An Adventure for Sure

Hello everyone! Our apologies for not posting for sooo long but it has really been a crazy time for us. We have literally been training 7 days a week and working 5 so its just been hectic. We are nearing the big day and are not entirely sure of how we feel about it. We are scared, intimidated, and (just a little) excited about the whole thing. We may be more excited for it to be over with than anything else. We're a bit tired of even talking about the Ironman to our friends and anyone we run into. It's just been a long time of doing the same thing all the time. As we near the 21st its becoming pretty hard to keep focus during our workouts.

We have definitely wasted a few gym trips by getting completely distracted while we're there in any way we possibly can. Being in the pool provides the biggest opportunity for losing focus. I will proceed to really let you into our world now. We have literally gotten just so bored with doing laps that we have decided to have underwater adventures instead. Think back to being a wee one in the pool with your friends. If you had goggles you could go underwater and pretend to be explorers finding any little treasures and then making a mission out of picking up the treasures (mostly chewed gum) and putting them somewhere else like for instance in the little drain things. Picture Buddy and I swimming in a vacated pool in the gym underwater connected (my arms locked around his legs) as though we were a submarine picking up chewed gum and transporting it across the pool. We did that. More than once. We might be losing our sanity... or maybe we just know how to use our imaginations and have fun. Anyways, I don't know what you'll make of all that, but things like that have gotten us through this.

Our struggles (if you could call them that) have been not only in the water but on the bike as well. A couple weeks back, we went on the most discouraging bike ride I have ever experienced in my life. It was raining and we were aiming to ride 112 miles around the Issaquah/Lake Sammamish area. We had flat tires and our toes were freezing. It was during this bike ride that Buddy and I had a really unique interaction. While Buddy was fixing his flat tire in the rain right after I had completely fallen off my bike due to pedal difficulties he looked up at me and uttered a few words I cannot share here. He was dead serious with his brow down and his frustration completely out in the open. I had to seriously tell him to cheer up and let him know that everything would be alright. If you know Buddy at all, you know why this was noteworthy. He's the most positive person you'll ever meet but this bike ride was just terrible. Anyways, we laughed about that moment almost directly after it happened (that's just how we operate) and pressed on. Another couple of weird bike moments have occurred on the spinbikes at the gym. We have been completely in the zone riding alone in the gym with our headphones on then... we'd look at each other a certain way and just unclip our pedals in unison and leave because we simply just didn't want to be there pedaling anymore.

I actually don't have anything terrible to say about running right now. I thought I would but it's been okay. I don't really have shin splints anymore and the worst thing that happens is I get a bunch of blisters, which is the least of an aspiring Ironman's worries. Buddy has been really strong in everything and his swimming has gotten a lot better as well.

We're pretty much in the shape that we will be in on the 21st and that alone is pretty scary. Most of this post has been kind of negative but I wanted to capture these kinds of thoughts because I think thats what people do in blogs. Not much of this has been fun but I do get to spend a bunch of time with my best friends so that is a plus. It has been a lot of work but we've done pretty much the whole thing optimistically with huge smiles on our faces and we're thrilled to be doing it for such a good cause. We've been laughing off little things and big things this whole time. It has been a roller coaster and we really appreciate every single little post, comment, and donation that we've received this whole time. Those are the things that have kept us going and we couldn't have done this without them... having said that we haven't 'done this' yet... :-/

Check out Our IM in #'s in the notes section of our Facebook page ;)

Morning Person? Yikes...

It's the week before the Seattle-to-Portland bike ride (STP) and things are GETTING SERIOUS. BudandKurt have naturally focused a ton of their training to the bike for the STP. One thing biking has to offer beyond being fun, challenging, and hurting your butt, is time consuming. We are still trying to get used to working full time while getting adequate sleep, so training has been challenging. Kurt has done a great job planning out time to get a good workout in. Bud....well I've been trying, but a change had to happen. My grandma's sisters just flew in this week from the south (I haven't seen them in 5-10 years), which is just perfect for a guy struggling with time. Fortunately, I just have to turn my head to the person working beside me on practically every avenue of life (Kurt) for inspiration. Learning that he did a 20 mile ride yesterday with an average of over 18 mph made me realize I have to do something different. Today was my first bike ride before 11 am since the last STP a year ago. I just went about 20 miles, but it was pretty amazing hearing cheery bikers say 'good morning' as they blaze by me and seeing the sun from the east for once. I stopped in a local airport to see a truck tow a seaplane to Lake Washington to prep its take-off. Here's pic of me half asleep by some old boats and a couple ducks :P. Overall, I could get used to the morning thing; Not so much because of the freezing temperature, but because of the feeling afterward (and the fact that if I don't continue to do this I'll keel over during the STP).

