Ok, this is just getting creepy now!!
Last night Eric and I went on our first Brick workout and look what we came across…
Harold’s brother!
Why have I not noticed these before?! Is my town just really creepy or something? lol.
We went on a beautiful 5 mile sunset bike ride! Half on the roads and half on the trails.
My partner in crime…
It was a great first leg of the workout!
- Distance: 4.98 miles
- Time: 35:27 mins
- Avg speed: 8.4 mph
- Max Speed: 15.9 mph
- Ascent (total climb): 380 feet
Eric pointed out a very hardcore looking grease mark on my leg when we were finished.
Just a battle wound… ;)
And then the unthinkable happened…
I got my man to run!!!!!!
Doesn’t his face scream thrilled? :mrgreen:
Let me put this into context for you a little so you can understand my excitement for him to be running.
Eric has told me numerous times that he will NEVER RUN and he will never start running with me. I think in the 10 years we have been together we have been on 2 runs together total (and I’m not quite sure how those 2 runs ever happened, I think I dreamed them up…) I used to beg him to go running with me and I think that pushed him away even more.
I said to Eric at the beginning of this run- ‘You call the shots. If you want to stop, just let me know.’
We started running, and get this, he blew me out of the water! (err…off the road?)
I had such a hard time keeping up with him! Remember- his long, gazelle-like legs (he is 6 foot 2!) Well, those gazelle legs are fast let me tell you. He had to slow down for ME! It was a hoot!
He was like, ‘Wow I feel like I have to take such short strides.’ Normally a piece of me would have died inside with that comment, but I put my ego aside because I was just so thrilled that he was running beside me. ;)
He ran 2.5 k/1.55 m virtually effortlessly. We clocked in at 14:29 minutes. I said, ‘Wow I think I am more out of breath than you are.’ And he said, ‘Bigger lungs’ :mrgreen: Not only is he a natural, but he’s also modest!
The run:
Distance: 2.5k/1.55 miles
Time: 14:29 mins
Pace: 9:21 min/mile
Ascent: 189 feet
My motto is to kill em with kindness. I think one of the keys to encouraging people to workout is to flood them with praise and compliments. By the end of the run, I think Eric was feeling really proud and he maybe started to realize that he can do this…try-a-tri after all?
The Try-a-tri debate:
Now we are also having a little debate about our try-a-tri!
I have told Eric from the beginning that I want to do the try-a-tri by his side the entire event. I want to swim beside him, I want to bike with him, and I want to hold his hand crossing the finish line (I’m a sap like that).
However, my husband wants me to ‘go on ahead’ and do my absolute best, even if this means leaving him behind along the way. He doesn’t want to hold me back, he said.
We are having this little debate! I still would like to be by his side. I think it would make the experience more special, and to be quite honest, I don’t think he will be holding me back at all! I think he is capable of much more than he gives himself credit for, and if anything, I might have a hard time keeping up with him!
My questions to you tonight- What would you do in our situation? Have you ever trained for and competed in a race with a friend, family member, or significant other? Did you stick together or part ways?
Updates:
- A delicious looking Vegan overnight oats spotting!
- In A Jiffy Veggie Spelt Burgers spotting!
Ta-ta mes amies! :) Going to get back to work. Eric and I are off for a late-night swim at 9pm tonight…hopefully I can sleep! See you for a late-night post…might be a 1,000 words, not sure yet. :)
I’ve written about running with friends before, but I think you should do the tri alone. You will probably have separate starts for the swim (men and women) and it will be cumbersome to catch up to him in transition….
The tri that she’s doing, my boyfriend actually does. It’s done by age group! :)
Now I’m questioning myself after writing that comment. I just asked the Boyf what he remembered for that race and he says: ” they always start in waves for the most part…I can’t remember if they differentiate male and female when they assign waves or not – they may”
We’ll see in June I guess!! :)
Maybe you need to do 2 try-a-tris… one alone, one together! :)
I’ve done it both ways, but I think that sometimes it’s more special and meaningful if you stick together the whole way – especially if that’s what you had planned initially.
Although, I was only talking about running races. Caitlin brings up a good point- you might not be able to stick together in a Tri as well as you would be able to in a running race.
LOL, i love that tree! If it were up ot me, I’d do the tri alone because then you can work off your own speeds & such!
it is hard on the swim to stick together
I raced with friends last year and we all ran our own race. My boyfriend trained with me but he chose to do a longer distance. You’re still going through the experience together but I’d honestly say to go at your pace. It’s fun when you see each other (pass each other??) on the course. It’s going to be really hard to keep track of one another in the water, trust me. And when you’re biking you have to be careful that you’re not in the drafting zone so you can’t be side-by-side or too close in front or behind anyways. You’ll still enjoy it just as much even if you aren’t hand-in-hand!
Caitlin is also right about the start; there is normally a staggered start for men, women and the various age brackets so you probably won’t begin the race together anyways.
