Twelve in 2012

Summer is definitely over at the Bray household.

Long gone are the days of sleeping in, heading out for four-hour training rides on the bike with Chad or grilling healthy meals out on the deck.

Replacing those summer days are hours in the classroom and coaching football for Chad and my commutes to Winona for the start of the fall ball fastpitch softball season at Saint Mary’s University — in addition to my hours at the Republican Eagle.

It was easy this summer to schedule times to workout — usually together – and have time for both cardio and weight lifting. We’d follow that up with trips to Randy’s for the salad bar at lunch and healthy meals at home for supper.

Finding time to train for the latest race was easy and, other than my calf injury, we had a pretty easy time completing the first 10 of our Twelve in ’12 races.

Now comes the tricky part.

We each have two races remaining on our list for the year and we are each finding it more and more difficult to get in our training workouts.

Chad’s long days have him scrambling to find something easy for supper after 7 p.m. and he’s even set his alarm for 4:30 a.m. a few days to get to the Y for an early workout. My commutes have resulted in several unhealthy meals in the car going from one job to the other.

But — quite honestly — the upcoming races are pushing me to make sure I get my workouts in. Take Sunday for example: I spent five hours on my feet in the morning coaching practice and then coaching a game where our current team took on the SMU alumni. After two hours of talking with alumni and parents after the game, I wanted nothing more than to drive an hour home, shower and sit down to watch some of the afternoon NFL games.

Instead I hauled my butt into the SMU fieldhouse and ran three miles on the track in my coaching uniform before heading home. After all, I have the Iron Girl duathlon to prepare for.

Tags: health, lifestyle