Good Sunday

At the time of uploading this blog, I'm readying myself to go on a late afternoon ride like I mentioned in the video. It's a wonderful Sunday afternoon and the weather is hot - just like I like it. It's been a hectic day in getting the house cleaned up to show to prospective buyers this afternoon, but now that that's over I can relax and go on a stress releasing ride.

Troy is getting in an evening 40 minute run and I'm a bit jealous. He's still a bit leary of riding due to his glute muscle, but he says it's getting less uncomfortable so he should be back on the bike real soon.

I'm still waiting out the extended rest period for my achilles tendon issue, but it seems to be doing fine. I just want to give it ample time to properly heal so I don't do any long term damage. These age-related minor injuries are super annoying! I wish that getting older wasn't such a cruel joke. Well, . . . gotta hit the ball that's pitched to ya!

The Saturday 22

This morning I woke up at 6:00 am to get in our weekly Saturday 22 mile ride. However, I had to do this all by myself. Troy is having a little problem with his left glute muscle. He's not real sure how he tweaked it, but to him it's painful and he's trying to be cognizant of not doing more damage to it yet still allowing it to heal and be able to train. I know it's frustrating for him. I deal with the same crap. However, it's part of the process and it's something that has to be dealt with by every athlete.

Today was a very enjoyable ride - even though it was alone. I had a good amount of quiet alone time with my thoughts and prayers and was granted an extra dose of peace from the Lord. Throughout this process, I know and have faith that the Lord will protect me and my family and keep them safe and cared for. This I know and am thankful. Triathlon and its training has, in many ways, saved my life!

The New 20. . . for Troy

With it being Friday, Troy and I really wanted to get in a good but comfortable ride this afternoon before we trek out on our 22 miler early in the morning. Even though we had to battle the afternoon rain, we managed to squeeze it in and got our easy 20 accomplished. Troy ended up enjoying the new route that I had charted and liked the fact that it's not too hilly. This is the 20 mile loop that I frequently do on my own that's so cathartic for me. It's got everything. It has a few hills, it's got good paved roads, and best of all, it's got amazing scenery! This is one of my all-time favorite rides outside of the Harpeth rides and hopefully Troy will end up feeling the same. He did extremely well on the ride and seemed quite comfortable - to the tune of averaging over 17 mph. Not bad for the first time.

With it being Labor Day weekend, I intend to go out on a 63 mile ride on Monday morning. I've got to start mentally preparing for that NOW! We'll see how it goes.

On the Grind

Today was a tough but good workout that Troy and I had this morning. We did a 40 minute swim/drill training swim. Later, it was brought to my attention (by Troy) that we were actually supposed to do a 30 minute swim and then a 35 minute run. Oh well, we over did it just a bit but it was for the good. Now we've just got to fit in our second session of the day which is a 35 minute run for Troy and a 40 minute bike for me. I'm hoping I can get it in with all that I have to do before the weekend. At any rate, I'm looking forward to the weekend as I'll be able to get a lot of good training in and a lot of good "alone" time.

Now off to spend time with my girls before they get off for the weekend. Happy Labor Day weekend!

A Rest Day Swim

Since I ended up doing NOTHING on Monday, I figured that I'd better make up for it today even though today is mine and Troy's rest day. I went to the Rec. Center and got in an easy 30 minute drill/swim workout before I had to be in the studio to finish the never ending kids project. This thing is going to be the death of me for sure! I can not wait to get this thing done and in the can! Our training however, is what's keeping me sane and in touch with the Lord on a daily basis. He seems to speak the loudest to me when I'm alone and focused. It's also the most peaceful time that I have. It's actually funny how that works. Putting your body through stress and strain while your mind and soul is totally at peace. It doesn't seem possible in my brain, but I can only chalk that up to the sovereignty of Christ.

Night Time Swim

We're currently getting a ton of the residual effects of that hurricane Faye that past through Florida. That doesn't make for very good training weather outside. Nor does it really get your spirits high to do anything physical. For the past two days, I've really struggled to make myself work out and stay on my schedule. With work in the studio and the pressure that's going along with that, combined with what's going on outside, I haven't wanted to train at all! I've even toyed with wanting to just throw in the towel and do NOTHING! However, I don't want to let down Troy and I know the longer I stay with this, the more benefits I well receive long-term - both physically and spiritually.

Today ended up being pretty productive on the training side. With being in the studio all day and pressured by the deadlines, I managed to sneak in 45 minutes in the pool as I was picking up Shelby from swim practice. It felt good and it was extremely cathartic. However afterward, I cheated by Shelby and I treating ourselves to a huge monster burger from Hardee's! It was so magnificent and tasted so wonderful! Why do all the bad foods taste so freakin' good? It's just not fair!

The Rainy Day Blues

Today was one of those days that I definitely didn't feel like workin' out. However, I did and got through it with no problems. I've still yet to do weights as of 7:30 pm but I'll get it in later tonight before bed.

Troy, on the other hand, got in a lunch time run and really rubbed it in my face with the fact that he enjoyed it and actually ran well. It kind of pissed me off and discouraged me in a good way. It only made me hungry to start back running again even though I know I have to wait.

Troy's a jerk! :-)

The 42 Miler. . . again

This morning we embarked on our second 42 mile excursion on the bike since our Top Gun Triathlon. Going in, we didn't really know what to expect in our fitness and endurance. We did know that we could make it of course. We just didn't know how we would fair toward the end. So to that end, Troy and I decided to experiment with our calorie intake and our hydration process. We went to the REI outdoor store and got some GU gels to test out to see how our bodies and our energy levels would respond. Put it this way, . . . they work! I found myself, toward the end of the ride, having a ton of energy and ready to keep going. Troy's endurance and energy level was definitely higher than normal too. Therefore, we're going to keep training and racing with these "new" products. I know this is no new found thing, but it's new to us and this process and it's cool to continue to discover things about our nutrition and fitness levels. We continue to learn new things and continue to progress. That's what we love. Not to mention the whole spiritual aspect of the training and being outside in nature and with our thoughts, ideas, and our Lord.

