I'm being really sarcastic because it was not nice at all, but albeit the 40-deg temperatures, I guess it was a bit nicer. This week overall was ok, I had another trainer ride, this time only an hour long, Res was able to do it outside and she was really happy with it, she felt so strong, had a couple of short runs, not too bad, and an open water swim which was a good one because it was a 1.1  mile distance and I was able to do the time I want for Austin, in the mid 30's. Yesterday we had another open water swim, it was ok, water was choppier than we like but we were good. We had a 30 minute run, but we came home and watched Kona, when the pros came in we went for our 30 minute run, it was funny.... I was feeling faster, I guess pumped up after watching Kona all day.

It was all going well until today, we had our last group brick, started with a 20 min run, then 1:45 on the bike and supposed to finish with a 25 min run. Did the first, was nice, weather was nice a cold, went back to get on our bikes, headed to triple threat by Trophy Club. It is our 3 hill repeat in less than a mile stretch. We were at mile 10, right before we turn to hit triple threat and my front tire got caught in the pavement joint and I lost control over the bike, I went down, rolled for about 30 feet and Res who was behind me goes on top/over me hitting the ground face first. Luckily we were with Coach M, and 2 other girls from the team. I got up to try to run over to Res because she wasn't moving much, but my nose was bleeding so they stopped me from moving. Res was able to get up but when she got up she started collapsing. A few good samaritans stopped and probably called 911 because a few minutes later the showed up. Res helmet, again was broken, and she was white as a wall. Paramedics insisted to take us to the hospital which we accepted so they would check us up. Our wounds were cleaned up, our heads checked, we were cleared.

We were in pain then, we are in pain now, and probably will be in pain for a while. The road rashes on me are in places where I know are going to hurt and hope they get better in 13 days, otherwise it is going to make it for a long painful day in Austin. Res' wounds are also in places where they will hurt with a long day.

Here is where we go back and read Chrissie Wellington's Mind over Body Battle blog and get inspired by her story. I know we can't compare a World Championship on the line vs. our Austin 70.3, we are not trying to get there first, or try to set any records on the course. We are trying to just finish it and be able to enjoy it. We know it is going to be a quick recovery, and what we do in the next 13 days will highly impact our performance on the 28th. We have trained hard for it and certainly think we are prepared, but putting our mind over our body pains and aches is what its going to take us across the finish line. Not the way we wanted to taper down into our first 70.3 but it wil be a test to our mind... and our body to recover... also to the post office to deliver our new helmets and the new lenses for my Oakley's. As long as we stick together like we have always done it, we will do just fine. Like Chrissie says: it is "The race within myself—where I gave absolutely everything.... The “war” that my competitive spirit craves. I couldn’t have done it on physical strength alone. It was a true test of mind."

For now....

 

Good night!!!!

I guess it just hurts....

Last week was a so called "recovery" week, we took it really easy. Our schedules were pretty hectic traveling for work all week and limited time for training. I (Puli) was able to get a few workouts in, a swim and run in Oregon, didn't get the bike in because the bike at the hotel gym just sucked. Res was able to get hers in the same way, her bike suffered too because of me arriving on Wednesday so she came to pick me up at the airport. Of course, she didn't need an excuse not to do the bike. Thursday we had an early flight to FL, so needless to say swim and run that day were not an option, Friday was work for me and Res was able to get her long run, 6 miles along the intracoastal in hot Miami. Me, on the other hand, in a conference center locked up all day. Res was able to book a 5K on Saturday, she was all ready, well she was able to PR her 5K, under 25 minutes. 

