The Zen of Ultra Running

At the beginning of April, someone in MCRR posted in Facebook group that he could not run the marathon at Pro Football Hall of Fame marathon. He was looking for someone to take his bib for free of charge. The race only cost 26.2 dollars due to some promotion last year. In my mind, I would not run this race if I needed to pay anything even the transfer fee. So not worth it. I already signed up for the sprint triathlon and Salt Fork 10 miles the week before and after. Turned out that I did not have to pay anything even the transfer fee. So, I signed up to run the full marathon. I did not really train for the race. The longest run I had 2 weeks prior the race was 20 miles on the Towpath. The weather had been changing every day the week leading to the race. We started the race at around 60ish degrees and then it started to warm up until it reached 85 degrees. It was BRUTAL to be out there for 5ish hours. I was lucky to be able to tag along a friend whom I met at BBA 50K. She was ...

First triathlon race of the season. I saw the announcement on the university student rec website and the flyer at the pool. I checked the price and it's only 15 dollars for members. I was still a member at student rec when I signed up for the race. Well, who could say no to a 15-dollar triathlon race? (with a t-shirt, it's 5 dollars more). I've been adding more swim and bike to the training since the injury but I am still a slow swimmer. I received the instructions from the race director that I was in the 9am wave (female). The first wave was for male competitors starting at 8am. There were 3 waves today (8am (male), 9am(female), and 10am (mixed and relay). So, I arrived at ONAT around 8am. A bit after the first wave started. Below is the picture of the first wave swim. They did not have a bib but assigned me a number. I'm #10. Longest last name (again).  Body marking right after I checked in.  The swim started right at 9am. There were so m...

On my social media accounts, I have a specific instruction on my profile " Please do not add me if you don't want to see running/fitness related posts" and I do mean it. I don't mind if someone is going to unfriend me on Facebook because they feel bombarded with my exercise posts. I consider Facebook and Instagram my private space and I post all fitness pics to keep me accountable and (hopefully) to inspire others to get their workout in. After taking a break on Sunday to rest my ankle, I swam on Monday because I needed to practice swimming for the indoor triathlon at the university next week. Swimming is still my weakness in triathlon (well, actually my only strength is running 😂 ). I swam next to female swim team and felt like a swimming turtle. Tuesday - I felt sluggish after I woke up so I decided to take it easy and do yoga instead.  Wednesday - Tried riding wtih Zwift (an indoor cycling simulation). They allowed people to try the product fo...

April is usually the busiest month in Spring for me. Semester is wrapping up. A lot of reports to grade and exams to prepare. However, I managed to get pretty good workouts this week.  Monday - I needed to get some work done on Sunday and help at the Healthy kids running series so I did not get to ride on Sunday. Felt guilty so I did an indoor trainer ride on Monday morning instead. Forgot to wear my tri shorts so got chaffing a bit in the inner thigh.  Tuesday - 1.24 miles swim at ONAT. Now feel comfortable with bilateral breathing and no longer feel like I'm drowning :) Wednesday - Overslept the morning indoor cycling class because I taught until 6.30pm the night before. Did not get home until 7ish. Very exhausted. It was nice outside on Wednesday so I took my bike out for a short ride around the house instead.  Thursday - Join M. and C. for a short 3 mile run at Happy Days lodge. I wanted to do 6 (2 loops) but did not feel like it. So I just ...

After the Buzzard Day 50K I took a week off from running and exercise. Did nothing on Monday to Wednesday (that's also because I was very busy at work). Then, I went to Boston for a conference from Thursday to Sunday. Was wearing my brace and sneakers all the time including when I gave a presentation (luckily, no one noticed it). Boston was nice but the weather that weekend was not. It was raining/snowing the whole weekend. I was in conference sessions and meetings all day on Thursday to Saturday. So, the weather did not affect me as much. Gave a presentation on Sunday morning. After the presentation, I had about 2 hours to grab some seafood and walk around the hotel before I went to the airport.  Came home on Sunday evening exhausted. Took Sunday night off and relaxed at home.  One week of no running and being out of town really helped the recovery process. My ankle also got better. I wanted to run on Monday morning but was busy all day. I squeezed in a short run on ...

First race of 2017 turned out to be a 50K! I signed up for the Buzzard Day Trail Race last year before the price went up. At that time, I just completed the first 50K at Buckeye Woods and felt that 50K was not too horrible. I signed up for the 50K because I thought I could always drop to the 25K if necessary. Then, after coming back from the 3-week vacation, I started a training plan with a hope to train for a 50 mile race in June. I upped my mileages too fast too soon and that's how I got injured. My left ankle started screaming after 13-15 miles. Along with other issues, I had to change my training plan to focus more on triathlon training instead. The week prior to the race I ran the whole Buzzard course with the Saturday run group for the first time in 2 weeks. My ankle was fine and I felt good after the run. I also ran 4 easy miles on Sunday because I wanted to test if my ankle could tolerate back-to-back runs and it did! (yay) The week before the race weekend we got a sn...

After couple of weeks of switching to a loose triathlon training plan, I finally got in the groove. Monday - All-level yoga. Started the week with low motivation to work and high level of stress due to a series of bad news last week. I needed something to calm me down. Tuesday - Swim. It was raining pretty hard on Tuesday morning and I did not sleep well the night before so I canceled a run with M and went to the pool instead. Swam about 0.8 mile to practice bilateral breathing. Wednesday - Indoor cycling class. After skipping class twice, I felt guilty for skipping another one. Now I realized the impact of cycling on my running. It helps tremendously on hills.  Thursday - Oak hill trail run with M. We talked about possibilities in life. Time flew when we engaged in a good discussion. My ankle started to hurt less. Friday - Candle light yoga. Wanted to swim in the morning but the pool was closed because of a competition. Then, I had a long meeting at work...