Feeling stronger and stronger, almost iron,

BudandKurt.

Transitions and Transmissions

Hello Everybody,

It has been so long since our last post and we really apologize about it. Our last quarter at school was really hectic as we both had our hands in a bunch of extra curricular activities and we began our 'real life' jobs while we were still in school. It has been absolutely crazy. We successfully created a business called TBK Consulting and we have a 6 month contract to provide our services to a start up company called Finsphere. It's a pretty big deal for us and there was absolutely no time in between school and this contract. We had just enough time to squeeze in a trip to Maui to celebrate our graduation and continue our Meekrab tradition. All of these things have made it soooo hard to keep a routine training schedule or to address 'our fans' (which mainly consist of our moms). Okay, I think thats the end of my excuse paragraph...

Training is going well and now that we are working 9-5 jobs and both living at home, we are ready to put our heads down and focus with about 15 weeks to go until the triathlon. We realized we have no idea what we are

doing in terms of making a workout plan and although we do want to do most of this unaided we decided to download a training schedule to follow. The plan consists of weekly plans that contain from 15-20 hours worth of training. So we'll be working 40 hours and training 20 hours a week...it should be fun. Actually making this (Ironman) the main priority has been the biggest struggle so far with everything that is going on in our lives. For a 22 year old it has been so easy to get distracted by setting up your job, girls, friends, a plethora of other interests, and school. But again, we're figuring we can use this whole 'not having school thing' to really ... hunker down. We'll do a better job of keeping in touch as well. In this whole effort we feel that there are two sides for us. There's the training and getting ripped side which we need to do in order

to successfully complete the triathlon. Then there's the back end fan building, advertising, and trying to get people involved side. We're going to try to work on both of those sides equally in order to raise the most money for the MAW Foundation.

If you remember the title of this post after reading all those ramblings on, you're expecting to hear something about transmissions at this point. I (Kurtis) recently had my car break down on me. I got it towed to a vw dealership to find out that it was going to be $4000 to fix my transmission (in other words I needed a new car). To make a long story short, my dad suggested the the dealership was wrong, him and I drove down there on a Sunday, pumped some fluid into it and drove it off. My dad then diagnosed the problem and spent a few nights slaving over it in the garage. I would like to take this as an opportunity to thank my dad for being a huge support during this whole life/triathlon thing. He has been Buddy and mines go to guy for advice about bike stuff and maintenance of bike stuff. He always gives sound advice. Sometimes it takes me a little while to realize that he's right (I really thought I needed a new car) but when I come around he's never wrong. I love him and I wouldn't feel as though i could take a challenge like this (Ironman) on without him. Thanks for listening everybody and we'll talk to you soon!

Cold air and even colder water

January and February in the Northwest. Enough said. It's been less than perfect weather for training. The coldness has now been blamed for the various injuries that BudandKurt have suffered recently. Bud's muscle tear probably could have been prevented with some solid stretching but the coldness made his muscles stiff and eventually tear...Kurt's shin splints are a result of cold weather too. If the last couple months have taught us anything its that we need to spend more time stretching before and after we do things. We had the wrong idea about stretching entirely because we did the entire marathon without any. The picture above this was taken literally the only second that we stretched. Not quite sure how that worked out but we'll be trying to fit more stretching in.

So the cold has also kept us in doors for the most part. Kurt set up his bike in his room on a training apparatus of sorts which took up the entire room but served as a nice cozy place to train. BudandKurt have been doing more swimming and biking rather than running just to be better to their bodies. One day BudandKurt were planning an indoor/in the gym workout but after dipping a toe or two into the L.A. Fitness pool they decided it was too cold (the pool heater wasn't working). So as an alternative, they decided to jump into Lake Washington to test out their wetsuits. There was definitely a flaw in their logic...L.A. Fitness pool water...not nearly as cold as the glacier fed Lake Washington water. Here's a video of that mess: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150102181560214&ref=mf

On another note, our contact with the Make-A-Wish Foundation is going well and we are fairly close to having an open Web Donation site. We are also going to publish a facebook page very soon which will list upcoming events and other ways for everyone to get involved. We will probably use that as a main way to reach out to people but we'll keep updating this blog all the way through this whole experience. So...keep in touch, keep warm, and ....uh...stretch more...