Troy the Sick Boy

Today's vlog pretty much says it all. Troy's been sick for the last couple of days and I can tell it's been highly frustrating for him.

Me on the other hand, I've been steadily keeping up with my training minus the running part which is just as frustrating. However, the rest on the achilles tendon has been quite good and it definitely feels much the better for it. I'm really hoping and praying that this thing heals properly and makes a full recovery so I can compete hard in the coming race and upcoming races this next year. Troy and I have many exciting plans in the year to come to do a lot of races, organized bike rides, and various hikes. I guess you could say we've turned into outdoor sportsmen. I never thought we'd view ourselves as something even close to that, but that's exactly what we've turned into and we both love it.

Gotta rest for the upcoming long 42 mile ride early tomorrow morning. It should be fun.

Me, Myself, and I

Our schedule today technically calls for a run and a swim. With my achilles issue, I'm obviously doing a bike and swim today. I say this; I'm REALLY going to either get sick of biking and swimming or get really good at the two. I hope it's the latter.

Anyway, this morning I went on a 20 mile early morning ride to get that aspect out of the way so I can concentrate on our late night swim tonight. We have a 40 minute swim in front of us, so I'm going to implement 10 minutes of fin drills and so forth.

Troy's still doing extremely well and making big strides on this long journey. I'm anxious to see how he does on his run when it comes race time. I'm sure he'll be much better than last time.

Rest Day

Today, nothing is going on training-wise as you'll see in the above video. Wednesday is our newly acclimated rest day and it's quite nice. Tomorrow is a swim and run that is scheduled, but for me, I'll be doing an early morning swim and bike. I'm ready for this achilles tendon problem to go away. I'm actually ready to run and do some sprint work.

Looking forward to the Suncoast Triathlon in October. One step at a time!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Today has been a good training day for me. Reason being, Troy and I went hard in the pool this morning, then I went on a morning hour long ride to finish out the training schedule. It was tiring, a bit pressing physically, but extremely peaceful and rewarding.

I gotta say however, I was very surprised and impressed by Troy this morning in the pool. As I was doing intervals (a 400 warmup then 200 intervals with 50 sprints at the end), I kept noticing that I never saw Troy stopping between his intervals like he normally does. Come to find out at the end, Troy told me he never stopped swimming for the entire 30 minutes that we were in the pool. I was trippin'! I haven't even done that myself! So in essence, it became a case of the tortoise and the hare. Guess who the hare was and ends up being the loser! I thought it was great and a huge testament to how far he's come in his lifestyle change. I'm not exactly sure he knows how much of an inspiration that he is on me in this whole physical and spiritual process. If he doesn't, he certainly knows now! :-)

Lastly, I think we've decided to push ourselves to go on a couple of long hikes over a weekend to just switch things up and make our training interesting. We're looking to go sometime in the next couple of weeks. It should be a great time to get some footage. We'll see.

In A Little While

We haven't posted anything in the past couple of days due to extreme business in Troy and I's schedule. It's certainly a blessing for me because it keeps me busy and there's something on the horizon that can be a big prospective employment opportunity that I could really excel at. I continue to pray that God has favor and allows things to progress in my favor.

Troy and I have respectively been keeping up with our training and Troy, in particular, has been making great strides in his physical weight loss. I have no idea how much he's currently lost, but I can definitely tell in his appearance.

As for me, I had a swim and weight workout today and the swim was extremely tough for some reason. I was definitely not on my game. Hopefully, tomorrow will be different and we'll work to bring more video tomorrow as well. Until then. . . 

The Deuce Deuce!

Today may have been one of the most enjoyable rides I've had to date. The weather was absolutely perfect, we didn't push it too hard, and I had my brother by my side to talk to and to help to push me. It was what I consider a slice of heaven.

I'm still a bit bummed about the fact that I can't run, but I'm going to stick to that so to not cause permanent damage to the achilles tendon. My target date is September 20th to be able to begin to start to run again. Until then, . . . I've mandated no running at all for myself! Troy is helping me to stick to that. Thanks T.

Other than the slight setback, Troy and I are still really enjoying our training and pursuing the goals that we set for ourselves. In fact, Troy signed us up to be USA Triathlon members. Now we've got some incentive to really work to get into some serious races beginning in '09. I love it!

Therapy Ride

This was a great ride for me and a very creative thoughtful one as well. Some things are seemingly starting to come together in the career department.

Today I spoke to a professional sports trainer about my calf and achilles problem. As it turns out, I very well may have a micro tear in my achilles tendon. The only thing that I can do is not run on it for approximately a month. Otherwise, I could possibly do much worse damage to the point of not being able to run for as much as one year. I must admit, my body has been telling me to not run or take it much easier but I haven't been listening until now. I don't want to do long-term damage, so I've decided to completely lay off of running for a full month. So in essence, I'm not running one time until September 15th. It'll be interesting to see how things progress in that long amount of time. I'm praying that it properly heals so I can start building strength and speed for the 5 and 10k in upcoming triathlons.

Troy and I have decided to race in the Suncoast Triathlon for sure. It's on October 23rd and it'll be a whirl wind trip. Very unlike our last one that was extremely relaxing and therapeutic. However, we're still excited and looking forward to seeing our progression from our first race compared to our second. We shall see.