Day 107: Running with the cars

Calli- Instead of running with Jose today I had the wonderful opportunity to run with traffic! Actually, it looks like that will become a normal thing since I started working again. It is nice to run outside, but cars can be a bit crazy. I was careful on the roads, and there isn’t really anything exciting about that.I will start looking for a naturalistic place to run in the area, so that I can be away from all the car fumes. Have fun out there!

Jose- Today I decided to test myself after a few months of not running at full pace in the road. I was surprised when I realized that I finally went back to where I was about 12 years ago. I ran today 6.5 km in around 31 minutes. That’s a pace of 4 min 50 secs per km. I did all the run while listening to180 bpm songs. That was actually great! The music “forces” you to keep the pace the whole time. I still need to reduce around 1 minute per km but I’m very positive because with this pace I’m actually close to a minute lower than I was 4 months ago. Oh, and another good thing, I kept my HR close to 170 so… Cheers to a GREAT run!!

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner

Day 106: Here comes the sun…

Calli-
As I opened my eyes early this morning I saw that there was no sun. That made
me cringe just a little bit back into the warm covers. It is evident that it
was difficult to get out of bed this morning, but after stepping outside and
seeing this (picture) I felt so blessed. It was so pretty to see the world like this. I know that those colors are because of pollution, but what the heck,
it’s so pretty. After the swim I felt so fresh and ready for the day. We are
back on track with 1200 meter swim, and we are ready to RUMBLE!

Jose- I insist! Waking up with no sun is not the way to wake up. On the other side, it is part of being committed to something like this. In our case we need to take advantage of the few moments that we have to do our training. Meaning these early mornings. The water was a little bit cold, probably because of the hour. Once we jumped and started those 1200 meters of today I finally felt better. I have been looking at kicking videos and I felt at least a little bit of improvement by doing what I saw. Almost half of the workout was pull. By the time I was done my shoulders were so sore that I was immediately ready to NOT swim anymore during at least 48 hours.

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” -Aristotle

Day 105: The next cycling step

Calli: I am so eager to start upgrading the biking equipment. I would like to start practicing with the right shoes because I know that there is a big difference between cycling shoes and the straps that hold your feet in. The cycling class today went very well, and I felt more rested than yesterday. Afterwards, we ate and took a nap. It’s amazing how important food has become (well it has always been important to me). I hope that we can soon invest in some cycling shoes…happy fun time all!

Jose: We went back to the hard work today. We biked for an hour at different intensities since we did a spinning class. It is still difficult to use the seats without being in pain at some point. Gladly I can get up whenever I need to. We are almost set with all the things we need to buy for September. We just need the bike stuff. Obviously the most expensive things. However we decided to rent the bikes in Ohio since that will save us the trouble of flying bikes all the way there. The only and last thing that we are missing are the cycling shoes. We have a few possibilities in mind. We will make sure to keep you posted with pictures of our new gadgets.

“Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” ~ Charles M. Schulz 

Picture taken from: http://www.cyclingcom.com/cycling-shoes-triathlon/

Day 104: Active Recovery

Today we felt exhausted to an extent that we needed more recovery during our RECOVERY WEEK. It is smart to listen to your body’s needs and make decisions based on what it can handle. As we have said before the week was very busy. Actually, January has been an incredibly eventful month. I started a new job, Jose has extra work teaching, and we started our new training plan with added strength training. It has been a challenge to stick to regular morning hours, and moving everything around can throw you out of focus. In addition to our sporadic hours, we have had a tiring week. Therefore, we decided to take an active recovery. This means that you stick to your original work out, but at a slow methodical pace. That way, you keep your muscles active, but they are also in a state of rebuilding. Remember, if you are not properly rested that you cannot properly improve your heart rate. Have a good rest everybody, and remember to rest actively!

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

Day 103: Do you have what it takes?

We found an AMAZING article at Active.com about what it takes to be a triathlete. Being dedicated to a sport is way more than waking up early in the morning and then continuing your normal life. The moment that you start committing to something like this makes your life change. Your day starts turning around your new hobby and little by little it takes over until it becomes a way of life. Reading the article was really funny for us because we realize how involved we are right now by being able to relate with every single fact mentioned. Some of the facts that we find very true are:

- You will not become efficient at swimming, biking or running overnight. This is NOT an easy sport.
- You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run.
- You will be up while others are sleeping.
- Warning, it is extremely addictive, hence the impulse spending on
wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, aero bars, aero helmets, speed suits,
power meters, GPS heart-rate monitors and many other “gotta have”
items.
- You will hate swimming more times than you like it for the first year.
- Food will become an extremely important part of your life.
- You may lose a friend or two because you spend too much time swimming,
biking and running, and they could care less about your heart rate
training, foam rolling pain or 20-mile bike ride.

These and many other facts become your reality when you want to dedicate your day to this GREAT sport! We are happy about it and about the level of commitment that we have achieved because of this. So You Wanna Be a Triathlete? Make sure to read the whole article, laugh a little bit and then get off the couch and start improving your life!

“Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.” – Denis Waitley