This week, we got back into it, Monday catching up after the flights and all the home duties, and Tuesday we hit the pool and the trails. It wasn't too bad, Wednesday a nice bike ride around White Rock Lake, haven't done that one in a long time so decided to stay in Dallas and got it done there. Weather was great, so it felt really good. Thursday, our "speed workout" day was due. Read Speed Workouts blog and you will see. This time Coach M had a few new treats for us. Started by going up our beloved Elaine 4 times, with the instructions to charge at it on the way up and recover on the way down, so we did, even though we thought to ourselves, these 4 can't be it, so we saved some energy for whatever he had in mind at the end. We went back to him after our 4th one, and he had planned do sets of lounges, grapevines, and single-leg squads. Well, like I said... It just hurts... overall was a 4.5 miles workout in about 45 minutes (not including the squads and other core workouts) but we knew we were going to hurt on Friday. 

Friday came, and so the pain, it was a slow start trying to get up, legs were sore, from the glutes down. Our Friday ride, didn't happen, instead we went to see the Rangers lose the wild card game to the Orioles, not a good way to end the week but it was a lot better than trying to deal with the wind from the cold front trying to roll in to town.

Saturday, the weather was as promised, nice 51-deg, 15mph winds, the water was actually 80-deg but he allowed us to use wetsuits, being the 1st time since about April in it, it was good at the beginning but then the hard breathing and was getting too warm inside of it. The fact that we were dealing with 1' and 2' waves didn't help the situation, but we managed to do about 0.6 miles at the lake. The 1:30h run, happened at home, it was a good one, nice, chilly and we bundled up enough. Did I mention.... slow? yes it was slow, we are still sore. 

Tomorrow's 3 hour ride got cancelled due to the nice cold temperatures and 40-deg temps with wind, so it is going to be a 3 hour trainer ride. Better find some Netflix movies so it can be entertaining, not looking forward to ride while watching football... not my idea of fun either.

For now, we'll just say.. it just hurts, this couch has been our friend almost all afternoon :)))

 

Speed Workouts - Power Workouts... they work.. but ouchhhh

So for the last two months Coach M has been having these "themes" to week workouts. Hot August.. was Hot August Nights, in part thanks to Neil Diamond and also because it was HOT indeed.

August was mainly a speed workout. We would go out and ride our bikes time trial style. We would go to the TMS and do a 5 mile warm-up lap around. Then we will come to a stop and he would let us go from 0 to another lap, all out. 5 miles all out. The key was that it wasn't the fastest lap, it was the most improved lap over the month. oh, and another condition was that we had to be present at every practice. Well... the winner was Res, she was the most improved lap.

September he came up with another "Theme"... Elaine Power Workouts. Well, Elaine is not a woman, neither is synonymous of Power. Elaine is this street near Bear Creek Park. It is a bit steep, and definitely not tender, regardless of the "cute" name. Well... we've called Elaine numerous names over the few times that we've gone up and down. Coach M insists that it is for our own good, and we sure hope so, actually we were reminded of sweet Elaine during Trifecta and we were actually pleased to know that we could do it, after seeing a few people walking that big one on Trifecta we were thankful that we were ready to tackle anything that comes up or down our way.

Trifecta Tri - Our first Olympic distance

What a great race!! First all around, first olympic distance for us and first inaugural Trifecta Triathlon.

Pre-Race:
On Saturday we had a 75/30 brick on our schedule, we were debating about doing it because we weren't sure how it was going to affect our race on Sunday. We decided on Friday we will do it and just do a slow one. We headed out to meet Coach M at the lake since he had the IM guys do their swim. It was a cold morning, in the high 60s a bit chilly for a ride in September, but we went off to do our 21 mile loop. We just strolled, Puli was drafting the whole way from me saying that I help him keep a nice pace, it was more me helping him because he didn't want to work the legs. We then got back at the 1:20 mark and got our kicks on, and off for a nice 5K run, we just went out 15 and 15 back, weather was still nice and cold so it felt good.

