Her name is Rio

Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf) taken from the top of Corcovado

Beach outside our hotel - where I got in 3 swim sessions YAY!

Me at the top of Corcovado - not sure what I am looking at.

Corcovado - seriously way way impressive in real life. I got dizzy looking at the top of it.

And finally some real Brazilian acai bowls to finish off the day.

Now one of my favorite cities. I just got back Saturday from a week of long work hours and early/late training sessions, but I am in love with this city. So much so that I am in the process of learning Portuguese. If you haven't been, I strongly suggest you make a plan to go.
Some highlights:
1) I had my first real coconut water poured right from the coconut. I have always been scared to try it because I loathe coconut, but YUM! Not a taste of coconut in sight.
2) I got my first acai bowl - not the kind from Diamond head Cove or Jamba Juice, but the real deal. Very delish.
3) Ocean swims - 3 to be exact. loved every minute
4) Seeing Ipanema, Copacabana and Lablon on my runs
5) Samba school - the school we went to has won Carnaval a few times. I may have to go back and see them in action.

Training there was nice, it was winter, so the runs were very nice out but the swims were FREEZING. I think it was the coldest I have ever been in water. I didnt think to bring any kind of wetsuit so I had to brave it with just my splish. But I did get in some ocean open water swims for the first time in forever, and really enjoyed it. I also got to swim out by the surfers and pretend I was back in Hawaii surfing again. I did not want to come home because everywhere I went reminded me of being back in Hawaii and walking out my front door to swim/bike/run. Only bad news is that I caught a nasty cold/flu on the plane back (bound to happen after 16 hours of travel) and am just now starting to feel better. Next week I am headed over to Phoenix for work (not sure who the brains are behind planning a meeting in Phoenix in August) where I will get some quality sauna training in. Then it is over to Houston where I will train in a steam room. All this travel has made it really hard to keep up a schedule, but my wonderful coach has been very patient and made sure that I am getting in all the training required, even if it includes 11PM treadmill sessions or 4Am biking :). Happy training everyone!

Ironman Training

Ironman training has begun, and the first item of business was to hire a coach! I went back and forth with whether or not I should get one, but after stressing about creating a schedule and talking to a few friends who did their first ironmans with and without coaches, I decided I needed to get one. And she lives in Texas which made my decision that much easier! She knows that I am sort of a problem child with all the travel I do for work and the fact that 90% of my rides are on a trainer, but she agreed to take me on anyway. I have been ramping up the swim/bike over the past few weeks, but this week is our fist official week together and let's just say I hope this week isnt an omen for things to come. I woke up sunday with an awful stomach virus that has left little in my stomach but the three bottles of gatorade I have had since saturday. I am going to attempt to eat dinner tonight and hope I am ok tomorrow. Good news is I am 5 lbs closer to racing weight than I was on saturday! Also, the dog woke up really sick on sunday too - odd. I am beginning to wonder if dogs can pass stuff on to people or vice versa because this is the 3rd time this has happened to me. I assume I will be better tomorrow to get back to training, and I hope I am 100% by Saturday because I am heading to Rio! I have three ocean swims on the schedule next week that will all be done here:

I am very excited to be back in a beach city! Even more exciting is that my visa actually arrived on time so I am legal to go to Brazil.

Oh and has anyone done one of these? Last week when I was at the pool I had someone ask me to join their team for a 4 hour swim. I said sure not really knowing what i was getting in to, but it turns out the 4 hour swim is really a 16 hour race where each person swims an hour and rests 3 until the 16 hours are up. The winning team is the team that goes the farthest. I have no idea who counts lengths of the pool (we are in trouble if I have to count my own laps), but I do know that swimming 4 hours in a pool has got to get a little boring. I am praying that this event is ipod legal so I can wear mine in the water to distract myself. I wonder if the real idea here is to find a team that can actually continue the event without bailing from sheer boredom before the 16 hours are up and they are declared the winner.

Cooking on a saturday

The pool here closes on Saturday from 10-1 and I wanted to watch the Germany vs Argentina game, so my run swim run is gonna be after 1 today. Once the game was over, I had a little time on my hands and decided to test out some home made Lara bars. Well I was hoping to use dates, but apparently my Spanish isnt perfect yet and I ended up using prunes.

When Chris asked what I was doing I showed him the bars and he said they looked like Liko's (our dogs) poo. Lovely image, but he does have a point. Hopefully they taste better than they look. After that I decided to test out a recipe that Beth had for gluten free muffins.
Actually I had Chris test out the recipe since I had to work a bit. We changed the recipe a little and used fresh blackberries instead of dried fruit and they were AWESOME! I scarfed down 4 (as you can see in the photo), and am hoping I can make them last at least until dessert tonight.
This weekend the goal is to start figuring out a training plan for the race. I know it is early, but I am starting from 0 swimming and need to build up for the next couple of months. The pool has a free masters class that I am going to start going to a few times a week, and I will try and get in a bike a week off trainer as well until I really start training. Good news is at least I have a solid running base. I am debating about getting a coach too (either here or virtually). More to come on all of this after I figure out what the hell I am doing.

Happy fourth of July and Happy flotilla-ing in Hawaii (my favorite day of the year there). I will be thinking about you all from my desk when I am working on Monday.

