I set off last Thursday morning with 9 friends en-route to Cabo San Lucas for a 4 day bachelor party aka ‘4 day bender’.
For those of you geographically challenged below is a map of where we were headed. I was really excited as it is remote, and is also home to the mighty Humboldt Squid.
SIDENOTE: I watched a lot of nature shows as a kid so I tend to get excited about that kind of information. Humboldt Squid are also man-eaters ohhhhh scary!
As we arrived in Cabo we ran into a mutual friend of ours who RANDOMLY happened to be going to Cabo by way of L.A. Very wild coincidence and totally awesome. I love that stuff.
Without going into my usual drawn out way of story telling I figured I would just give some highlights.
Cabo is very beautiful with a rugged almost ‘Mars-like’ terrain. Yes, I have been to Mars, it’s my home planet.
The first night there someone made me fresh salsa for my fish tacos as the normal salsa wasn’t spicy enough for me. It was the best salsa I have ever had!
One morning we went fishing and caught an 8 foot, 140 pound Striped Marlin! During this outing we were 15 miles off the coast and a huge school of Pacific White-sided Dolphins were following the boat, jumping and speeding along! I have always wanted to see this species of dolphin, so you could imagine my excitement level.
SIDENOTE: The photos I took were horrible so I appropriated some. Whatever.
During the day a few of us non-golfers would sit by the beautiful beach drinking Coronas. Once the group returned we would head out and explore town, causing a bit of mayhem here and there. It was a bachelor party after all.
Cabo San Lucas is a beautiful place and I would recommend it to anyone who love sandy beaches and surreal landscapes.
RETURN TO REALITY…
The flight home was painful. Lack of sleep, nutrition and the fact that my liver was angry were the main issues, as well as the large fellow next to me spilling into my personal space.
SUPER RETURN TO REALITY…
Let’s do some time traveling to oh, November of last year. After a fantastic race year capped off by the New York City Marathon and my first Boston Qualifier I thought about taking my game higher. To open myself up a little, I will say that my ultimate goal out of all of this is not Boston at all. My supreme dream is to get to Kona. For those not familiar, Kona is the Ironman World Championships, the race of races, end game. (Don’t get me wrong, there are crazier things to race, this is only my opinion.) In order to get to Kona you need to qualify which is very difficult.
Realizing this, I knew I needed help. I needed someone to take me under their wing and coach me, something I have never done. Remember, my athletic life started in 2008. Up until then I was just a pedestrian…
After a few months of research, I found that no one really fit what I was looking for.
Time traveling back to the present… I have finally found the coach that fits my criteria. Some of you may know her, as our Triathlon/Running circle is smaller than a lot of us realize. Her name is Sonja and she is a killer triathlete.
I met Sonja in June during the Quassy Rev3 Half Ironman. Basically, we rode part of the bike portion playing leap frog until she finally kicked my ass and took off! Since then I have chatted with her often about races and followed her progress as an athlete. I encourage all of you to follow her blog goSonja if you already don’t.
So why did I choose her as a coach?
I find similarities in our athletic careers that I think she gets and can understand where I am athletically. She started racing out of nowhere like me and has taken it very far.
Sonja is also a wife and mother and I am completely in awe of her ability to manage a family and her triathlon training. Not to compare my day-to-day to that of a mother, but my life here in NYC is really busy, and if someone like her can accomplish these things, then I have no excuses.
Lastly, she is a really fun racer. She is serious, but goofs off and enjoys the ride. Those of you who know me understand that I am a complete nut during a race. I need a coach that has a quirky and fun personality too I guess.
So. I have never had ANY sort of structure to my workouts. In fact, I only ran like 2 times a week, biked 3 times and so forth and only when I felt like it. All of this changed when my plane landed in Newark after I had 4 days of relaxation in Cabo. Coach Sonja was about to set it off!
Tuesday I did a crazy bike trainer workout. We are working on deciphering my heart rate in regards to my aerobic fitness and I am so excited about it. Throw science into something and I’m all in.
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Wednesday I did a 1 hour fun tempo run. 9.5 miles at a 7 minute pace which was evidently not fun enough and too fast. I guess I just get too wild out there in the Park and let loose. Maybe it’s my music? My sneakers perhaps? More zombies were chasing me and I had to escape?
It’s going to be really exciting to see what areas I improve in and how I develop as an athlete. Beyond Defeat (of course) will document everything so stay tuned.
The next week is looking to kick my ass and get some real data in the works and I am very excited. I am also excited about Claire’s Beer Run this Sunday and wonder if that counts towards Sonja’s coached training?