Shame, shame, shame

Shame on me.  I feel like I've stepped into a confessional, hidden under a veil, about to tell my deepest and darkest sins.  'Hello readers, it has been 45 days since my last post.'  Cue the catholic guilt, recite the serenity prayer and click your road bike shoes 3 times.  Are we reconciled?  I sure hope you guys forgive me because I am back and better than ever.  Well, let's just say I'm back and the jury will decide later on whether I'm better at this whole blogging biznazz.

Where do I even start...  The last time you heard from me, I was ready to go on vacation and had marked July 8th as our start date to the 12 week program.  How was vacation?  Vacation was good and restful.  We didn't work out as much as we had intended but we did try.  I got sick with allergies and a sinus cold.  I spend a good part of my days with my good buddy Neti Pot.

Exhibit A - good thing we captured this angle.

Aside from spending time in front of a sink, we also spent most of it in the pool.

Exhibit B - my sister hiding in the shadow.

All in all, we loved spending it with family and we can never get enough of our nieces.  We drove there and back and it kicked our butt.  It's a 21 hour drive one way but it was the only way we could take our dogs with us.  Thankfully we decided to come back a day earlier so we could rest one full day before we got back to the grind and start our triathlon regimen.

We just finished our 4th week of the 12 week program and its been tough.  First of all, Michelle was due to start a new job when we came back from Arkansas, and the hospital is located about 1 hour away from where we live.  We definitely didn't grasp 2 things: that she was going to be working full time now and that 2 hours out of her day were going to be spent in traffic.  This completely affected how smoothly we thought our training program was going to go.  It isn't until this 4th week that we have a good sense on how to work out on our own and together.  We are obviously undertaking this triathlon together and I was so bummed with the thought that we were going to have to train separately, but we've managed to make it work.  How so?  On the days that there are two workouts, I will do the optional workout in the morning by myself (I slither into work at 11:30ish am).  Then at 7:45 pm we can do the main workout together before dinner.  As much as I'd like her to do the optional workout before I get home, I'm trying not to put too much pressure because she has all the right to unwind after work.  When it's a one workout day, it's easy and we do it at night or we decide ahead of time that we'll do it separately.  And the weekends are the easiest in terms of time, but not so much when it comes to motivation.  LOL!

We're trying our 'best' and we know that we can definitely step it up a notch.  I'm not going to lie, I was stressed from Day 1.  I wanted to be perfect and do all the workout sessions but I found that we weren't managing our time well and it frustrated me.  We literally did this for 2 straight weeks like robots:  wake up, eat, go to work, workout, eat, bathe and sleep.  This is supposed to be fun, so I had to be open to perspective and shift my thinking.  Now that our feet are more than wet, we are having fun and have our schedules down so hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out.

Exhibit C - having fun.

Mark your calendars people, we signed up for the first triathlon (as a relay) on September 29th.  It is the Publix Escape to Miami Triathlon and we are pumped.  Nervous but pumped.  Have a fantastic weekend and you'll hear from me next week, I promise.  Ride on!