The Zen of Ultra Running

Regal Beagle ultra (50K). Super cold and windy.  After I finished the Run with Scissors marathon, I came down with a cold and had to travel the week after the race. So, I was out for almost a week. The week after I got a booster shot on Monday (while still recovering from the cold) and felt pretty crappy for the rest of the week.  The week leading up to the race I was still feeling under the weather and was not sure if I would want to run the 50K at the race this year. I signed up for the 50K but the RD said we could drop to 25K if we wanted to. I picked up the packet on the race morning and was still unsure if I wanted to do the 50K or the 25K. The weather was very cold and windy (but at least it was not raining or snowing).  I saw K. and B. at the start line. K signed up for the 50K and B. signed up for the 25K. The RD said many people had switched from the 50K to the 25K due to the cold temperature. The weather did not really bother me as much because I had run in worse conditions b

Run with Scissors was back in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) again this year. Yay! I ran my first marathon ever at this race in 2016 and the double marathon in 2017. Then, I switched to volunteering at the race because they needed volunteers at the race.  This year they changed the start time for all race distances. The double marathon started at 9am, the marathon started at 3pm, and the half marathon started at 5pm. I did not know that when I signed up for the marathon and T. told me about the new start time.  Leading up to the race, I was really busy with the study abroad program and other stuff. I also tried to make sure that the pain in the right knee was taken care of before it got worse. So, I was not sure if I could /wanted to run the marathon.  The morning before the race we stayed home because I wanted to reserve as much energy as possible for the race and I just knitted all morning.  I showed up at the race about 2:30pm, picked up the packet, talked to friends, etc.

 I love when someone does any race distance for the first time. It's so much fun seeing them accomplish their goal. P. started running during the pandemic before we went to the Galapagos Islands because I told him he had to be physically fit to scuba dive in the Galapagos as it could be pretty dangerous due to the strong current. So, he started running 1-3 miles regularly. Then, after we returned from the trip, he continued to run pretty regularly (except during the winter. He is a fair-weather runner who only runs outside and refuses to go to a gym).  Earlier this year he came home from his Saturday run and he said he ran 10K. I said if he could run a 10K, he could run a half marathon. Then, I started looking at a fall race so that would give him enough time to train (and be mentally prepared LOL). September races were out because I had an Ironman. October is pretty busy as I also have my own races to run and volunteer at. Then, I found the Columbus half marathon in October, which

This race has been 3 years in the making.  **Read THIS POST  for the reason why I switched from a 100-miler to a half Ironman in 2020** After submitting the tenure packet in September of last year (2021) and completing 2 half Ironman races, I knew I was ready to step up to the full Ironman distance. This is because 1) I hoped that by this time next year I would be tenured already and 2) I wanted to give myself a 40th birthday present. It's always been my life goal to do an Ironman as the distance sounds difficult and challenging. However, the training and the time commitment scared me. I had no bandwidth to self-coach or train for an Ironman while still working toward tenure. That's why I kept putting it off until I was pretty sure that my career was stable.  One day in October of 2021 while I was grading papers and having an existential crisis I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for the Ironman Chattanooga in 2022. After reviewing and reading comments about different IM r

 Tri CLE Rock Roll Run is a local race in NE Ohio. The race always takes place the weekend before school starts. Usually, the race is on Saturday and the first day of the semester is the following Monday.  Since it was a local race, I couldn't not do it. After discussing with my coach, he said I could do a sprint tri at this race because he did not want me to do anything too long that would take more time to recover from the race than actually get long training in.  I signed up for the sprint tri again this year. Since the race was two days before the semester begins, it's the last thing on my mind leading up to the race day. The weekend before the race weekend, I went out and did another long, hilly road ride, which left me feeling toasted for the next couple of days (but it was a good training ride tho). Then, I had to scramble to get my classes ready for the new semester. On Friday (the day before the race), I had research meetings in the morning and then attended a college

 TriFit Challenge - Olympic distance tri in Columbus, OH. I wanted to use this race to practice bike and run nutrition because I have been trying to figure out how to get enough calories on the bike. Many people mentioned Infinit. So, I talked to the company and got the customized mix for my bike and run. I tried each of them once but never at a race. So, I figured this would be a great opportunity to test the nutrition.  The race was on Sunday, July 31st in Columbus, OH. Pre-race check-in and packet pick up was on Saturday and there was no race-day check-in/pick-up. The week leading up to the race day I was pretty busy with work so I did not pay much attention to all the RD emails and race details. It turned out that the race was a point-to-point race where T1 and T2 were in different locations. I found that out at the packet pick-up!  P. came home from a company trip on Saturday morning. I asked him if he wanted to go with me to Columbus in the afternoon and he said ok as long as he

