How the Nation's Tri became a part of our race schedule & it's FINALLY Buckeye football time again!

About 3 and a half months ago, as we were chatting over beers on the balcony, we decided to set a goal of completing and Ironman before Anthony turned 30.  At this point our first marathon was in sight (MCM October 27!), but we had never competed in a triathlon.  An Ironman by July 23, 2015 seemed like it was definitely an attainable goal, but we knew we should probably sign up for our first tri soon.  We signed up for a sprint triathlon in June.   

Fast forward 3 and a half months.  That sprint triathlon was cancelled, we decided to transfer that registration to the Nation’s Tri (Olympic Distance) in September and we signed up for a sprint tri in July (we LOVED this tri – The Tavern Triathlon in Richmond, VA).  We were definitely “bit by the bug.”  We “slowly” started acquiring tri gear… it started with a few tri tanks, then some tri shorts,… then we blinked and we each had a shiny new Cervelo P2, a Garmin 910XT watch and we were registered for Raleigh IM 70.3 (June 1, 2014) and Ironman Lake Placid (July 27, 2014)! We are officially committed to that goal of completing an Ironman!

Training has been amazing.  We have never been so fit.  Combining Olympic distance training with marathon training has been a lot of hours of training, and…surprise, surprise… we’ve been LOVING it!!  We are so looking forward to the Nation’s Tri next weekend and cannot wait for the MCM!  This winter, our focus will shift to a lot of swimming and a lot of hours on the bike trainer, but for now, we are happy to be putting in some of our biggest running weeks!! 

…It is a really good thing that neither of us are against enjoying a few beers while training, because it’s FINALLY COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON!!! Today was the first Buckeye game of the year – what better reward is there after a long run then a brass monkey (blue moon & OJ) and BUCKEYE FOOTBALL!?!

Anthony woke up at 4am today (not on purpose – I think he was just “sort of” excited for Buckeye football ;)).  So he was getting back from his long run as I was waking up (ok, I slept in a bit..).  I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit frustrated with myself.  I was happy to have caught up on some much needed sleep, but I felt behind the eight ball.  I like to get an early start to my day – to be getting back from my long run as other runners are just hitting the pavement, and this just wasn’t happening today.  I felt like a slacker.  I reminded myself that if I slept in, my body probably needed it and that all I had to do was get 10 miles in and then I could relax and enjoy some brass monkeys and college football with my guys!  I shook it off and got on with my morning…

It turns out it was a very good thing (for me) that Anthony woke up so early.  When I got back from my run at ~10, Anthony had a homemade breakfast sandwich waiting for me AND a special game day treat in the oven – BUFFALO CHICKEN QUINOA BITES!! (Recipe on food page!)  HEAVEN!!  So this game day was PERFECT!! It felt good to have a couple of afternoon beers and relax on the couch before 8pm for once! It’s probably a REALLY good thing that we won’t be training for IMLP during football season!! ;)

HAPPY COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON & GO BUCKS!!!!

[Posted by Peggy]