The only Triathlon on the calendar

Yesterday I found a pool! I cant tell you how excited I was. Granted, it is about $80 more a month than I am used to spending (which is $0) and it is a little far from the house, but my happiness here in Mexico depends on it. I am not me without swimming, and after 1.5 years with 1 swim, I am hoping to feel like me again. To celebrate I signed up for this.

Ahhh, this race is home for me, and I cant think of a better first ironman. I had a long talk with Chris before signing up about what it would take and that I wouldnt have time to do anything other than sleep, eat, train, and work. He already keeps the house in order now, but was totally on board with putting in any extra work I may need, and I love him for it. So that means from now until the real training starts, I have to put in some extra effort when and where I can. I also went through all of these emotions of can I actually do this?, it will most likely be my only triathlon between now and then, is that ok?, will I have time to train?, will I be able to find places to bike off the trainer?, and on and one. Until finally I sucked it up and signed up. This race is in Houston and my family, friends and Chris will be there to cheer me on, and I will give it my best. That is what this is all about right?

Things are getting back to normal

First a WC update. After yesterday all three of my teams are now officially out, which means I have to find someone else to cheer for. I am a little torn between Argentina (where everyone in my division at work is from except my boss and me, so if I want to grow in my career...well, you know), Brazil (I really like the colors and am going there right after the final match so it would be fun to see that celebration), and Portugal (because I can really watch Ronaldo play all day long). Since the US snd Mexico are out, things have gone a little back to normal. After a booze and food filled weekend, I am back to my healthy eating and limited alcohol consumption. Although thankfully I have the Tour to watch once the world cup ends while I am riding those endless hours on the trainer.
There is that little event called Ironman happening in my hometown. I am seriously contemplating it (assuming it didnt sell out between last night and today). But I have to find somewhere to swim if I am going to do this. It will also be the only triathlon I do between now and then, so that might make it difficult. But having my family and friends there would more than make up for it. And I have a marathon not too long before, which means at least my run training will be there. Either way, I know there are a ton of people racing it, so I will head to Houston to watch. And to those of you who are saying how hot and humid it may be, be careful. I did a tri that same weekend a few years ago in Houston and it was wetsuit legal. May is a crap shoot there. It probably will be hotter than what you are used to, but the 105 heat indexes usually dont come until late June or July.*

*Although this year it was hotter than hell the first weekend of June, so you never know!

Week of rest and world cup action

This week has been pretty mellow. Last friday at 7AM was the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. This also means the beginning of a month long holiday here in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, Europe and anywhere outside of Canada and the US. I figured I would get up to the gym and watch the opening ceremonies from the tready and then head to the parties to watch Mexico vs RSA. Getting up I felt like total crap, but thought it would get better once I got to the gym. How wrong I was. I am not exaggerating when I say that walking at 3.8 was HARD. Harder than the last 6 miles of a marathon hard. So after 20 minutes I stopped and decided to head to the hotel to watch the game and partake in the festivities. I could barely stay awake so I had three cups of coffee. That didnt help, so I decided to give in and have 2 coronas. I dont think I have had a beer at 9AM since college, but Im sure in college I was way more fun after 2 beers. All I could think about was sleep. Thankfully noone works, so coming back to the office to "work" wasnt a big deal and I suffered until I made an early exit. The rest of the weekend I slept. After 50 hours of sleep, I still felt bad Monday and nausea had started to kick in. The only thing I have been able to think about eating is steamed spinach (odd huh?) and have sent Sr to the store every day to get another 2 lbs. So after 4 days of nothing but spinach, water and ginger ale and going to sleep at 7:30, I am starting to feel a little bit better. I think it was my body's way of telling me to take a rest week. Tomorrow I will see how I feel, and if I am back to 100% and have eaten a normal meal, I will give running a try.

For those of you not following the games, Mexico beat France in a huge upset today. This is what is going on outside my window.



It is a little hard to explain on conference calls with my gringo co workers why they can hear horns and screaming in the background. It is going to be even harder to find a way to get home today. Tomorrow at 9AM is the US game and if we win I might just go outside and celebrate with the people still leftover from the Mexico celebration. Vamos USA!
Chris pointed this out to me the other day. Only in Mexico would this be on the sidewalk in a nice neighborhood.

More Marathon Info

Wow, the backlash to the Houston lottery system is pretty big. People are pissed! There is a FB group - say no to the houston marathon lottery and this is one of the posts that is going around.
All is now explained. The CHM paid $1.7 million to get the Olympic trials and they plan to fund it from the proceeds of OUR race. Cut corners on medals and t-shirts. No pasta party. Can't afford to extend race time, move off MLK weekend. etc. They can't raise money from sponsors directly so you get to sponor.
I went ahead and signed up for the Austin marathon right when it opened, because I have a feeling it will sell out fast with this new lottery in Houston. It is two weeks later and a 2 hour drive from Houston. Other than the hills, it is like running the same race. If I get into the Houston half I will run the full in Austin, if not, I will run the half in Austin. Or maybe I will run the half either way since the holidays and training dont mix with me.
Apparently work and training dont mix with me either. I have a 15K race this weekend. I have run exactly 0 times since I got back from Dallas. I am considering this my taper.