This year I had a chance to race a sprint triathlon in Thailand during my visit. I signed up for a race organized by the same company before COVID but it was canceled due to COVID. I saw that they had another sprint tri this summer during my visit to Thailand. So, I signed up for the race.  The problem was I did not want to ship my bike to Thailand with me (due to many logistic problems) so I borrowed a bike from my friend who is also training for an Ironman. I use her bike to train for the Ironman when I am in Bangkok.  The race was on Sunday (June 26) in Chonburi, which is about 1.5 hours from Bangkok. The course was actually in a golf resort owned by my college friend. So, we decided to go there a day early and stayed there on Saturday night. I did not want to wake up super early to drive to Chonburi on Sunday morning. We arrived in Chonburi about 5pm, checked in at the hotel, and went out to dinner at a restaurant by the sea. We missed fresh seafood.  On Sunday morning, I woke up a

Oh boy, it's been a while (again) since I updated this blog. Things were super busy at the end of the semester then we left for Ireland and I went to Charleston, SC. May was a busy travel month for me (but it's a good busy). Because I was gone/out of town so much in May, it was hard to keep up with the training (although I was pretty active during the trips).  Every year, the Cleveland Tri Club (CTC) hosts a tri camp in early summer but they had to cancel the in-person tri camp during COVID years and only had the at-home tri camp where participants attended the virtual sessions and sometimes got together in a small group to do a workout. This year was the first year of the in-person. The club changed the venue from Mohican State Park to Salt Fork State Park this year (I guess it's because Mohican 100 was on the same weekend).  It's the first year that I participated in the tri camp. Everything leading up to the camp was super clear and organized. Before the camp, the cl

About the 3rd week of April, I had a pretty bad travel itch. I think it's because the Spring semester was extremely busy (and unproductive) for me. I felt like I was constantly behind and no matter how hard I worked, I'd never been able to catch up. So, on Saturday morning (before my morning run), I went online and looked for a plane ticket to anywhere outside the US and found cheap tickets to Ireland in May. By Sunday night, tickets were booked. We looked at each other and we were like "well, guess we are going to Ireland in 3 weeks?". Then, we had to think about where we were going to go in Ireland because we never thought about this country before.  After watching a couple YouTube videos and reading about each city, we decided to go to Cork and Kilkenny. There is an Ironman race in Cork and I would like to see if I wanted to race there (assuming that I like the distance and want to do another Ironman). Turned out that the water was choppy and cold! (Yike. That'

Towpath half marathon is in the books. After our 5-miler race on St Patrick's day in St Louis, P. wanted to run another 5 miler. I found that the Towpath Half had 2 distances - 5 miles and a half marathon. So, I signed him up for the 5 miler and I did the half marathon (of course).  The morning of the race was reallyyyyy cold. We got there about 1 hour before the race to get the parking spot and use the porta potty. Then, we stayed in our EV until 5 minutes before the start because it was too cold to stand outside.  The first half of the race was nice. I saw a couple of friends at the start and ran with them for a couple of miles. The half marathon started about 10 minutes before the 5 miler. We ran north to the turn-around point (about 2.5 miles) then turned around and ran south where the 5 miler finished but the half marathoners kept going.  The second part of the race was very windy as we were out in the open area. I had to slow down and walk up the bridges but I was able to kee

 This year Forget the PR is back to in-person. Yayyyy.  I signed up for the 25K because of pure FOMO. I like the race, the location, and the people. I hadn't been trail running in a couple of months so I knew that the race would be slooowww and probably mainly hiking for me.  The race is named "Forget the PR" for a reason. They threw in as many hills as they could find at Mohican State Park to the course including the famous "Big Ass Hill".  We drove down to Mohican in the morning because my race (25K) did not start until 9am. I missed this race in 2019 (before COVID) because I had a conference on that day. At the packet pick-up, it was very nice to see many people I knew and caught up with them since COVID. The trail running community is amazing and everyone is so friendly and laid back.  The start was quite uneventful. The RDs talked about the flag colors and how the course was marked. I have not been to Mohican since last year. I think the last time I went do

No race in February because life happened. I also wanted to focus on training without worrying about racing. I was able to keep up with the training schedule in February because there were no major events at work going on.  Then, March hit me at the speed of a small hurricane. In a blink of an eye, it's already the middle of March and I fell behind at work. I had to be in St Louis for work. We know one person who lives in St Louis through the cooking class that we teach and have become good friends with him. Since I would be in St Louis anyway, I asked Pat if he wanted to join me for the weekend so we could visit our friend's house and get to meet his wife and kids. There was a St Patrick's day race (5 miles) on that Saturday, which our friend usually runs with his dad and cousin. He asked if I would like to register for the race and of course, I said yes (because I had to get my training in any way). To my surprise, Pat also told our friend that he would run the race with