Puerto Rico Livin'

I was gone kids!

Keith and I vacationed for four days in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. We took the trip to get away from the cold and snow, and have sunny complexions to show for it (Keith has a tan, I have freckles).

We spent our days eating, drinking, tanning and laughing. I was surprised at how amazing the food was, and we munched on everything from fresh seafood to mofongo (the signature dish on every menu, made with fried plantains, your choice of meat or seafood, served in a broth. Amazing).

Fried plantains stuffed with beef. Yep.

I got iced by Keith. I wasn't really upset by it. It was quite refreshing.

There were a ton of highlights, and a few lowlights - The biggest issue was showing up to the hotel, and the front desk did not have our reservation. Shifty Expedia was to blame, but after a 2-hour debacle, we were upgraded to an OCEAN VIEW ROOM.

Sunrise.

Sunset.

One of the biggest highlights was the fact that our resort had a private island a short ferry ride away. And that island also had a little island off it. So we kayaked out there two days in a row because it was so darn cool.

Keith and I attempted to work out the second day we were there in the resort’s “fitness center.” Unfortunately the stationary bikes were pretty old, only one elliptical worked, and there was only one flimsy mat that was so thin I might as well have been laying on the hard, concrete floor. There were also a father-son duo using 75% of the dumbbells and attempting to have a cross-fit session, so it was difficult to get hold of any of the equipment. We were in and out pretty quick.

Unrelated photobomb.

It was amazing to get away, and my skin was SO HAPPY to get some serious sun. It took every fiber of my being to go to work on Monday.

SO RELAXED AND TAN.

In other news, the official kick-off for the NYC Tri through Team-in-Training (TNT) is today! I am so pumped to get started, meet my coaches and teammates, and figure out what the heck I got myself into. Tonight is the kick-off meeting with lots of information and some swag, and our first official training session is on Saturday.

The first session is a run, which I’ve been told will only be about 30 minutes long. I haven’t run in almost a month. It’s taken a lot of self-discipline not to hop on the treadmill at the gym, which other runners seem to be really enjoying themselves on. But I wanted to take as much time off to make sure I was injury-free for training. Saturday will be the first day back, and I can hardly wait!

I also am officially leaving NYSC and joining New York Health and Racquet. This might not sound like a depressing item, but I’ve become really comfortable with my gyms. I like my man-boy spinning instructor on Monday nights, my European techno-loving spinning instructor named Yarl on Tuesday nights, and their locations are so freaking convenient. But alas, NYSC does not have this:

I did a one-week trial of NYHR, and I really liked it. It seems like more of a community, and a lot of people seem to know each other. They’re a bit smaller, so finding an area to do strength training can get a bit cozy. But the pools and facilities are really nice, so it will have to do for now.

I also plan to do the majority of my training outdoors once it gets warm out, since that seems to have worked well for me in running in the past. It’s been 3 ½ months since I’ve been on any kind of training schedule, so I was literally GIDDY when I opened up an email from my coach earlier to find March’s training plan:

I don’t really know what most of it means yet, but I’m SUPER PUMPED. And scared. But mostly pumped.