I’m the same as you! I want to run a race, or do a du and have my boyfriend by my side. But he can’t do any races leisurely, which causes me not to do any – at all! It makes me sad :(
My fiance and I run the same races, but he is a lot faster than me… he’s 6’2 also! We never run the race together, but he’s always waiting for me right by the finish to cheer me on the last 100 yards, which is really nice! Honestly, it would never even occur to me to run the race with him… we train together, but the point of a race is for me to do the best I can, and since my best is different than his best, we don’t run together during the race.
In March I signed up for my first 10km race with my Mom-In-Law. We’ve been running together for about a year now and generally she is a bit faster than me (I like to think it’s her longer legs and maybe bigger lungs??!), however on this particular day she wasn’t feelin’ it as usual…I fully expected that she’d have to slow down or walk during the 10k to stick with me, but it ended up being the opposite. I didn’t go on ahead when she told me to though…it was our first 10km race and we were in it together!!
I’m not sure if I would have come in with a better time if I would have gone ahead, but I figured…there’s always next time! (We both PR’ed anyway, since it was our first race of this distance!)
Tough decision!!
Whatever you decide, I’m sure you will have a blast and be so proud of each other in the end!
My husband and I do a lot of running races and triathlons together, and we always go at our own pace. It’s still nice to know you are at the race together, and to see each other after the race, even if you didn’t actually complete the whole event together.
I just ran a half marathon with my boyfriend. We trained together and we ran and held hands crossing the finish line. He’s definitely by far faster than me and in better shape than I am but I was just so thrilled to be popping his half marathon cherry (it was his first and my third) that I didn’t care and set my ego aside for a while. There was one point in which we separated because he had to go to the bathroom that was it though. :)
Mu uncle makes little faces just like that to put on trees in the woods by the family cabin… but I don’t think he’s been in Canada anytime recently! You guys are totally rocking the training :D!!
Way to go on getting Eric to show his stuff! My DH on the other hand says, “He caved…I won’t”….LOL! Men…
In running, yes, you can stick together and yes, I have stuck with a friend through and through till the end. In fact, at my last half marathon last Nov., one of my most unmemorable races because I was on the verge of major surgery in Dec. and was in a lot of pain but still did the race. One of my bestest buds stuck with me the entire 13.1 miles, even though she normally blows me out of the water and we usually meet at the end.
As for a triathlon, I have to say from experience, it is quite hard to keep up with another person. I tried with a friend of mine, that I was motivating her through her first tri. I ended having to go ahead and met her at the end. Here’s the deal, you or Eric might be faster than the other in one of the disciplines, especially in swimming and yes, normally you will be put in a different wave in the swim, unless the waves go by times only and then you can put yourselves in the same time wave category and swim side by side. And technically, the swim is where the issue might be more so than the bike and the run. Some races put the waves in gender categories along with times. Like both of my open water races were gender categorized and by times within the gender. I was glad too, not to scare you, because in my first open water, even though the men came after us, I still got barrelled over by a large man and literally shoved under water. Eeek!
I vote for doing it at your own pace – which means most likely alone, tho it could be great if you stayed together!
I think that you should use the same strategy you mentioned with the running and “let him call the shots.” Meaning, do it separately.
It’s his first event so whatever takes the pressure off. Save your “sappy hand-holding” until he gets his “sea legs” and you do another event. Lol, I love that btw, too cute!
Seems like this has been said already, but it might make sense for you guys to start together and see how it goes. The swim start can be really chaotic, making it hard to stick with a partner. So, if you get out of the water and you’re still together, I say go for it – but have it in your mind that you will be doing the race separately, just in case.
it’s totally your call… but i just have to say that crossing the finish line at my first half marathon w/ my boyfriend by my side (who could have easily run faster) meant the world to me. :)
When i’m feeling inferior to someone (ability wise) the last thing i want to do is hold them back. even if im not really going to be or if they dont see it that way. it can take away from the experience if i’m thinking about that rather than what i’m doing. its a personality thing though. when im doing it or having those thoughts, i know i’m being silly, but still, i can’t shake it. id rather the person just do their their thing and celebrate with me at the end. that’s the competative spirit in me though:)
have fun either way! i love reading the updates!
i agree with this too! I hate feeling like the other person is being held back even if they say they don’t care.
however I know that when my (much faster) husband runs with me I am way more motivated, and run faster too!
You will have fun either way :)
do your own thing.
My boyfriend has been running races for years and convinced me to run a 5k with him this year. It was my first race ever and he stuck by me the whole time, even though he is so much faster than me. He kept me motivated, and even ran with me on his back for a bit when I rolled my ankle (that’s how our photo was taken!) and we crossed the finish holding hands. Since it’s your first tri I can see how you’d want to stay with him, but it seems like it might be hard…maybe after the tri you can convince him to do a 5k with you…?