It's a Wrap ...

Wow, whadda week we just wrapped up!  It was so chalked full of action that the only way this tired and weary blogger can recap is through the laziness beauty of the little round dots known as bullet points.  

• A HUGE Congrats to my lovely wife Annie for setting a 21-minute PR during yesterday's Houston Marathon (She'll have a RR later).  The morning started as humid and ended extremely wet after continuous rain showers.  Despite these tough running conditions she still sucked it up and put in a great effort.  I am very proud of her!

• A HUGE Congrats to our friends Elizabeth, RuthAnn, and Beth for their strong finishes yesterday as well. It was fun training with all of you over the last six months.  You all did awesome!

• I am about 95% back from being sick with bronchitis and a sinus infection.  Over the last 13 days I missed a total of 18 scheduled workouts.  My energy has returned but I am still experiencing the lingering effects of an awful cough which has made it impossible to swim and difficult to run and bike.  My antibiotic cycle ends tomorrow and I am hopeful I can put this setback behind and move forward. Here are my disappointing volume totals for the month of January:  
• Swim -10h 35m - 22,600 Yds
• Bike - 17h 54m - 334.61 Mi
• Run - 11h 17m  - 80.98 Mi

• As you can see as a total these numbers are not awful but this was my second month of Base Training for Ironman and I fell about 30mi short on the run, 170mi on the bike, and about 18,000 yds on the swim.  The good news is that since I had a November HIM and never took an offseason my base was pretty solid starting Ironman training.  Tomorrow morning I will try and get 3500yds in the pool at Masters swim.  All-in-all this could have been a lot worse and I am thankful to be almost through the woods.

• I am exhausted this morning!  I am exhausted from being a Marathon Spectator - damn that is hard work.  Here is a recap:  Yesterday woke up a 4am and started getting things ready to go.  Was on the road by 5am.  We parked about a mile from the Convention Center and I walked with the girls over to the meeting area.  I had to turn around and walk back a mile after forgetting my Blackberry in the car.  Then it was a 1/2mile walk to the start line which I did with my friend Patrick so we could get starting pictures.  After the race started we walked to mile 7 of the marathon course.  We used one of those race maps that didn't have a legend - it looked like a map from Disney Land.  These types of maps suck.  We estimated the walk to mile 7 was about 1.5 miles.  We were wrong, it was over a 4 mile walk.  After we saw the girls run by we started the over 4 mile walk back to the start line to get in the car and drive to mile 20.  This walk was all done in a downpour.  We then drove to mile 20 and cheered there for about 2 hours taking pics with the SLR camera.  After seeing our runners we headed to the finish line which required us to park about a mile away.  When it was all said and done Patrick and I walked about 14-15 miles and were on our feet for 7 hours straight!  I told Annie next time I was going to run because it is a lot less exhausting - she did not find that comment as humorous as me!

• Even after all this I still got my Sunday run in last night - it was brutal.

• Very Cool Team Trakkers Update #1: If any of you have not signed up yet for the Rev3 race(s) for this season you can save $10 per entry by using this code:  Trakkers15.  You'll be prompted to enter as you register on Active.com.  Here are the races that the code is eligible for - Rev3 Knoxville, Rev3 Quassy, Rev3 Portland, Rev3 Cedar Point, and Rev3 South Carolina.  I am registered for Cedar Point and South Carolina and am trying to work Portland into the schedule too!  To keep up on all things Rev3 please follow on Twitter @Rev3Tri.

• Very Cool Team Trakkers Update #2:  We are pleased to announce that All3Sports.com is again an official sponsor of Team Trakkers.  All3Sports is your one stop shop for all things swim/bike/run and because they are so freaking awesome they have offered a discount to our friends and readers.  So when you are looking to make you next Tri equipment purchase use this code: GOTRAKKERS; and you will save 15% off your entire purchase.  Follow them on Twitter @All3Sportscom.

• Memorial Hermann 70.3 is a mere 68 Days away.  Ironman Texas is only 106 Days away.  This is getting very real very fast!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff