Ironman Boise 70.3

It's hard to believe I'm writing about Ironman Boise 70.3. Kassia and I said at the end of June last year (2014) that we were going to do this race. Before this triathlon adventure I pretty much only lifted weights with some running thrown in here and there. So when Kassia said we should do a half Ironman I thought she was crazy, I was thinking more of doing Sprints or Olympics but definitely not a half. After some coaxing from her I decided we should go for it, we had a whole year which is plenty of time. So now on the other end of the race, I couldn't be happier that we did this race, it was a blast! The best part of this whole thing was doing this together, we made this goal together and it was awesome being able to finish.

Puma Pulse XT

When I got these Puma Pulse XT's I was stoked at how awesome they looked, I mean that's half the battle with shoes right? If they don't look good you obviously aren't going to buy them. They passed the eye test, now I had to see if they worked while I was exercising.

I put them on and the first thing I noticed was how light they were! It felt like I wasn't wearing anything, it's seriously been the lightest shoe I have trained in. I'm currently doing some rehab on my knee to try and get 100% healthy for Ironman Boise and the shoes have been awesome. The first workout I did with these shoes involved some weight training and some body weight exercises outside, in both conditions the shoe was perfect.

The most important part with a shoe is that you don't want to be thinking about your shoes while you're exercising, you want to focus 100% on the workout, if you are focused on your shoes because their uncomfortable then you obivously don't have a good shoe. During my workout, they didn't bug me at all, so I was completely happy with them. They're super light and the breathability is fantastic.

Apart from the shoes I also got the shirt and the shorts and they are awesome. I'm picky when it comes to workout shorts but these things are right on the money. The shorts and shirt wick away the sweat and keep you cool. And most importantly they look sick! The shoes, shorts and shirt are all on par with comfort and style. Check them out!
This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of PUMA.
us.puma.com/en_US/search?q=PULSE

Processed Free Update Week 1

Wow, I couldn't believe it when I woke up this morning and realized that a full week has gone by! As someone who has been on almost every diet plan imaginable I have learned to dread that first week of a diet, by the time the first week is done I am pleading and ready to sell my soul to the devil for some double stuff Oreos.... haha but in all seriousness I usually am counting done the seconds until my cheat meal. Well this has been completely different, I feel great, my energy level is high and best of all I feel light and have no stomach issues! (I am lactose intolerant and have lived a life full of stomach issues haha) This is not helped by the fact that I just LOVE cheese!

Processed Free for 23

One day I was gearing up for a long training ride and I was trying to figure out what I was going to watch on Netflix when I saw this documentary I had been eyeing for a while. I always try and watch shows and movies that I know Brady will not want to watch when I train alone so then he won't yell at me when he sees that I binged watched Daredevil while I was training without him haha. Well anyway this documentary I decided to watch was called Fed Up and it was all about the obesity epidemic in children in the United States and in the world. Not only did it talk about obesity but it also talked about all the crazy things that the government will allow in our food and how many chemicals and additive junk are in our food these days also. I finished watching and was floored by all the things I saw and I decided that I needed to come up with a plan with Brady that would make us eat healthier. Now I'm not talking about eating healthier to lose weight, I mean eating healthier to be HEALTHY, by eliminating a ton of chemicals that we don't fully understand how they affect our bodies.

Ghost Town Triathlon

Howdy y'all! We did the Ghost Town Triathlon yesterday and it was a blast! It is a pretty new triathlon, yesterdays race was only the second one ever held! But for being so new it was very well run, even when the race staff ran into construction problems they rerouted the bike course and it all turned out great!

Chili Cornbread Waffles

I love chili, I mean how could you go wrong on a cold, windy, gloomy night by eating a delicious bowl of chili? But the problem with chili is that if you don't watch out you can end up with a pretty caloric supper. Well, do we have the solution for you! ( imagine a cheesy salesmen saying that) ha ha. So here is the delicious recipe:

The Chicken BLT Waffle

We're brining you another delicious waffle recipe and this one just might be my favorite one, I was genuinely surprised at how good this was. Have you ever just craved a BLT? Well this will hit the spot for sure!

Taco Waffles... Fiesta in Your Mouth

Some may think that these waffle recipes we're making are "weird" but trust me, they're delicious! These are tried and tested, and would we put a gross recipe up here? I don't think so! The key with the waffles is mixing in a lot of spices and stuff into the batter so it doesn't have the strong waffle taste. If you don't believe us... you'll just have to try it!

Healthy Chicken and Waffles!

