The Zen of Ultra Running

My training was on and off since I came back from Portugal in July of last year. There have been a lot of life changes and adjustments. I also took the students to Thailand on the study abroad trip in May so I lost 2+ weeks of training. That's why I made the decision to defer Ironman Ottawa to next year (thanks so the Flex90 program).  I came back from Thailand in July, and 2 weeks after that, I did an Olympic distance tri in Buffalo, NY. It was a hot and humid day and I struggled greatly. I signed up for that race because I thought it would help me get ready for the Ironman but after I deferred the IM race to next year, I was stuck with this race.  The race was actually very nice. We swam in Lake Erie, which was pretty choppy and I had minimal training in open water. However, I finished and that all that mattered.  For the Portage Lake sprint tri, I decided to sign up because 1) I wanted to know where I am in the training and 2) I wanted to do one last tri race before it...

 Woahhhhhh it's been a while since I updated this blog!  I just saw that the last blog update was in January 2024 O_o All I can say is "life happened".  In 2024, we spent the first half of the year in Portugal. I received the Fulbright award to conduct research and teach in Lisbon for 4 months. We ran several trail races when we were there including the Azores Ultra Blue Island, which I considered the most beautiful race I have done to date. Chef Pat also ran his first trail race there (10K). I am so proud of him :) Then, we were really busy adjusting back to life in NE Ohio after we came back to the US in July. Many things happened that kept me busy from training and updating the blog. I ran my 6th marathon at the Akron marathon in September and did a couple of local trail races here and there but nothing long or eventful.  While I was in Portugal, FOMO led me to sign up for IM Ottawa (the new venue in 2025) in August 2025, and I kind of regretted it. I took a break...