The Zen of Ultra Running

Some of you may already know from the race report last year that I am from Bangkok, Thailand. Every winter I go back to visit family and friends for 3-4 weeks (and also to escape the “mild” Ohio winter). For the past two years that I was in Bangkok, I signed up for 10K races. I only wanted to keep to a shorter distance because of the weather. It’s usually 85 degrees in December in Bangkok and I am not sure about my ability to deal with the heat coming from a single-digit weather. This year I was more confident in my ability to run longer distance. So, I stepped up to a half marathon this time. I found Thailand International Half marathon on the weekend that I would be in Bangkok. Running has become such a popular sport in Thailand that you could find a race any distance on every weekend. Thailand International Half marathon is a race that starts under the bridge. First, you run up the Rama VIII bridge (about 0.5 miles) and the whole race was on the bridge. The race started

When I first heard about this race months ago, I thought this would be a nice race close to home. I was not sure about the terrain and knew nothing about the race besides it was a new ultra race in NE Ohio and it's only 10 minutes from my house. I was also training for the double marathon so I completely focused on how I would finish the big race of the year and did not think much about what I would do after the big race. After the double marathon at RWS, I began to look for other races. First, I considered BBA as another 50K but the condition was too similar to RWS so I did not run it. Then, I thought about Buckeye woods 50K, which I ran last year but decided to run the 25K instead. The day before Buckeye Woods 25K, I came out and ran on the Regal Beagle Ultra course (there was a training run on the course) and ran one loop with them. The course is a 5-mile loop. There were 3 distances - 5 miles, 25K (3 loops), and 50K (6 loops). The course was described as fast and great for

Last year Buckeye Woods 50K was my first ultra. The race is free to all Medina County Road Runners members and the annual membership fee is only 20 dollars. The club does a lot of great things including multiple free races throughout the year, group runs, banquet, etc. I found the race on Facebook and it claimed that the race was flat and fast, and good for your first 50K. So, I paid the membership fee and signed up for the race. This year I just ran the double marathon at Run with Scissors last month and am still recovering from the race. There is also a new ultramarathon race near my house, which will take place next weekend. I was considering running that race if I decided to do another 50K. Therefore, I took it easy at Buckeye woods 50K by signing up to do only the 25K (3 loops). Since it's only 25K, I did not really prepare for the race. I drank a couple of glasses of red wine the night before and did not do the usual pre-race carb-loading routine. I showed up 10 minutes b

After the double marathon at Run with Scissors, I spent most of my non-working moment thinking about the goals for 2018. What should I do? What should I focus on? It usually takes me a while to come up with a training routine. I like to plan my week ahead and know what I will be doing on each day for the rest of the week. Planning takes a good amount of time. As we are entering the end of the racing season, the focus should be on maintaining the level of fitness and working on the weaknesses. I have decided that I am not going to do any triathlon race longer than the Olympic distance in 2018 (half and full Ironman can wait). I figured that Olympic distance training for a triathlon gives me time to focus on ultra marathons. I am not built to be a competitive athlete. As much as I would like to be faster and run longer, my most important goal is to stay injury-free. Next year, my goal is to focus on a couple of ultramarathons. This week I signed up for Mohican 50 in June and a marathon

I usually write a blog right after my race. For this blog, I let all feelings and emotions sit for a couple of days before I started writing. First, I was overwhelmed and still could not believe that I just ran 53 miles...53 miles in the woods and cold rain. Second, I have been going through a typical emotion roller coaster known to multiple ultra runners after their big race -> post-race blues. I was lost and was not sure what to do with my life. It took me a couple of days to get myself back together and thought about "What's next?". Now I have a pretty solid plan in mind regarding the 2018 races and goals. However, until the plan is elaborately laid out in an Excel spreadsheet, I cannot stop thinking about it. My 2018 races and goals will be announced soon :D Alright, back to the pre-race, race day, and post-race recap. Pre-race: I knew I wanted to do the double marathon at Run with Scissors after my Mohican 50 miler had to be cancelled due to ankle injury. In

Earlier this year I got a FB message from the race director that Doan Creek registration is open. It's "free" for runners. To enter, you just have to donate money to a charity that the RD selected. I heard good things about the race from people who ran it last year. I heard that the trail was technical and full of roots and rocks. This race was part of the BBA 50K race series. All the money raised from the race will go to a charity. The day before the race (Friday) I went to try Masters swimming practice in the morning and did so many kicks that my legs felt like jello. I woke up on Saturday morning felt like I had run 50K the day before. The 25K race started at 10am (50K started at 8am). The race was in Shaker Heights in Cleveland. Nice neighborhood. From my experience with the familiarization run and course clean up day, I knew the parking would be hard to find as there were not many parking spot near the park. We had to park on the streets that the RD told us on th

This year I did not have good luck on the marathons. The 2 road marathons that I ran (Canton Hall of fame marathon and Akron marathon) were really HOT and humid. The first marathon (Canton) I got a free bib from someone so I was not really "training" for it. Plus, it was also my first road marathon ever so I did not have any expectation on time. Then, I was hoping for a good weather at the Akron marathon because it was in September. Who would know that we would have another 90+ degrees day in late September?!?! I also ran it as a part of the relay team and as a "training run" so, again, no expectation on time. However, I secretly had hoped that I would have got in under 5 hours because my time at the first road marathon was 5 hours and 30 minutes. I knew I could have run faster but decided to stay conservative with myself. My time at the Akron marathon was 5 hours and 24 minutes. Not a disappointment because I knew I could not run fast in hot, humid weather. On