In our previous post we mentioned that we decided to get some outside help with nutrition and we signed up with a

nutritionist to give us a meal plan. We were hesitant to sign up for it because we didn't know if it would be worth the money. I just always figured I could eat fairly healthy, workout a lot and I would lose weight.

Getting Rid of the Extra Fluff!

So in earlier posts we have talked about how we have not exactly been the best eaters... I mean we love food! When we looked down at the scale one morning we saw it had reached tremendous numbers and we decided we needed to make a change and quick! Well long story short we both lost weight last year, if you want to read Kassia's full weight loss story click here, but we got stuck in a rut, we had both plateaued and wanted to break the barrier so bad to reach our goal weights. So one month ago we decided that if we wanted to lose the weight for once and for all we needed outside help, this is where Max Muscle and Parker Lee came into play.

Can I Train With My Spouse and Still Love Them After?

People always ask us what it's like training with your spouse all the time and if it's enjoyable or not.... I mean don't you think we would get sick of each other being together all the time? There are a lot of people who use their training and exercise as "me time", they get to be by themselves and not worry about anything else. Having someone with them all the time might just cramp their style. But with us that is definitely not the case, I guess we love each other a little too much! But we're not going to lie and say it's sunshine and rainbows every day because it's not, but the good always seems to outweigh the bad!

Anyways we decided it would be fun to compile a list of pro's and con's of training together!

Train Now or Worry Later

So I wouldn't say that I am an early bird but I am not a complete night owl either... but I can really rock 11 a.m. like no ones business. If I had to choose I would quit my job and just train all day, then I would be able to get all my work done that I needed too and still have time to spare. But unfortunately life is just not that easy for 99.9% of us, I have to have a job in order to fund my crazy triathlon addiction and Brady has to go to school so that later I won't have to work and we can do more triathlon related craziness haha.

Just Keep Swimming... A Tale of a Non-swimmer

When we decided to start doing triathlons last summer we were pretty excited and pretty confident we could do well in all three disciplines even though we really only had any experience with running. We didn't have bikes but we loved to swim... by swim I mean we loved going outside in the summer and jumping in the pool and lounging around.  

For our first swim workout we walked into the local rec center feeling good about ourselves for no good reason at all! I jumped in the pool, started swimming and man was I quickly humbled! I could barely make it one length of the pool which was a 25 meter pool! I stopped once I reached the wall and rested for probably 60 seconds before I mustered up the strength to make my way back. I probably swam 200 meters and I was spent. I realized this swimming thing was going to be A LOT harder than I thought.

Who won? Me or the Plate? Tips for Eating Healthy at Restaurants

So as everyone can see nutrition is at the front of my mind recently, for good reason too because I am focused on dropping some lbs. The last post was about not eating out all the time which Kassia and I really struggle with. We made a goal to only eat out twice a month in March which wil
l be a big deal for us because we love love love to eat out. One of our problems when we do go out is that we have this mindset of "Eat until you hate yourself" I figure I shouldn't go home from a restaurant until I am so full I can barely move. So literally everytime we go out, we have to sit on the couch for like 2 days until we can move again. We obviously need to change the way we eat at restaurants!
Anyways I came up with some simple ideas to eat healthier when eating out.

Stop Eating Out!!!!

So as I've said in a previous blog post I have struggled with weight issues for quite awhile. When I was younger I had no idea that I was chubby until I came home from a week long basketball camp where we played 3 games a day and the first thing everyone in my family said was "Wow you suddenly look skinny!" Haha it was pretty funny, I just had no idea I was overweight. It didn't really give me a complex or anything, I stayed active with sports and didn't really have weight problems until I got married.

Where art Thou Training Partner?

Obviously from the title of our blog we are a couple that trains together, since we train together so often it is really difficult for me to train alone, I mean who wants to do that?!?! It is just super boring!!! Well that is what I used to think anyways.

5 Reasons Why We Tri

Triathlons are literally our favorite thing to do, but it was not always this way. Rewind to our first triathlon 2 and a half years ago... let me set the scene for you. We bought 1980's Fuji Shogun bikes

off of Craigslist, we had just gained a ton load of weight from living in Florida (eating out almost 3 times a week and eating poorly the rest of the week) let's just say we were fatties. We then started our "training" which included us swimming maybe once or twice every week, biking maybe 3 times prior to race day, and running........ kinda, if you want to call it that.

Remember that one time... at BAM CAMP

Last weekend we finally got to do the triathlon training camp with Balanced Art Multisport, down in St. George, Utah. We won entry into the camp back in December through an Instagram giveaway and we have been anxiously waiting to go.

