Easter Weekend

This past weekend was another one of those that just comes together nicely. It’s no secret that I love hanging out at home and I’m frequently homesick; and four months was way too long to go without visiting Greensboro. So with an added day off for the Easter holiday, I rented a car and headed down south to visit the family.

(Home. And no, I have no clue why there is a gray line at the bottom of some of these photos)

My youngest brother, who is actually bigger than me, was back from college for the weekend so when I arrived on Thursday night, they were pleasantly surprised to see me walk through the door (oh yea, it was a surprise).

While I had grand intentions to eat healthy and run a lot, those hopes were quickly dashed when I ate about 20-30 cookies within the first 24 hours of being home. Yes, I know, I have a problem. Fortunately, between a brief run and plenty of yard work on Saturday, I did enough physical activity to warrant another set of 20-30 cookies. Oops.

(whoops, little too much tongue action in this one)


(my Dad with his gross beard he's growing out for some company challenge)

As for the rest of the trip, it was spent reminiscing, playing/watching sports, and looking at old photos. Some of which were too good not to post. Also, these will prove once and for all that I was taught from a young age to always make a face in pictures.

(big pimpin with little bro)


(best outfit ever?)


(me on the right)

To conclude the weekend, I spent Easter Sunday being active in DC and finally getting some normal training in. I managed to squeeze in some interval training on the bike and then I mustered up the courage to test my foot again. Four miles, decent pace, minimal soreness/weakness in my foot. I’ll call that a success. Albeit, my heart rate and lungs were on fire after not running for three-ish months.

(post run = perfect time for more pseudo-cookies)

Stay tuned for more posts this week. I might even find the time to do a whole week of training AND announce some of those secret races I mentioned earlier. Might.

What a day. What a weekend.

This past weekend was my Doctor-approved date to start running again. Which, surprisingly, I actually listened to. Coincidentally, it aligned with the first day of BC alumni soccer season and meant I’d get to test out my ankle on my nemesis – field turf. Fortunately for me though, all signs show that the bone is fully healed and aside from a little weakness in that area, it felt good running around. Even more so, it felt good to be playing again. I’m paying for it today with a bunch of cleat marks and bruises all over my legs but if you ask me, there’s no better feeling. Heck, it’s even better than a runner’s high.

Then, as an added bonus, today was the best day of the year for all those Bostonians out there. Marathon Monday is like Christmas in Boston and while most years I regret not being up there, this year was even worse. A few of my friends were toeing the line for the first time and each of them killed it. Most notably, fellow coworker and speedster Michael (friend who qualified at Marine Corp Marathon in blistering fashion) ran a nasty 2:53:54. If that’s not motivation to chase my own personal BQ speed, then I don’t know what is.

Moral of the story, all signs are pointing forward. Soccer is ramping up, I’m back to hitting the roads and chasing the Boston dream (already signed up for another secret race today), and my first tri of the season is less than a month away.

April Update

Quick little life/training update here:

Foot: I have to be cautious with what I say here because I know my parents will worry if I don’t say I’m 100% but the good news is that I’m almost back to full health. I’ve done a couple (very) short run bursts to test it out and all signs point to go. The only thing stopping me now is my paranoia. Occasionally when I’m rolling my foot around in a chair or in bed, I feel some weakness where the broken bone was and I worry that it isn’t fully healed. The doc said there would still be some soreness but because I don’t feel the sharp pain when running it means that the bone is healing properly. Long story short, I’m going easy until Sunday – first BC soccer game of the season.

Training: Surprisingly, I’ve been keeping up with all my bike and swim training. Just this past weekend I did a monster 5500m swim session (well, monster for me since I haven’t done anything that far) and logged around 90 miles on the bike in two days.

Miscellaneous: Squeezed in between my training and eating schedules (oh, P.S. I quit vegetarianism so I could eat a true Cuban meal with my brother and Uncle), I’ve managed to enjoy quite a bit of time as a DC tourist. It’s no secret I’m a sucker for museums in the city and what better way to strengthen a weak foot than with some low impact slow walking around exhibits. And yes, I realize that sounds incredibly lame, but I swear I’m pretty cool.

Cherry Blossom season...aka 'Tourists Get in the Way of Training Season'




Museums!!!

Biding Time

Updates, updates, updates.

After 5 full days of being sick last week, I’m finally back to my normal self and training again. I still can’t run for another couple weeks (doctors orders) but I’m getting to the pool and doing some low intensity riding whenever I can. Perfect excuse to hit the gym more and log the long hours less.

But seriously, I’ve been good and doing as much as possible. With soccer season (oh, and tri season) coming up, I need to make sure I don’t have any silly little injuries that could keep me from going hard.

The good news with my non-running schedule? I finally took the time to learn how to flip turn. Yes, I recognize how bad it is that I didn’t already know how to do flip turns but come on. I did water polo, not legit swimming. I never needed to know how. Finally though, thanks to some nagging/teasing from friends, I was taught how to effectively do a flip turn and save myself from daily embarrassment in the fast lane at the pool. I still have terrible technique and probably get made fun of for that but at least now I look less like a newbie.

That said, I have some travel plans to visit my long lost sister in Argentina on the horizon as well as a couple destination races that might be in the works. Until then, I’m counting down the days until I can step back on the soccer field.