We headed home to finish packing and get our stuff ready for the roadtrip to PK Lake. We were meeting some teammates along the way so we headed out. Got to PK, did our check-in first thing. This was a bit different for us, as we had to check-in our bikes and our running gear ahead of time. We did all that, and then headed to our team cabin. We also did a quick drive of the bike route with the team to see what we were up against the next day, so glad we did, see why later.. We organized our sleeping arrangements and then headed out to dinner at Puli's friends lake house, the rest of the team stayed and had the dinner they offered there. We headed back and by 10 pm lights were out and us trying to sleep with 9 more people in the same room, it was quiet an experience but we survived, we were so tired from the early brick that we just crashed.

Race-Day
Alarms started to go off at 4:30, then by 5:30 we were all up and starting to get ready. Everyone did their breakfast rituals, it was funny to see that. We are pretty simple when it comes to that. Quick oatmeal, banana, water/gatorade and we are good to go. Race didn't start until 7:30 so we kept it simple. By 6.30 we were heading to T1, last check of the bikes, pump air, setup shoes, helmet and glasses and off to body marking. The day looked a bit cold, so I decided to go with wetsuit, as they had announced the day before that it was going to be legal, so I used the advantage, considering that my swim had been struggling for a few weeks and I was off from swimming all last week. Puli decided to not use his.

Puli was the first wave so off he went after the pro's left. I was the 3 wave. I felt strong on the swim, my sighting definitely improved and the wetsuit gave me more confidence to do the 1500 meter swim. My swim was 36:49, not too bad, considering that I was in the 40's when doing it at training. I felt good coming out of the water. They had strippers and it was good, got on my bike and the road was a bit bad at the beginning and one of my aerobars became lose. It was moving so much I had to be aero the whole time, it was uncomfortable at the beginning but by the end I was concentrated and it didn't bother me as much. I was so glad that we had done the drive of the ride the day before because that big hill at mile 14 right before the turn was steeper than we all thought. I was able to do the bike in 1:29 averaging 16.7 mph on the bike, considering my tech difficulties and the hills, I was happy with my time. Got to T2, we new we were going to be in a rough T2, but it was a slow one. Got my newtons on and off to the run, we had driven some of the run we knew we were hitting hills at mile 1, but didn't count with the hill at mile 2, it was steep, when I finished those two I knew the rest of the way so it wasn't that bad. Was feeling pretty strong the whole way, I managed to keep a 9:03'/mi pace which to me it was great. Legs were feeling strong. Overall a great race, great volunteers and course support. Will do it again next year.


Here are the maps and profiles of the bike and run according to Puli's Garmin:

And a nice treat from the organizers... a great production video

The first Five55 series

So we did our first Five55 series race today. http://www.five55series.com/race-info-dallas.php

It is a race in a few cities that consists of a 500m swim at a local lake, a 5k and the other 5 is because it is on the 5th of every month. We have been wanting to do it but our schedules weren't matching. Finally we got to do it tonight. It is a good race because it is not that crowded. Only a couple dozen people. The temperature today was very hot 100+ at 6 pm. Res and I had registered and got body marked. I was trying to drink some water but our bottles were frozen. Couldn't get much in. By 6:30 males got in the water. We started shortly after. The water was hot, I was starting to get used to the water getting actually cooler. But not tonight. The water was slow, my arms were feeling heavy. The buoys seemed just far, at the end the swim was bit longer than the promised 500 meters. I started in the back of the pack didn't get passed as much and passed a few until I got cut and had to stop for a second to let the guy get by. Got out of the water in 14:29 a bit slower than I expected but off to transition and to the run. Put my shoes on, sunglasses, hat and off I went. The run was painful. I guess the water heat was starting to catch on to me and it was still hot by the time we got off the water. I still pushed but before the u-turn I had to walk for about 30 seconds. Got to the return and got some water and gatorade and started going back. I realized that I was not last but wasn't that far from being the last guy. Saw Res and she was going strong and trying to catch the 3 girls in front of her. I got back my 5K time today 30:11, considering that my time on Sunday's sprint practice was closer to 26:00 it was not a good day. I sat down and waited for Res. I was really happy to see that she did catch 2 of the girls in front of her and got second place of the women. A good short race, recommended to all interested to get some open water practice out there. Just wished it was a bit cooler out there, results might have been different.

