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 wors...

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, talk...

 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, ...

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 differen...

 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 co...

 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 ...

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 mornin...