The Zen of Ultra Running

The Portage Lake Triathlon was a result of my existential crisis race sign-up after the Ironman Mont Tremblant. Again, after the A race of the year, I fell into another big "what's next?" hole. After talking to my coach, I decided to do the Olympic tri at Portage Lake.  I did this race in 2018 after the Canal Corridor 100. It was already 5 years ago and I forgot how hilly the bike and run courses were (please blame it on my post-100-miler brain). You would think I would learn a lesson about signing up for another race after a big race while my body is still in recovery mode? Nope... Leading up to this race, it was pretty insane. The semester started one week after the IM Mont Tremblant (2 weeks before the race). Then, 1 week before the race, I came down with a cold, which seemed to be spreading around here while trying to write 2 research proposals and teach classes. The day before the race I volunteered at Youngstown Ultra Classic Trail 25k/50k and went to the Rubber Cit...

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...

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...

First tri of the year at Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon. In early January, I posted about signing up for races on social media and Mickey sent me a private message about this race that he organized. It's an indoor tri with a 20/20/20 format. That is 20 minutes pool swim, 20 minutes stationary bike, and 20 minutes treadmill run. I talked to B (my coach) and he said it sounded like a fun race so I signed up.   The week leading up to the race was pretty uneventful. Work was busy as usual but not stressful. It was supposed to be super cold on race day (thank god it's an indoor tri). I asked hubby to drop me off at the race, which took place at a gym in Beachwood. He was not interested in my race so he dropped me off and went to a coffee shop and grocery shopping LOL.  I got to Lifetime Fitness about 1 hour before my wave started. The race was very well organized and the volunteer walked me to the designated area in the locker room and marked my body. After I put my stuff i...

Another year of CassadagaMan 70.3. I could have done other 70.3 races but it seemed like many people got deferred from last year races and it was hard to find other races nearby. So, I signed up for this race again this year despite the hilly bike and run courses. The timing was perfect for me as it was on Labor day weekend and I don't have to teach on Monday. The hardest part of this race was to convince my husband to go with me because he said there was nothing to do in the area or the town where we stayed at.  I had a big deadline the week leading up to the race day so my whole attention was paid to that BIG deadline. I submitted my work on Thursday and took Friday off to prepare for the race. We left the house on Friday late morning and stopped in Cleveland for lunch before heading to Cassadaga, NY. This was our mini vacation although P. did not think so.  We arrived at the packet pick up around 3pm. I picked up the packet and we also drove the bike course to remind me wha...

Not exactly sure what I was thinking when I signed up for this race. It's the weekend before the fall semester began and I was super stressed out as I revamped 75% of one of the courses this semester.   The purpose of this race was again to practice race strategy and nutrition. I was very glad that there was a race in Cleveland/Northeast Ohio after HFP sold their races to another company based in Columbus and they moved all the races (including the ones that I already signed up for) to central Ohio :( So, it was a no-brainer to sign up for a race close to home.  Except for that, the race was two days before the semester started.... The inaugural Tri CLE Rock Roll Run was very well organized and the communication was very clear (if you took time to read the athlete packet that they sent out before the race). The race took place in downtown Cleveland and T1 & T2 were in different locations. This was the first time I did a tri that the transitions were not in one place. ...