Mr. T.'s Ramblings--the Second Installment

May has arrived, and another week has come and gone as we find ourselves closer yet to that (hopefully) magical day at the end of September.  I, Mr. T a.ka. the other half, a.k.a. the non-writer type person agreed to help out the Mrs and make another feeble attempt at penning a literary masterpiece rambling/jumbled entry to the blog.  This week was one of ups and downs as I am beginning to believe most weeks are.  We are now only a couple weeks out from starting the “official” training plan and we are both looking forward to having a little more structure and having someone else wiser than us tell us what to do.  Our trainer, a multiple-Ironman finisher and 3-time Kona qualifier has had WAY too long to dream up devious things to implement into our training.  I had hoped the eternal North Woods winter this year would make him soft or throw him off of his game, but recent conversations and hints from him are leading me to believe this most likely has not happened.  Alas, we are still nervously awaiting the “first installment” of the tortureabuse excitement wise instruction sufferfest plan.

This week we were able to get a few good training sessions in but had to scale back a bit in the frequency and duration department.  This worked out ok as it was a “recovery” week for me, and Mrs T needed to take some time to work on the income-earning job.  Wednesday night our two oldest kiddos had their year ending Awana program so we both took the evening off to go to that.  Friday I had to go into the doctor to have a mole removed, and due to the stitches I was told to stay out of the pool for 10 days.  I almost hugged the doctor and jumped for joy to get this iron-clad excuse to get to skip swimming.  I agreed to behave and after consulting with the trainer nazi intelligent professional trainer, it was decided the next ten days for me would be a bit of a bike/run training block. 

Mark &Matt--SDTA Go-Getters 

The weekend arrived and with it were plans for Nik to race a sprint tri again.  Something big and new around here, South Dakota’s own triathlon association led us to decide on planning to race again this weekend.  Part of the association’s draw is there is now a triathlon “series” with many of the local races being participating events.  Racers earn points in all sanctioned races, and at the end of the year there are awards and such.  This is all the brainchild of two energetic go-getter guys who love the sport.  As a result, they are doing an outstanding job of not only spreading the word about the South Dakota Triathlon Association (a.k.a. SDTA) but also growing the sport with their knowledge, enthusiasm, and presence.  Anyone interested should check out the website at http://sdtriathlonassociation.com/  As triathletes ourselves, we are very excited about the direction they are heading and the possibilities that lay ahead.  Anyway, as the day progressed on Saturday, both of us started to feel a bit of a bug coming on.  We talked with our friends who were also going to go up and race, and after some tossing around of ideas it was decided to cancel the racing plans.  Disappointed as we were to not be racing, Sunday we awoke feeling super crusty and very glad that we had made the decision we had made.  We hoped to get a bike or a run in that afternoon, but naps and general lack of movement won out. 

This week brings a fresh start, and while we are still a bit under the weather, we are hoping to really GET AFTER IT again!  As I mentioned above, for me this week will bring a strictly bike/run focus and I am somewhat excited to put in some “extra” time on those disciplines.  We both have a couple new “toys” to experiment with this week, Nik with some new “racing/triathlon” shoes that will hopefully help speed up the transition process of her races and me with some tweaks to my bike to get used to.  The new week also looks a tad better weather-wise so plans for LONG outdoor bike rides and LONG outdoor runs are alive and well at the moment.  The coming weekend has no obligations for us so hopefully we are able to get in some good training time and also some good family time.  With that I will sign off of this inspiring post.  Thanks for following along in the journey of these two ambitious parents!  Until next time- train safe and train smart!!