A month ago, R. asked me if I could ride with him and a wounded veteran for 100K (62 miles). They had a "tri-cycle" specially made for this purpose and it would be nice to have someone accompanying them on the road. I said if they were not going too fast, I would be able to ride with them. The farthest I'd done was 31 miles so 62 would double the distance. He then signed me up to ride with them. The day before the ride (Friday) I went to a yoga class in the evening and hurt my back during the "ab workout" during the class. I was worried if it would go away in the morning. Took some pills and went to bed. My back was a bit in pain when I woke up but I thought a bit of exercise might help. I got dressed and drove to Fredericksburg, OH (1 hour away from my house). The ride started at 8am. R. already checked me in. It turned out that another friend could not join us. So, there were only 3 of us riding. The weather at the start was about 45-50 degrees (a bit chilly

Last year I ran the half marathon at Akron marathon. At that time, I just moved to OH for about 2 months and did not know many runners. I also never ran any marathon and was still training for my first marathon at Run with Scissors. I had a good time running the half marathon as the course took us through different parts of Akron and it was a good way to get to know the city. About a couple of weeks after I finished the half marathon, I registered to run the full marathon at Akron this year. I heard from many people who ran the full that the fun part was the back half as the runners run through neighborhood block parties. A couple of days before the race, the race organizer sent out emails warning about the heat as it would get really hot on the race day (approx. 80-90F). I was not quite worried about it because Pro Football HOF marathon was also very hot! This year I ran both the marathon and the relay. I signed up for the marathon last year but I talked to the dean and told him I

With the Akron marathon being 6 days away, I originally wanted to sign up for the mini tri at Portage Lake Triathlon, which for me would be the last race of the season. When I looked at the registration website, the price of the mini was not much cheaper from the sprint distance. Below is the information on each distance. Mini:  250y Swim (2mi Run) — 7mi Bike — 2mi Run Sprint:  750m Swim (5k Run) — 22k Bike — 5k Run So I signed up for the sprint instead of the mini (wanted to spend longer time on the course) and completely forgot about it. After the Vermillion tri, I switched gears to focus on training for the 50-miler (double marathon at Run with Scissors) by putting more time in running. I only swim and bike once a week. The weather got a bit cooler and the sun does not come up until 7am. So, I went back to indoor cycling classes, which work better with my morning routine. Indoor cycling always kicks my butt. The intervals that we do makes me work harder and my heart rate sky

The post-triathlon week was supposed to be my "recovery week". Turned out that I ended up logging in 50 running miles, which was the highest mileage for me in a very long time. Monday - I went to a 75-minute yoga class because my muscles were very tight from the race and I needed to stretch them somehow. The class was cool because it was the eclipse day so the teacher made us do Moon salutation instead of a typical Surya Namaskar A & B (Sun salutation) like what we usually do in other flow classes. I really liked the flow that we did because it's not too "heavy" for my tired legs and arms. I also took a pic of my calf on Monday because it still had the tri number on. Body marking is one thing that makes me feel like a triathlete :) Took Tuesday off - completely off. Although the yoga class helped my body relax, I knew I had to have a day that I REALLY DO NOTHING. Scheduled a run with a friend in the morning but ended up postponing it because I wante

I did my first sprint triathlon in 2015 and caught the bug. The first triathlon that I did was called "My First Tri", which was a race that geared toward first-time triathletes (only 500m swim, 10 miles bike, and 2 miles run). In 2016, I signed up for the Olympic distance triathlon at Brewhouse tri in Duluth, MN but, unfortunately, we moved to OH in July (the race was in August). Nonetheless, I managed to do another sprint tri in Eau Claire (EC triathlon) before we left. This year my goal was simple. I wanted to try the Olympic distance to gauge how much I like the sport and if I want to do longer distance tri (Ironman 70.3, or a full Ironman). Some people told me they did not like this distance because the swim is almost a mile (0.9) while the half Ironman swim is 1.2 miles. I left home at 5am and it took an hour to get to Vermillion, OH. The race started at 7.30am, which gave me enough time to pick up the package, set up the transition area, and use the restroom. One ti

The purpose of our trip to Peru was to visit Machu Picchu (for me) and to eat Peruvian food (for my hubby). There are many ways that visitors can go to Machu Picchu. If you don't like to walk (much), you can take a bus from Aguas Caliente (about 20 minutes) to Machu Picchu. However, I have heard from many people about the beauty of the Inca trail and thought it would be nice to hike part of the trail. For hikers, there were several options depending on how far you wanted to hike the trail. We opted for the 2-day tour option because we did not want to spend too much time in our trip on the Inca trail. We stayed in Cusco for a couple of days to adjust for the altitude. We bought the tour package, which included the guides, meals, and the one-night hotel in Aguas Caliente. In the morning of the 1st day, we took the bus to Ollantaytambo to board the train to the starting point (KM 104). The bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo was about 2 hours and the train was about 1 hr and 15 minutes.