Generation UCAN

We are extremely excited to announce that we are now ambassadors for Generation UCAN! Last year I was introduced to UCAN by my parents while preparing for a race and it was seriously a game changer. I have struggled for years trying to find the right thing to eat before working out. I cannot workout on an empty stomach but I also hate to run, bike, swim, or lift on a full stomach and I struggled to find a happy medium. For early morning workouts sometimes I would just have a piece of toast and a banana and more times than not I felt too heavy while working out but there were times where I was still hungry.

Mestrength Product Review

MESTRENGTH  is a new sports drink that has zero calories, zero sugar, 5 electrolytes and 5 grams of creatine to help maintain lean muscle mass. From a nutrient standpoint this drink is phenomenal! The absolute best part about it is absolutely no sugar and no calories. This isn't some sports drink loaded with random ingredients that serves no purpose other than to sound like it's got a million health benefits. This drink keeps it simple but still has nutritional benefits. This drink isn't going to kill your diet and you don't have to do anything crazy with it, you simply add it to water and drink it before, during or after your workout.

Even though it has no calories we have found it to be pretty filling which is a bonus if you are trying to drop a few lbs. The next best thing is the 5 electrolytes, a lot of drinks only offer about 2 electrolytes for their drink so MESTRENGTH doesn't skimp out there. As far as taste goes I like the orange the most, and Kassia likes grape the best. They're all pretty good, they are a little on the tart side, Kassia likes it mixed with about 24 oz. of water and I like it with about 18 oz. of water. If you guys want to try it out use coupon code IronCple for 25% off on  Amazon.com

Long and slow like good smoked meat

Now I know that I am no super duper speed demon runner but I feel like I can run fastish. When we started training for triathlons we just found a training plan on the internet and started running, biking, and swimming with no rhyme or reason. We did alright with that, I mean we completed the races that we wanted to without dying but my inner competitor wanted more. I wanted to excel!

Fuel for the Body: Ranch Turkey Burgers

Since we've picked up our training over the last couple of weeks nutrition has played a big role. We tried to cut out all the junk food we had been eating the entire month of December and tried to focus on well rounded meals and healthy snacks to fuel our bodies. It's interesting, training for a triathlon takes a lot of work and you burn a lot of calories, I look at food differently now, it's not just about pleasure but its about how a certain food is going to help me in my training later that day or possibly tomorrow morning. If we eat crappy consistently we will definitely feel it and our training will be lackluster. Now trust me, we love love love food, we often plan vacations around unique and amazing restaurants, so for us to say that we are completely cutting out some foods is crazy and unrealistic. We let ourselves go out once on the weekend to a restaurant of our choice but during the rest of the week we really try to make good food choices because we know how much food can affect us.

Inspiration Wall.. Everyone needs one

Why should I make little signs of quotes and goals and hang them up around the house? I am motivated enough on my own I don't need this stuff, I'll remember it on my own. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon: All Our Dreams Came True... NOT

One of the only pics we could get with my phone 

I think that everyone who has done multiple races has done at least one where it feels like everything in the whole world is against you, well this was that race for us (mainly for Brady). We signed up for the Disneyworld Wine and Dine half marathon last February and spent a whole lot of money. We were really excited about it, we had done one Disney race previously in Disneyland and it was really fun, so naturally we assumed this one would be fun as well. In the Wine and Dine you run through 3 of the 4 parks, Animal Kingdom first, then Hollywood Studios and then you finish at Epcot.

Our Partnership with Triflare!

We are so excited to announce that we are partnering with Triflare for this race season. They have such high quality apparel and really fun designs but not only that they also keep the racer in mind by having all the right pockets in all the right places. The trisuit is by far my favorite, it has mesh paneling on the sides and also the chamois is the softest thing ever! Not to mention we were so excited to partner with them because their designs are amazing and so different, I love to stand out in a crowd and with Triflare you definitely do.

Garmin Forerunner 920 XT

So once we got into triathlons we decided we needed a good multisport watch. After searching around online we came to the conclusion that the new Garmin Forerunner 920 XT was far and away the best choice. The only problem was that it cost $500!!!! We knew that one watch wouldn't suffice, we would both need our own but how in the world could we afford to pay $1000 for watches.... that seems CRAZY!

Meet The Iron Couple

We are the Iron Couple. All this started with an idea..... well not really an idea but a goal. One day I was looking at toneitup.com, Karena, one of the founders of Tone it up, recently ran a half Ironman distance race and she was talking about her race and how much she loved it and that got me thinking about how I used to do triathlons and I realized how awesome it would be to finish a half ironman!