The Zen of Ultra Running

I finished my 2nd Ironman race at Mont Tremblant (IMMT)!  Pre-race report: The training this year was up and down. Since the beginning of the year, I have been really busy with work as I started and led a study abroad trip to Thailand in May. After the study abroad trip ended, I stayed in Thailand for 2 months because I got a visiting professor appointment at a university in Thailand. While in Thailand, I tried to do as much as I could to keep up with the training. I brought my old bike to Thailand in order to keep training for the IM in August. The weather in Bangkok was really really hot (90F+) so I told myself it was good for heat training. The problem is I could not simulate the race terrain in Bangkok as it's very flat and riding on the road in Bangkok is very dangerous (many cyclists died from getting hit by motorcycles, trucks, or cars). There is a bike circuit around the airport in Bangkok and that's where I did all my bike training but it's still very flat. Luckily...

My first outdoor triathlon this year happened to be the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships event in Milwaukee, WI. In an ideal world, I should have done at least 1-2 races prior to this race but because I was traveling so much this year and was out of the country for 2 months from May to mid-July, it was impossible for me to do any race before this one.  I came back from Thailand about 3 weeks prior to this race and had been really busy with other #life and #work stuff that I did not really pay much attention to the training. I qualified for the nationals from my sprint tri at Tri Cle last year and my coach said it would be a good experience for me to go to the national championships event. I agreed with him. I signed up for the olympic distance, which was on Saturday, August 5th. We left for Milwaukee on Thursday. The event was so much fun and it was a 3-day event. What's so special about this year is that they also had the PTO US open race (for professional triathlete...