Vincentown NJ, Sprint Tri - 07/07/2012

Vincentown Sprint Tri - Race Recap:
It was a good race overall. The swim you all saw the pic, it was very calm water until 50 people of my wave (1st of 3) started to swim. It was good to experience a start like that (can't imagine an IM start but I get the hint) had a few people going over me, a few elbows and my feet pulled. It started to panic me a little but I calmed down and got a good rhythm once the rush went through, then it all got better. Transition was good as well, bike didn't get lost like on Caveman, so I was out fast, on the bike I pushed hard, 20.1 mph avg vs. 17.7 mph from Caveman. Came back to transition, was out fast as well, at the beginning of the run I was going fast at it but paced my self to a 9'/mi pace and was able to keep a 9.24'/mi avg, a few areas I sprinted a little but it was hot and humid during the run, it was 90+ by the time we came back from the bike. Total time 1:24:14, 5th in my AG and 70 overall.

The fresh water lake as announced on the website, it wasn't that bad after all

Vincentown, New Jersey - Sprint Race Report - July 7/2012

Race Report by Res

Vincentown DQ Tri Recap - 400m swim, 15m bike, 5k. I was out in Wave 3 w all the females. My nerves tried to get the best of me while waiting in not so clean pond water (the website had advertised the swim in fresh lake water). Not quite! Made me appreciate our Lake Grapevine swims!! Then I was off...tried to stay in the inner left close to the buoys which helped because mostly everyone was out in the front or in the outer right. Some pushing to get away but I kept my cool. My sighting was better than training days, which helped! T1 minor tech difficulties w my new helmet, which I had to replace during the week due to bike crash (story some other time). Bike course was great, felt confident, and averaged 18.9 miles. Well take that back, confident enough until a 75y/o man zoomed right by me on his Tri bike!! Thought of Laura and the pregnant lady story and giggled!! (team inside joke) Pedaled harder, but he was gone!! T2 was smooth and was off in my awesome Newtons! The run started off in the shade which felt good because it was already hot and humid. Got to h2o aid station and one of the residents was standing out in the street w hose which I stood under for 2 sec :) continued to run and got to open corn field which was tough because it seemed forever as the sun was beating down!! Pushed harder and thought, can't walk this at the end!! Total time: 1:32:56. 2nd in my AG, 17sec away from 1st-totally unexpected!! :)

How it all got started

We had been thinking about the idea of getting into triathlons for a while now. It's been maybe since last summer that we started, but when we started doing some swimming along with our normal bike riding it got extremely hot and we just gave up on it. Not having a set schedule or workplan really didn't help the cause. 

We started looking for clubs but came to find out that not only were the clubs super expensive, but they seemed a bit more competitive than what we really wanted. We wanted to do this for fun and were not really looking to be pros by any means. We have full-time jobs and lives, and didn't want to get consumed by the sport(s). We came across IronTex, e-mailed Coach Mike and he e-mailed us back. After a quick phone call, all he said is come out and join us for a run this Saturday. So we did, luckily for us the meet point was near the house, waking up at 6:30am on a Saturday in February was not really our idea of how to spend a cold day, but we wanted to give it a shot. 

So we went to our first group workout, it was an hour run, and then a swim at the pool. Granted we had been running a little but not for an hour, we pushed and tried to keep up with the group. It was funny to see those training for the half IM or the full IM passing us by like we were walking, but we didn't walk (maybe a little). We put in maybe 4 or 5 miles in that hour, we were feeling good. Then we were off to the pool. Coach simply told us get in and show me what you got. Then he started to correct our styles. An eye opener for the two of us, as we knew we needed help but there was a lot of work. Swam for about 40-60 minutes with the group. 

Everyone was super nice and we felt very comfortable with everyone. Coach said at the end: "see you in the morning, bring your bikes." Res and I were of course tired and hungry after the workout but we were ready for the next day.