Small Tear Creates a Small Separation

We've got good news and bad news.

Bad news first:
Today, Bud woke up with a little strain in his right quad. He thought that it was a small strain, maybe from a weird night's sleep or the past 15 mile run on Sunday. It comes with the desire of becoming Iron; No problem. Later that day, after Bud got off the phone with Kurt about meeting up for a mile swim/4-mile run combo at the gym, Bud felt a sharper strain in the same area of his quad. He quickly discovered a knot of muscle in his upper leg. Bummer. After a checkup with the doctor, Bud discovered that he had a small muscle tear in his leg, and the torn muscle contracted to create the knot. He was prescribed to meet with a physical therapist to figure out how long he will be out of commission and how he can recoup the quickest.

Now the good news!
The separation is only temporary. Kurt is in the pool right now absolutely tearing it apart. He is really starting to look like an otter in the water, with sweet lightning swim shorts. Bud is being taken care of by his sister, Sarah, who has a bachelor's in Exercise Science and is a massage practitioner. He will be back in the pool in no time...becoming metallic with his best pal. By the way, isn't the best medicine for a muscle tear a little Iron? :)

Since Bud has a little more time on the couch now, he found a sweet picture of Kurt from the Seattle-to-Portland Bike ride. You're Welcome.

Tubes and Heroes: Our first bike ride of 2010

After two weeks of intense training, BudandKurt were on a roll. Our swimming has drastically improved and, of course, Bud is trying his best to keep up with the incredible speed of Kurt. We had a little hiccup during our latest long day (Sunday) that ended up with Kurt’s dad coming to the rescue…

So we took off on a rainy 50 mile bike ride. It was rainy, muddy, and we were completely unprepared for the weather. About 5 miles into it, Bud’s front tire seemed to be riding lop-sided. He realized that he blew his first tube, and the tire was completely flat. Proudly, Bud whipped out his spare tube he purchased months before from his mud-covered pack under his seat. Kurt then informed Bikemaster-Bud that some important tools are needed to switch out the tubes. Budandkurt stayed there on the side of the road and tried to use their mediocre muscles to pry the tire off of the wheel, but had no success. Luckily, Kurt’s dad came to the rescue and swapped out Bud’s tire with one of his super light pro tires. Demoralized and equipped with sopping socks, BudandKurt cut their ride down to about 20 miles. We made up the work the day after by adding in an extra swim.

Kurt’s dad, the hero that he is, taught us how to change a tube when we returned. I hope all of you get the chance to meet this honorable soul; he really is one of the most interesting men in the world. He even stepped in for a pic when we wanted to re-enact the awkward moment when Bud realized that he has no clue how to work on bicycles.

You will learn more about Kurt’s handsome father as he will be featured in our first Support Profile. Support BudandKurt and you can be on our blog as our next Support Profile!

Yellow Hands and Pink Eyes

BudandKurt are in full training swing now. We train 6 days out of the week and here’s what it’s looking like right now.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Short run (6-10 miles)

Wednesday: Short run (6-10 miles)

Thursday: Swim 1 hour

Friday: Swim 1 hour

Saturday: Swim 1 hour

Sunday: Long run (15-20 miles) or long Bike ride (50 miles)

Then we workout 4 days out of the week mixed in there. The workout consists of a bunch of core exercises to hopefully make us look like Gerard Butler (Buddy) and Ryan Reynolds (Kurtis).

It’s going pretty well so far with a few hiccups. We ran 15 miles this last Sunday and it was tough mentally and physically. We ran from Bud’s place to past the Renton Municipal Airport and back. It took a little bit more than a couple hours and made us wonder how the heck we ever ran 26.2 miles. By the end of it Bud’s hands were yellow and Kurt’s legs were on fire. We won’t lie, there was some walking involved. We thought that Bud’s jaundice was relapsing but it turned out that some gloves he used earlier in the day had rubbed off. It’s now a couple days later and Kurt woke up this morning having to use his fingers to separate his eyelids apart. He’s had a sore throat lately but now its pretty certain he’s got pinkeye. (By this point you’re probably recalling the scene from Knocked Up… but WebMD says that it can be caused by allergies or dry eyes as well…look it up) We’re going to be focusing on staying healthy as well as getting ripped and no matter the color of our fingers or eyes we’ll be out training everyday.